Citizen Feedback Portal (KAD0005)

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Commitment 5: Develop a Permanent Dialogue Mechanism through technology-based citizen feedback on all projects and programs.
Start and end date: September 2018 - August 2020
Lead MDA: Budget and Planning Commission/ FollowTaxes/BudgIT
Responsible Person: Salisu Baba/ Soled Tafida Sulaiman
Designation: Director Monitoring and Evaluation / Co-founder FollowTaxes/ BudgIT project lead
Email and Phone: salisulawalbaba33@gmail.com 08037658338 & saiecl@followtaxes.conn& 08035857774
Other Actors involve in implementation:
General problem/challenge addressed by the commitment:
Government
Planning and Budget Commission, Media Office, Ministry of Youth, Sports &Culture, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Rural and Community Development, KSMC, KDHAI MoLG and MoWASD Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, Ministry of Health & Human Services, Ministry of Works, Transport & Housing, and, Kad ICT Hub.
FollowTaxes/BudgIT, KADMAN, Code, (Follow-the-Money), Aid Foundation, CPAED, CERSDOV, LEADs, CSOs, MBK Community Barnawa, ANAYD, BANDIRAKU, H4CC, KH r PURPLE NAKAMS, KADUNA INTEGRATIVE Private sector, FORLM, KSPHCSA, TKANA, WOMEN DEVI, ASSOCIATION, TURliNKU DEVT ASSOC., PURPLE, etc, BRIDGE THAT GAP (Details in Appendix 5)
Low inclusiveness of citizens in the governance process due to paucity of knowledge about governance activities. i. Apathy of citizens with respect to governance issues ii. Poor knowledge of existing citizens' Rights iii. Inadequate of access to government data iv. Lack of framework for government employee and citizens to release information v. Inadequate channels with which citizens divulge information
Main Objective:
To ensure that basic information on government activities and services is readily available to citizens, in order to empower them to make informed decisions about their lives or provide them the basis for challenging retrogressive policies which may include but not limited: To give citizens a voice in governance and make government more responsive to their priorities, ii. To build mutual trust and confidence between government and citizens iii. To include all members of the society including people living with disabilities and to promote improved service delivery
Brief description of commitment:
Specific OGP challenge addressed by commitment:
This commitment seeks to improve government responsiveness and engagement of the citizen in the affairs that matters to the citizen. Mandatory publication requirements and secures the right of citizens to information. Citizens can be categorized into different publics like media, private sector, youth groups, women groups, rural and urban communities, traditional institutions, and people with disabilities among others. Each can be reached through different channels like Information portals, app, town hall meetings, media roundtable, policy dialogues, focus group discussions, digital dashboards and others.
The commitment seek to address: poor public integrity in the government ii. poor public participation in governance iii. poor citizens trust and patriotism towards the government iv. Poor responsiveness and public service delivery v. Poor use of IT in easing governance
Rationale for commitment:
Expected Outcome/impact:
Performance Indicators:
There is currently low compliance with this provision, thus, disempowering citizens and affecting public trust in government. The commitment will seek to improve access to governance by citizens and increased responsiveness of government to the needs of citizens using all available means
Citizens are more empowered to engage with government and make informed decisions about their lives, as well as demand minimum quality of services at the official price point to: Increased participation of citizens in governance Increased responsiveness by government to people's needs iii. Improved service delivery to citizens
i. To institutionalize and host at least three Town-hall meetings on each of the pilot MDAs in the three senatorial zones every year. Number of Citizens engaged in monitoring Government projects iii. A functional citizen's desk at the State House of Assembly and the level results received. iv. The increase in the number of engagements done and trainings done around MDAs, Communities on OOP v. The increase in the number of citizen feedbacks and responses received around budget implementation through the use of ICT. vi. Compliance with the open data standards achieved
Specific Activities/Milestones
Start Date End date
1 Re-structure the Citizens feedback App to send response to citizens on submissions made. Sept_ 2 018 Dec_ 2018
Specific Activities/Milestones Start Date End date 2 Finalize the operation of the State toll free lines for citizens feedback Jan 2019 June 2019 3 Conduct at least one dialogue town-hall meeting in each senatorial zone on the use of Citizens Feedback App and toll free lines in reporting status of government projects being implemented. July 2019 July 2020 4 Conduct advocacy visit to House of Assembly to institutionalize and establish a citizen's feedback desk for effective engagement with communities by January 2019 Oct. 2019 Dec. 2019 5 Design complimentary technology-based feedback products that take into concern the needs of the unclerserved and people living with disability. Jan. 2019 Dec. 2019
Source of Funding: Government funding, Development Partners, Private Sector and NGOs
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Commitment 5: Citizens’ Feedback Portal

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan ^[50]

“To ensure that basic information on government activities and services is readily available to citizens, in order to empower them to make informed decisions about their lives or provide them the basis for challenging retrogressive policies which may include but not limited to:

1. To give citizens a voice in governance and make government more responsive to their priorities
2. To build mutual trust and confidence between government and citizens

• To include all members of the society including people living with disabilities and to improve service delivery.”

Milestones:

1. Re-structure the Citizens feedback App to send responses to citizens on submissions made
2. Finalize the operations of the State toll free lines for citizens feedback
3. Conduct at least one dialogue town hall meeting in each senatorial zone on the use of Citizens feedback App an toll free lines in reporting status of government projects being implemented
4. Conduct advocacy visit to House of Assembly to institutionalize and establish a citizens feedback desk for effective engagement with communities by January 2019
5. Design complimentary technology-based feedback products that take into concern the needs of the underserved and people living with disability

Lead institutions: Planning and Budget Commission, FollowTaxes, BudgIT

Start Date: Sep 2018

End Date: Aug 2020

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to increase and broaden citizen-government engagement through the provision of multiple feedback channels.

Like many states in Nigeria, Kaduna State had limited channels to share information and engage with citizens about ongoing government projects. To address this challenge, Kaduna State launched the citizen engagement smartphone application CitiFeeds in 2017. This app was a significant achievement, allowing citizens to take a picture and provide feedback on the status of infrastructure projects throughout the state. ^[51] The app aims to send citizen feedback directly to the governor’s office and the state legislature. ^[52] However, the app has faced some functionality challenges.

This commitment seeks to address obstacles to widespread use of the app and other civic engagement platforms. This commitment therefore relates to the OGP values of access to information, civic participation, and technology and innovation for transparency and accountability. Importantly, Milestone 1 aims to restructure the citizen app so that it can send information back to citizens on the request they made. Saied Tafida Sulaiman, from FollowTaxes, indicated that the application and toll-free line have technical difficulties, including basic functionality, geolocation glitches, and application incompatibility with Apple iOS software. ^[53]

Citizens are also not generally aware of these resources. Milestones 3 is aimed at sensitising citizens on the use of the citizen app and the toll-free line. The commitment also aims to establish a citizen feedback desk at the State House of Assembly and provide technology feedback tools for persons with disabilities.

The commitment is generally specific enough to be verifiable. However, Milestone 5 would benefit from a more concrete description of what tool will be created to aid the disability community and what needs the tool specifically seeks to address. The commitment also does not specify the functions and aim of the citizen feedback desk in Milestone 2. With these gaps in information, some activities will be difficult to verify.

If fully implemented, this commitment is expected to have a moderate impact on open government practices in Kaduna State. At present, citizens have to follow up on their submissions. Further, it is not guaranteed that the government will address their concerns. However, improvements to the toll-free line and app should help. ^[54] This commitment will also promote citizens’ participation in governance, as citizens will use these mediums to give inputs on government projects.

Next Steps

However, the commitment does not specify how the government will track or respond to citizen feedback. Saied Tafida Sulaiman also noted that government responses to citizen requests are not guaranteed, as no legislation compels public officials to respond and consider the inputs made by citizens on government projects. ^[55] To amplify this commitment’s open government impact, the multistakeholder forum should consider requiring a government response to citizen feedback through technology platforms. It should also mandate that the government share responses publicly and proactively disclose relevant information.