E-Engagement Portal (SYC0004)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
In order to submit a concern to relevant authorities, one has to go through a series of bureaucratic procedures before it can finally reach a high-level official. The time lapse and undue intervention often creates discouragement and a feeling of helplessness among the public. Currently, there exists a Government website (E-gov) which provides links to all the ministries and departments. Also, most of the Government sectors have a dedicated website on which information can be shared and queries taken up via email/ dialogue boxes. However, despite the existence of these features, public concerns are rarely addressed and this render citizens frustrated and distrustful of Government institutions. Given the current situation, the public have turned to social media platforms to air their concerns regarding deficiencies in service deliveries (both public and private), corruption, Government reforms, policies and legislative decisions, environmental pollution, social injustice, moral decline, effectiveness of the justice system, etc.

The approach being taken by citizens does reach the attention of the Government, especially on matters that warrant a public outcry (or are sensational in nature), or where politicians get involve to pressure the Government. However, despite the fact that the right to freedom of expression is being exercised in absentia of restraints, the avenues currently being undertaken do not necessarily facilitate immediate action on the part of the Government as they are taking place in a setting which is informal. This is especially true for matters which involve change in legislature and policies. A concrete example which can be used in this case is that of the office of the Registrar of Associations. Incidents of malpractice/corruption occurring in the different federations/associations are being brought to social media and not to the Office of the Registrar. As per the law, the Registrar cannot act on the matter unless a formal complaint is brought to her attention in order to open an investigation.

Also, for the purpose of data collection and statistics, information received from social media alone can come in an unstructured form (cannot be taken up/ translated by IT systems) which can affect its usability. Moreover, the data belongs to the respective social media platforms and often, feedback received through these media can only be accessed through public discussions. This implies that discussions (citizens’ concerns) taking place in private cannot be taken into account. In addition to that a lot of people are wary of commenting on social media for fear of discrimination/victimization.

What is the commitment?
The Commitment entails the implementation of technology with relevance to public participation. Its main objectives include:
• Providing citizens with a formal space to voice their opinions/ concerns on national issues.
• Giving citizens a participatory role in Government decision making.
• Making the Government more aware of the concerns of the citizens.
• Making citizens more aware of the work of the Government and rendering the Government more accountable towards the people.
It is expected that from this commitment there will be more of effective collaboration between Government, the parliament and civil society in the interest of the public and country as a whole.

Embedded in the E-Engagement Portal will be a link to the online performance monitoring and evaluation dashboard of the Government. This online dashboard will provide a view of how every Government MDA involved in the implementation of RBM (Results Based Management) is performing against targets set and KPIs used. This will provide for a fully transparent view of how every MDA are performing with respect to their delivery and thereby a full view of how Government is performing in terms of the delivery of its operations. It will be a tool for tracking progress and supporting decision making. With this level of visibility of Government performance, the public should become more informed and participate more substantively in the national governance process.

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
The commitment will be implemented through multi sectoral collaboration/ consultation whereby the principal responsibility of ensuring the set-up and running of the platform will be done by the Department of Information Communication Technology (DICT). The platform for civil society (CEPS) can engage in a monitoring/ performance watch dog role to ensure that citizen concerns are not being neglected and that the space is not being misused to limit freedom of expression, as well as guarantee the anonymity and protection of the personal details of citizens who interact with the platform. First, consultation will have to take place between civil society and the relevant Government stakeholders. This will be followed by the set-up of a trial version of the platform to test its popularity/ ease of use with the public. Aggressive campaigns will be done through the media along with education of the public on the purpose of the platform and why public participation is so crucial. Success stories (if any) can be used and from there an assessment of the trial can be done prior to the actual set-up of the portal. An app can be developed in addition to the portal along with the use of toll free telecom and whatsapp group so as to attract and facilitate user participation. The portal will also have a system in place where information can be fed from social media platforms. The commitment will solve the public problem by providing the people with a platform where they will have the opportunity to participate in national decisions, surveys, elections and freely exercise their democratic rights and also have them taken up directly by the relevant Government agencies. Government practice may change by becoming more open and accepting of public opinions. It will also help improve service delivery in the public sector as well as enhance the performance of the communication and information officers present in every department.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
The commitment is relevant to transparency because it will enable frank online discussions and exchange of information. Moreover, there will be a link with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which acts as a data repository whereby information can be retrieved for the purpose of reference, research etc. The commitment is relevant to civic participation as it will be a platform made for the public. Moreover, through meetings, the public will have the chance to provide inputs on how they want the platform to function and how best it can be used as a tool for public service. The online stage will be a formal space where the Government can act on the issues brought forth by the public and also answer certain queries that the people may have. In this line, Government becomes accountable to the public.

Additional information
The commitments in the NAP are in line with Seychelles’ Vision 2033 and the first National Development Strategy (NDS). Implementation of the Commitment will be monitored by the RBM Committee.

4. Creation of an E-Engagement portal to increase citizen responsiveness

The Commitment entails the implementation of technology with relevance to public participation. Its main objectives include:

• Providing citizens with a formal space to voice their opinions/concerns on national issues
• Giving citizens a participatory role in government decision making
• Making the government more aware of the concerns of the citizens
• Making citizens more aware of the work of the Government and rendering the Government more accountable towards the people.

It is expected that from this commitment there will be more of effective collaboration between Government, the parliament and civil society in the interest of the public and country as a whole.

Embedded in the E-Engagement Portal will be a link to the online performance monitoring and evaluation dashboard of the Government. This online dashboard will provide a view of how every Government MDA involved in the implementation of RBM (Results Based Management) is performing against targets set and KPIs used. This will provide for a fully transparent view of how every MDA are performing with respect to their delivery and thereby a full view of how Government is performing in terms of the delivery of its operations. It will be a tool for tracking progress and supporting decision making. With this level of visibility of Government performance, the public should become more informed and participate more substantively in the national governance process.

Main Objective

The commitment will be implemented through multi sectoral collaboration/ consultation whereby the principal responsibility of ensuring the set-up and running of the platform will be done by the Department of Information Communication Technology (DICT). The platform for civil society (CEPS) can engage in a monitoring/performance watch dog role to ensure that citizen concerns are not being neglected and that the space is not being misused to limit freedom of expression, as well as guarantee the anonymity and protection of the personal details of citizens who interact with the platform.

First, consultation will have to take place between civil society and the relevant Government stakeholders. This will be followed by the set-up of a trial version of the platform to test its popularity/ ease of use with the public. Aggressive campaigns will be done through the media along with education of the public on the purpose of the platform and why public participation is so crucial. Success stories (if any) can be used and from there an assessment of the trial can be done prior to the actual set-up of the portal.

An app can be developed in addition to the portal along with the use of toll-free telecom and whatsapp group so as to attract and facilitate user participation. The portal will also have a system in place where information can be fed from social media platforms.

The commitment will solve the public problem by providing the people with a platform where they will have the opportunity to participate in national decisions, surveys, elections and freely exercise their democratic rights and also have them taken up directly by the relevant Government agencies

Government practice may change by becoming more open and accepting of public opinions. It will also help improve service delivery in the public sector as well as enhance the performance of the communication and information officers present in every department.

Milestones

4.1 Implementation of the e-engagement portal.

4.2 Implementation of the Government Performance Visibility portal

4.3 Implementation of the Case processing visibility

Editorial note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Seychelles' action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/seychelles-action-plan-2019-2021/.

Commitment analysis

Seychelles is described as having significantly high internet penetration with 47% of the population using the internet, 150% mobile penetration, and a developed telecommunications market and information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure.. [114] According to the United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI), Seychelles has managed to implement one of the most successful transitions to electronic government (e-government) in Africa by leveraging this connectivity. [115]

The Department for Information and Communications Technology (DICT) established the Government Strategic Framework and Roadmap, which articulates how e-government should support the government's goals. [116] Three strategic focus areas were selected: connectivity, service transformation through business process re-engineering and the establishment of e-service gateways, in other words, electronic service delivery channels. [117] Enhanced 'connectedness' would presumably then lead to improved public administration and service delivery through expanding channels of accessing government and improving convenience and efficiency and the reliability of information. [118] The RBM reform plan also emphasises the importance of ICT, as it requires an e-platform that would allow the government to be more transparent and citizens to be better engaged in national development. [119]

Prior to this commitment, a variety of e-government initiatives had been proposed but were not implemented due to lack of resources. [120] The government has a number of electronic services whereby clients can access government information on a 24-hour basis, including an e-gateway portal and another that disseminates information on how to access various departmental services. The government also had an 'e-documents' site on which white papers are published. However, citizens can only provide comments on these through submitting physical letters or via email and rarely get a reply. [121] The OGP process therefore presented a new opportunity to pursue this goal. [122]

This commitment seeks to address four core issues using technology: establish efficient and effective complaints mechanisms, open up access to government performance information, improve civic participation in decision-making and enhance government responsiveness by building an e-engagement portal and a government performance visibility portal. [123]

The commitment responds to the weaknesses of the government's complaints system and to challenges with aggregating complaints made on social media, which had already been shown to have had the effect of opening up political dialogue and had empowered citizens to engage in policy discourse. [124] However, the drafting committee agreed that public queries and interactions with the government were highly fragmented and that often one would find citizens passing along false information using social media. [125] Through this commitment, the government will develop a state-owned, certified online platform that would legitimise citizen inputs and feedback [126] and provide more plausible and trustworthy information. [127] By utilising technology, this commitment could also address capacity constraints and allow for improved aggregation and analysis of complaints. [128]

The e-engagement portal would utilise new technologies and capabilities to allow two-way interaction between citizens and the government. Citizens could provide inputs, views and opinions on various issues, including commenting on white papers online, [129] and could use the platform to launch multiple complaints in parallel, and the system could then flag issues raised to respective departments. Departments in turn could then use the same platform as an official way to provide feedback on the progress of a matter. [130] It is also envisioned that the portal will aggregate and consolidate questions, tagging them as most frequently asked questions or hot topics. Artificial Intelligence solutions would be used to analyse data with various modes of citizen engagement to be used, including e-polling to collect perceptions on certain issues. [131]

According to officials from the DICT, the main objective of the commitment is to instil confidence in citizens that they can lodge any complaints and that they will be treated in the most efficient and confident manner. [132] The visibility portal in turn would be a separate portal linked to the e-engagement portal. It will be integrated with departmental information systems and will aim to increase the visibility of government performance across different areas [133] and work in tandem with the case processing visibility portal, which will allow citizens to track the status of their cases, queries or applications. [134] Although there will be no public consultations on the initial design process of the portals, the DICT has planned for a public comments opportunity to come at a later stage. [135]

The commitment outlines verifiable activities and measurable deliverables. It also introduces several other activities in the narrative that may broaden the scope of the outlined milestones, such as a multi-sectoral collaboration and consultation, monitoring, campaigns, app development and the setting up of a toll-free line. It is unclear whether these are officially part of the overall work plan, yet it is stated that these additional activities will contribute to having the commitment's objective met. These activities have no defined scope, neither are they accompanied by clear timelines nor persons responsible for implementation. Furthermore, the commitment lacks clarity in the mechanism of grievance redress that these proposed platforms will provide. The relationships between the portals and the Ombudsman's office should also be sufficiently explained, especially given the potential overlap between the online complaint systems and the Ombudsman's mandate. [136]

The commitment is relevant to the values of access to information and civic participation by its setting up online mechanisms via which the public can access or retrieve public information. The commitment also creates opportunities for sharing information and raising complaints using online portals. It is therefore also relevant to the value of technology and innovation for transparency and accountability. During the drafting process, the CEPS raised data protection concerns, including questions around the ownership and control of data submitted to the portal and also the potential for the government to manipulate data on the portal. Assurances provided included that the system would be fully auditable, even by third parties, and interventions would only be put in place when explicitly required. [137]

The commitment has been rated as having minor impact. This is due to core concerns underlying public complaints that have not been addressed, specifically the issues of political context, public trust, legitimacy, state efficiency and state responsiveness. One respondent captured this issue in an interview with the IRM researcher, noting that there is a lack of trust in the government, which is why citizens resort to complaining on social media in the first place. Therefore, filing complaints through an e-portal is unlikely to be popular as long as there is no guarantee that the government will respond to citizens' grievances. [138]

The question therefore is whether these platforms will enhance government responsiveness while there is already a negative perception in regard to this. This is further exhibited by inefficiencies in the status quo, with both the Ombudsman's office and the National Human Rights Commission being perceived as largely ineffective and unable to demonstrate the impact of their work [139] due to limited powers and resources, the absence of proper case management systems and the lack of the skills for in-depth investigations. [140]

The DICT already anticipates that, in the short term, the government will likely experience some teething problems that could magnify the government's lack of responsiveness and negatively influence public trust. As such, there needs to be greater consideration given to preparing government departments to handle requests and complaints, such as by preparing the structural support and clear mechanisms of how information flows and complaints are handled. [141] Additionally, the commitment does not consider the structural or systemic challenges that have been evident in the experiences of the Ombudsman's office or other government departments. These issues not being addressed means that the portals could instead worsen these inefficiencies, leading to a further decline in public trust. Resultantly, the government should ensure that implementation of this commitment does not pull resources or attention away from existing public engagement channels.

The long-term viability of any public complaints handling system rests on the confidence in its fair operation, with complaint and redress mechanisms working hand in hand. [142] An official from TI-S described accountability systems within the civil service as weak, linking this to the politicisation of the civil service, where numerous civil servants were politically appointed and where there exists a deeply entrenched bureaucratic culture with either no or limited sanctions for maladministration or poor performance. [143] Complaint mechanisms therefore operate within a socio-political context, and the political economy in which they operate and the social relationships that must be engaged for meaningful change to occur must be recognised. [144] Moreover, the commitment does not necessarily enhance the transparency of decision-making nor necessitate that conversations on the e-platform will be frank, objective or evidence based.

Although a dashboard on the performance of government agencies in regard to results-based management is welcome, it appears that given the challenges cited, more will be required to ensure that citizens understand the application and relevance of the dashboard in their daily lives and how it could actually enhance accountability. As is commonly understood within the OGP community, public accountability cannot be assumed to be given just because a new system has been introduced. There needs to be more clarity on the safeguard mechanisms to protect its integrity and effectiveness along with plans to encourage compliance within the government itself.

Evidence also shows that using existing platforms or technologies in tech-for-governance initiatives is more effective when these platforms are already part of the users' lives [145] and that mechanisms that lead to collaborative problem solving and solutions mapping between citizens and the government tend to be more successful. [146] This brings into question whether a move from the current use of social media platforms would maintain or enhance current levels of citizen responsiveness and keenness to engage in political dialogue.

The commitment language also appears to position the informal nature of complaints as being unacceptable. Caution should be observed here in regard to the formalisation of complaints so that this does not act as another barrier to accessing accountability, creating additional bureaucratic hurdles. Additionally, though the commitment proposes to enhance public participation through the use of technology, it must be noted that there are limitations to how technology could be used in sustaining and promoting interrogative, nuanced and deliberative forms of engagement between citizens and the government [147] and that social relationships usually play out through outreach and awareness raising, information dissemination, capacity building, and the one-on-one or face-to-face interactions with the bureaucracy, all over a protracted period. [148] The role of the media and other civil society organisations therefore should not be discounted either. [149]

Next steps

Technology has been found to be useful in enhancing social accountability and public participation in various contexts, with an array of outcomes. Factors that should be considered when deploying technology for social accountability, to enhance its transformative power, are that it should do the following: enable collective action; be implemented through simple means on an open platform; address the risks posed by using online technologies, for example, privacy and security; be driven by commitment from the highest office possible; and enable citizens to optimise their advocacy by linking relevant datasets. [150] The DICT could consider strengthening the commitment by not only reflecting on these dimensions but also by considering lessons learned from similar initiatives, such as the Making All Voices Count (MAVC) initiative. [151] Inclusion should also be enhanced given that internet access is not universal and that some marginalised voices may not be able to access or express themselves on online channels. [152] The DICT may consider introducing the e-platform to other forms of technology such as text messaging and radio broadcasts, particularly for citizens with no or limited access to the internet, [153] as having multiple channels of seeking redress may encourage uptake. [154]

The government could also perform a situational analysis to determine the current context and conditions hindering government responsiveness to inform the design of the intervention going forward. The DICT and the Office of the Vice President could involve experts in the process to streamline department operations and to identify any processes that hamper responsiveness. This may force government departments to think in greater depth about what technology or systems are required to improve service delivery overall and how this can relate to the portal. [155] The government may also need to consider supplying incentives to citizens or service providers to facilitate responsiveness and uptake on either side. [156] This could be in the form of civic capacity building and the establishment of 'civic infrastructure' that ensures citizens engage with the platform once developed. [157]

In addition to this, there are various channels via which accountability can be enhanced through the commitment, for instance by making lodged complaints publicly accessible, incorporating level of response towards complaints in performance evaluation of an MDA and by introducing sanctions for unaddressed complaints. [158] Civil society can also play a role in monitoring performance to enhance the accountability dimensions of the commitment. The government could also find ways of establishing and facilitating the action of accountability advocates to act as intermediary agents who seek to ensure that citizen's feedback is paid attention to and that the necessary action is taken. [159] Channels of appeal and sanctions for non-responsiveness should also be clearly spelled out and even rooted in government policy or legislation.

Commitment 4. Creation of an e-Engagement portal to increase citizen responsiveness

Not Started:

This commitment aimed to create a platform through which the government could better respond to citizen concerns and citizens could participate in national decisions. Despite the existence of government department websites through which the public can raise some of these concerns, “public concerns are rarely addressed, and this renders citizens frustrated and distrustful of government institutions.” ^[51]

Implementation of this commitment was not started. The government intends to continue project planning in 2022 with the hope that the platform will be implemented in 2023, pending budget approval. ^[52] Budget constraints limited implementation of this commitment. If this reform is continued, the IRM recommends that implementers take into consideration the following:

· The government should allocate the necessary budget to implement the platform, which can then be used to solicit public input on future OGP action plans and open government reforms.

· The government and civil society evaluate the legal framework underpinning the e-engagement portal and consider whether a legal mandate would facilitate government responsiveness to citizen comments and complaints once the portal is launched.

· DICT should collaborate closely with civil society and citizens in designing and testing online engagement tools to ensure usability and effectiveness.

· The OGP multi-stakeholder forum, or other appropriate body, should prepare a communication plan to popularize the portal and facilitate the shift in citizens’ behavior from social media toward also making use of the government platform, when appropriate.