Global Goals for Local Impact

World leaders this year launched the Sustainable Development Goals - also called the Global Goals. These ambitious goals aim to end poverty, tackle

inequality once and for all and find lasting solutions to the environmental challenges faced by the world - all within the next fifteen years. The nature of these goals demonstrate the world’s stance as articulated by US President Barack Obama at the UN General Summit: “...sometimes it’s said that our efforts to combat poverty and disease do not and cannot work, that there are some places beyond hope, that certain people and regions are condemned to an endless cycle of suffering. Here, today, we put those myths to rest. Today, we set aside the skepticism, and we lift up the hope that is available to us through collective action.”

It is generally agreed that much has been achieved globally in the efforts to eradicate poverty, in strengthening the inclusion of women, youth and people living with disabilities and in providing basic services such as water and sanitation, health facilities and access to markets. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of people living in extreme poverty fell by half as a share of the total population in developing countries, from 43% to 21%—a reduction of almost 1 billion people. There have been significant reductions in the prevalence of HIV and other life threatening illnesses such as Malaria and Tuberculosis. Real concerted efforts have been seen to tackle lifestyle related conditions such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. 100 million people have been uplifted from slums to better living conditions globally.

With all this being true, the challenges that the world continues to face remain great. As Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta observed, “Progress has been uneven across the world and across the goals. There remain huge disparities between and within countries. Rural Poverty remains unacceptably high and Urban Poverty is extensive and under reported by traditional indicators.”

1990 - 2010

People uplifted from slums to better living conditions globally

43%

21%

Drop in people living in extreme poverty

1 BILLION People (approx.)

100 MILLION

The global goals present the world with an opportunity to rethink the models of development and to review the models through which

that development is delivered. The global goals have achieved one great merit that should be acknowledged by the world - they did not allow for the need for “practicality” to trounce ambition. Indeed, some critics have noted that the goals may be too ambitious. Much of the criticism has been based on reviewing the practicality of delivering the goals.

In an article titled, “The 169 Commandments” the Economist magazine noted that the 169 proposed targets “sprawling and misconceived,” “unfeasibly expensive” at $2–3 trillion per year, and so unlikely to be realized that they amount to “worse than useless” and even called them “a betrayal of the world’s poorest people.”

The ambitious nature of the Sustainable Development Goals provide new motivation to the world to think differently about how the goals can be delivered. Innovation is going to be a critical requirement to ensure that the world achieves the goals. Essentially a number of practical observations ring true:

OPPORTUNITIES

Global goals for Local Impact Global goals for Local Impact

1 2www.openinstitute.com www.openinstitute.com

Progress has been uneven across the world and across the goals. There remain huge disparities between and within countries. Rural Poverty remains unacceptably high and Urban Poverty is extensive and under reported by traditional indicators.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta

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“The ambitious nature of the Sustainable Development Goals provide new motivation to the world to think differently about how the goals can be delivered.

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London School of Economics anthropologist, Jason Hickel, said in a recent article, “The real problem is that the SDGs are profoundly contradictory, to

the point of being self-defeating.” Hickel’s view is that because the global goals have placed significant



While the nature of high level goals as this have a real dependence on the leadership and actions of governments and civil society players,

the prevailing reality shows that the goals must be undertaken through partnerships between governments, civil society organisations, private sector, media and most of all citizens. Initiatives geared towards delivering on the global goals must by their basic nature be multi-stakeholder based.

The global goals have been criticised by some as being vague - and yet by others as being overly specific in their targets. In a sense, both of these

views are right. The universality of the SDGs means that they apply to all people - for example, the world aims to end poverty and hunger everywhere from the stereotypical remote parts of Somalia to the streets of San Francisco.

It is therefore crucial for us to acknowledge that the approach in addressing these problems cannot be the same. Indeed, because of the gross inequalities within nations, there is need for a review of the way that development is delivered. Aid for example should become more tailored and flexible to address the needs of specific populations as locally as possible. The SDGs allow countries to align the targets to national priorities. It would be best that the SDG targets are defined at even more local level because villages and cities differ - even within countries. Nanyuki in Kenya for example has very distinct priorities from Meru - a mere 2 hours drive away.

If ordinary citizens are to be involved in the delivery of the SDGs, then the conversation must located around their circumstances. In our experience at the Open

Institute, working with farmers, artisans and educators in Kenya, we have found that the everyday person does not understand data in its pure form. In addition, even though technology has become considerably more ubiquitous in many parts of sub-saharan Africa, it has not been widely used for purposes of improved governance and citizen participation.

In a town hall meeting that we held in Western Kenya together with the local government, we found that while citizens were aware of macrodata relating to the area - what caused them to truly participate was when the data involved their immediate livelihoods. Further discussions with focus groups on what citizens cared about yielded such feedback as given Mr. A.S. Shikhati (52 year old teacher and small businessman) in this transcript excerpt:

In the context of the SDGs, Real GDP Growth may not be adequate to indicate the progress of poverty reduction

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emphasis on economic growth - therefore on increasing extraction, production and consumption - they are themselves unsustainable because in his words, “the relationship between growth and reduction of poverty is tenuous”. Hickel analyses, “Of all the income generated by global GDP growth between 1999 and 2008, the poorest 60 percent of humanity received only 5 percent of it. Given the existing ratio between GDP growth and the income growth of the poorest, it will take 207 years to eliminate poverty with this strategy, and to get there, we will have to grow the global economy by 175 times its present size.”

There has been research to back this view up. A report developed by Deloitte UK, in conjunction with Social Progress Imperative, found that even high economic growth will not get the world close to meeting the UN’s new Global Goals. The report observes that “[Delivering on the goals] will require a shift away from a reliance on growth alone. Cultural shifts, scaling social innovation and cross-sector collaboration will all be necessary to solve society’s biggest challenges.

One size will not fit all - we must rethink approaches

Everyone counts - Diverse stakeholders are crucial for the delivery of the global goals

Bring the goals home - the SDGs can best be delivered locally

The role of citizens in this context cannot be gainsaid. The implementation of the Millennium Development Goals in the past 15 years focused mostly on government and civil society with citizens in particular having a peripheral role to play in the planning, budgeting and delivery of activities relating to poverty reduction.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there has been documentation of many projects that were done for citizens which ended up being white elephants because citizens had no ownership. Al Kags has shared a personal experience while working for a Kenyan foundation in 2010.

He told of a community in northern Kenya where a well-meaning organisation built a set of toilets for the children of a remote school. The toilets had running water pumped from a well nearby. There was a ceremony during which the CEO of the organisation officially opened the nicely painted toilets and the keys to the toilets were handed to the headteacher. One year later, the CEO of the organisation did a trip to the school to see how they were doing and was dismayed to find that the toilets were not being used by the children because “they would dirtify them”. The children instead had been built for a set of latrines nearby which they used. There was no running water in the school or for the surrounding community. “The pump got spoilt and we had to wait for you to come so that you can help us fix it,” the CEO was told.

When citizens determine their priorities and are involved in the design and implementation of projects in their area, there is more sustainable development.

Photo Credit: TREEAID. Source: foter.com/flickr.com

Photo Credit: Yoel Ben-Avraham Source: flickr.com

Photo Credit: CIFOR. Source: foter.com/flickr.com

Photo Credit:Rod Waddington Source: foter.com/flickr.com

Global goals for Local Impact


“I have never seen a Million shillings at once, let alone a billion. Even my land did not cost that. How can I understand when you tell me how many millions are allocated to my county? And I am an educated man - but you must understand I am busy trying to fend for my children and make a living. So the only thing that I can follow as a citizen is the things that affect my life day-to-day. For example, water for my farm, the state of the road, the state of the classroom that I teach in, the prices of my produce at the market and whether I can trade after 6pm. I want to know about our dispensary and I want to know when the ward in the district hospital will be finished. But when I read in the paper that the Cabinet Secretary has stolen 15 Billion shillings, I can’t react because it’s too much work to take time and understand what 15 Billion shillings looks like.”

Bringing the SDGs home, will eliminate the nebulous nature of development activities. Ultimately, this relevant data that involves the local economy and society can be collected by the local administration and government and shared within that area. Some of the data that we have so far realised is relevant include:

• A local census of people, occupations, households, access to facilities e.g. water, education etc.

• A mapping of the locally available resources from shops to water points to electricity, etc.

• A locally developed catalogue of priorities.

Based on this data, the local governments and administrations could set their SDG related targets together with the people. Related to goal No.1 (End Poverty) for example, local people and governments are able to know the specific people that are unemployed - or underemployed that could use additional work. They also would know how best to improve the livelihoods

and skills of those as a means of eliminating extreme poverty. Such data would also enable government and donors to better target resources for greater impact.

As the data revolution gains momentum, governments and other concerned stakeholders will have to ensure that data is managed and curated so that it is relevant to citizens’ direct needs. It is also crucial that in providing this data, it is presented in ways that engender easy understanding. We at the Open Institute promote usage of not just technology, but also the usage of paper e.g. posters with visualizations of data posted at the local shop.

{ }Al Kags, Founder

Open Institute

“The world can achieve its Global Goals if it understands that it is citizens who will make it happen - street by street, village by village, province by province.”

...I can’t react because it’s too much work to take time and understand what 15 Billion shillings looks like.

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Photo Credit: Yoel Ben-Avraham Source: flickr.com

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OI’s 6 Big Lessons at Work for Impact Using Data OI’s 6 Big Lessons at Work for Impact Using Data


While citizens have generally exercised their voice in elections every four or five years, they usually

have taken to going back to their everyday jobs and lives, leaving it to their representatives to iterate on development. The growth of social media and the increased transparency by governments has enabled more citizens to speak up and give their opinions on issues that affect them.

In the course of our work, we have found that when citizens are given platforms to express their views, they will do so clearly. In late 2014, we took a county

government official to a radio station where we organised for him to talk about the government’s progress impact. Thereafter, he spent two hours taking calls from citizens giving him ideas of what the county government should do to make their lives better. Some of these ideas the county government took up.

We have learnt that there is an opportunity for citizens to be given innovative platforms to exercise their voices on a continuous basis. We also appreciated that citizens will express their views when they believe that the right authorities are listening and could act on their ideas.

Citizens have a voice and they will use it if given the opportunity and if they think it can do some good.

LESSON ONE

Conceptually, it is widely agreed that Open Data is ultimately a fundamental aspect of driving citizen

participation in development and governance. That being the case, questions have been raised within the Open Data development community about the true impact of Open Data on citizens. Does the availability of data really impact citizens? Do citizens have accessibility to data? Is the Data relevant and of value to citizens? Do citizens really need data or do they just care about information from data that has already been analysed?

This was evidenced in the work and pilots we have carried out. For example, when working with Open finance data, a pilot was developed in one of the counties to evaluate the demand for data. It emerged that citizens were not aware that the data existed and once they did, showed a willingness to not only share the data with their constituents but also find creative and

innovative ways to do. This included partnering with intermediaries such as community radio stations. On a national scale, when the Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI) launched, it was envisioned that by making data available, citizens would automatically interact with the data. This however was not the case and a number of strategies needed to be deployed to make the data available even though the data was relevant to citizens. This resulted in initiatives such as Data literacy camps, fellowship programs and grassroot citizen outreach programs.

We have learnt that just making data available will not result in demand and use of data. The data must be high level and relevant to citizens. That even if data is relevant, both online and offline strategies together with stakeholder interaction have to be designed if there is going to be demand and use for data.

Citizens care about data when it is directly relevant to their conveniences and livelihoods

LESSON TWO


Many Open Data initiatives have focused on creating snazzy web and mobile apps that are very cool

but that are not used. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent by many organisations to experiment on building tools that are shiny but that have had little usage from the citizens. These experiments are cumulatively useful for developing lessons on what works or doesn’t work in using technology for transparency and accountability.

One of the projects that we continue to be passionate about is Open Duka, whose first iteration has been completed. The project saw us surface over 30,000 datasets on people in the public domain, land data, procurement data and so on. Open Duka, which visualises the relationships between the entities, was relatively successful from a technology perspective and

in engaging developers through its API. The project was relatively less successful in citizen usage.

In contrast, the Open County Dashboard (http://kenya.opencounty.org) saw a lot more citizen usage as we implemented in its first phase a multi-stakeholder approach. We engaged the county governments and Civil Society Organisations to strengthen the supply side of the data and CSOs and citizens in counties and we saw a lot more usage of the data in town hall meetings and participatory budgets activities.

We have learnt that Open Data projects are most successful when we take an ecosystem approach to the projects - therefore involving all stakeholders from the onset.

Open Data initiatives have the highest impact when they use an ecosystem approach

LESSON THREE

Having piloted and launched various data driven initiatives a common trend has emerged in regards

to creating citizens demand for data. Citizens and the environment they live in are not the same. In order to drive demand for data, the approach we have taken is to firstly identify and scope the environment. The scoping exercise involves identifying various aspects from learning about the state of infrastructure and accessibility ( both hardware and software), the aspect of literacy towards understanding the data not just by citizens but by all stakeholders, the identification of champions that the citizens would trust who would then be a catalyst

for citizens to encourage data use, and the current relationships of various stakeholders - Government, Civil Society Organisations, media and the community.

We have learnt that Open Data projects are successful if we are able to understand and accept that every region is different and we are not able to use a ‘one size fits all’ strategy. It is important to scope the area to identify the gaps and opportunities needed to drive demand for data.

Communities are all different. Creating a demand driven ecosystem for data is not a one size fits all.

LESSON FOUR



CSOMEDIA

During our first annual conference, Buntwani 2014, we found many examples of Civil Society

Organisations that were implementing the same kind of programmes, with similar activities in the same counties - often engaging the same people. This is a common occurrence in the sector. It has led to many cases of duplication, disjointed development activities and wasted resources.

As we have continued to interact with different organisations - especially through our regularly held Data Literacy Camps (DataLitCamp), we have been deliberate to broker cooperation between two or more organisations, who we found to have complimentary focus.

We have learnt that movements of cooperating partners yield greater development results and increase efficiency.

LESSON FIVE

In the course of our work - first with the Kenya Open Data Initiative, later with the Open County

programme and other locally driven work such as building capacity with local CSOs in some counties on Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) - we found that citizens are more animated and have greater contributions to issues relating to their immediate surroundings. As we experimented with different Open Data work, we understood that citizens pay more attention to data and analysis relating to their immediate surroundings.

We further found that because county governments are closer to the people, citizens felt more empowered to contribute to policies and issues arising in their counties

more than they interacted with national level data. In a forum that we held in Kakamega this year, Yusuf Oswago, a community leader in Vihiga sub-county said to great applause, “we may read in the papers issues relating to billions being stolen by leaders but it is hard to relate. I have never even touched a million shillings, how will I understand billions? I just want to know how I will get (piped) water and electricity at my home.”

We have learnt that people care about what is happening in their neighbourhoods and they have greater capacity to understand local issues more than national matters that are often too difficult for them to follow up on.

Open Data can have far greater impact at sub-national level than at national level

LESSON SIX.

NA

TIONAL LEVEL

SUB-NATIONAL LEVELDATA

There is an opportunity for CSOs and community media to strengthen collaborations




The Open Institute was founded by two Kenyan friends, Al Kags (pictured left) and Jay Bhalla (pictured right) in 2012. Their relationship started

around 2005, when they both were entrepreneurs working in the technology space in Nairobi, Kenya. At that time, Jay was running Speechnet Technologies, a voice technologies company and Al was working with MCLabs.

In the early 2000s, working with non-infrastructure technologies was challenging because the infrastructure in Kenya did not exist. In 2006, when the Kenyan government set up a new Ministry of Information and Communications, Jay and Al began collaborating with the government to develop the ICT Policy for the country. The Policy was launched by President Mwai Kibaki in September 2006 and it had these major milestones: Infrastructure (fibre optic installation), Access (ensuring that Kenyans had access to the internet), Content (Facilitating Kenyans to create value from the internet) and Improved Public Services (Enabling Public Service delivery using technology). Over the years, the duo have been consistent figures working alongside the government of Kenya to deliver on this policy, mostly as unpaid volunteers - although Al worked with the Kenya ICT Board (now Kenya ICT Authority) for two years.

On May 8th, 2011, the duo began working with the government to establish the Kenya Open Data Task Force which was convened on the orders of the then President Mwai Kibaki by the then Permanent Secretary, Dr. Bitange Ndemo. Al was appointed as the chair of the Taskforce that was essentially a SWAT team that brought together government officials, Civil Society organisations,

Private Sector players and the World Bank to develop the Kenya Open Data Initiative (build Kenya’s Open Data portal, prepare data that was provided by the government and develop Kenya’s Open Data policy for approval by cabinet). The team successfully delivered this and it was launched by the president on July 8th 2011, barely 7 weeks from the day of the first conversation.Over the years, Open Institute has played a role in a number of widely varied pilot projects with varied results. This wide ranging experience both as an implementer of transparency, citizen engagement and sub-national projects as well as as builders of tools designed to keep the citizens engaged, has provided interesting lessons for the team going forward.

“For us, it remains important that government and citizens bridge the chasm that has grown over the past hundred years and that citizens are directly involved in their governance,” said Jay. Building on this success, Jay and Al opened the doors of the Open Institute with a view to institutionalising their work to build bridges between citizens and governments.

GET IN TOUCH: www.openinstitute.com [email protected]

THE BRIDGE BUILDERS (Where it all started)

FOUNDERS

was running Speechnet Technologies

was working with MCLabs.

met in

2005

2012

New Ministry of Information and Communications established,

They collaborated with the government to develop the ICT Policy

Policy was launched by President Mwai Kibaki

It had these major milestones: • Infrastructure (fibre optic installation), • Access (ensuring that Kenyans had access to

the internet), • Content (Facilitating Kenyans to create value

from the internet)• Improved Public Services (Enabling Public

Service delivery using technology)

Began working with the government to establish the Kenya Open Data Task Force to develop the Kenya Open Data Initiative

Founded The Open Institute

2006

Sept2006

May 8th, 2011

July 8th, 2011

Launched by the president, barely 7 weeks from the day of the first conversation

Jay BhallaAl Kags

The Open Institute

www.openinstitute.com

[email protected]

Tel: +254 20 523-1480

Cover Photos Credit: 1) Woman - Alvise Forcellini. 2) Maasai - Bartams. 3) Samburu Girl- Dietmar Temps. 4) Fruits - Christing-O. 5) Building - Computerwhiz417 6) Artefacts- Jose Carlos Babo

All images sourced from foter.com/flickr.comLicense: www.creativecommons.org/licenses/

Global Goals for Local Impact

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