Constitutional Excerpts Project at OpenTech 2013

Posted on June 18, 2013 by

constitutionEach year, approximately five new constitutions come into force and a further 25 are amended in some form. Despite this, most constitutions are drafted and amended by people with little or no previous experience of working on constitutional texts. So how do these drafters know how to frame, for example, freedom of religion or head of state succession clauses? These are just a couple of the issues explored by Dr James Melton of the UCL Constitution Unit in his recent presentation at OpenTech 2013. You can hear the audio from his presentation here. Enjoy!

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New Grant Awarded to Veritas Zimbabwe

Posted on June 17, 2013 by

Indigo awarded a grant of £12,300 to Veritas Zimbabwe for the development and launch of a Zimbabwean Draft Constitution App. Continue reading →

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ICTs for improved service delivery.

Posted on June 14, 2013 by

The following story was kindly provided to us by Victoria Mbigidde and Brenda Otika at WOUGNET.

Nowadays, the need for social accountability and gaining citizen contribution in promoting good governance cannot go without being noticed. This is why WOUGNET, with support from the Indigo Trust, initiated the project “Strengthening citizen’s capacity to monitor and report for improved service delivery using innovative ICTs”.

The project is being run in the rural districts of northern Uganda – namely Apac, Kole and Oyam – where the majority of people are illiterate and lack basic ICT skills. Furthermore, they do not have access to some of the basic ICT tools such as digital cameras, computers and internet. To facilitate the smooth running of the project, digital devices were purchased, while capacity building projects ensure that the local people actively engage with the project and demand what is rightfully theirs. Continue reading →

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Dogfooding and Traceability

Posted on June 13, 2013 by

This recent article from Owen Barder’s excellent blog, Owen Abroad, covers two important ways in which DFID’s new Development Tracker makes a real disruptive impact both in the way that governments handle, create and publish open data and the way in which they can help organisations, campaigners and individuals track aid spending and use. An thought-provoking post and the first time I’ve ever come across the term ‘dogfooding’!

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DFID’s International Development Sector Transparency Panel: First Meeting

Posted on June 13, 2013 by

Fran Perrin, Director and Founder of Indigo Trust writes:

A screenshot from the beta version of DFID's development tracker

A screenshot from the beta version of DFID’s development tracker

Last month I blogged about joining DFID’s International Development Sector Transparency Panel.  The panel met on May 15th and I wanted to provide an overview of the main issues discussed.

The panel is comprised of the following members:

Continue reading →

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A Grant for Northern Aid

Posted on June 12, 2013 by

Working with their partner, Christian Aid, Kenyan NGO Northern Aid will soon be trialling an innovative water payment system in north eastern Kenya. This project will be implemented in drought-prone Mandera Central District, in El Wak town and its surrounding villages.  Continue reading →

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The Internet, Global Development and Prosperity

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

Last month, the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) held a conference in Geneva on Realising the potential of the internet to deliver global development and prosperity. While we were unable to attend, I have had a read of the conference report, which highlighted a few key issues: Continue reading →

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