LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 AFRICA: Steve Vosloo, head of mobile at Pearson South Africa, described digital citizenship as “about getting people to use IT to engage in society, politics and government”.

However, Vosloo (pictured) pointed out that being a digital citizen is not as simple as creating good services and open data.

Users must be able to access and understand such services easily, and must be motivated and educated to do so. And they must have the ability and the freedom to act upon that access.

Elaborating on this, Simon de Haan, chief engineer at the Praekelt Foundation, said that “often, those who need information are far removed from it in terms of cost and means of delivery.” The foundation was set up in response to the opportunities created by the spread of mobile phones across Africa.

For example, making data about the price and type of medicines publicly available in the form of MS Excel files meant it could not be accessed on most phones, which greatly limited its utility.

Levi Goertz, COO at Voto Mobile, gave the example of the government in Ghana which sent out an email-based survey asking the public if they would pay more for electricity if the quality of services were improved.

A massive 80 per cent said yes, but the government realised only later after doing a voice-based survey with the help of a radio station that dramatically changed the results. The final number was 40 per cent. The government had not taken into account the number of people who did not have email.

At a local level, the government in Ghana found that wealthy men were participating in the forums set up for citizen feedback.

Voto Mobile helped them recruit people from other demographics, gave them basic technical training on filling out surveys on phones, and now the local government does surveys every quarter, giving more citizens a chance to have their voices heard.

An important factor in empowering citizens is that they must want to be part of the inclusion process, Goertz went on to say. He observed that women who got voice messages on their phones regarding health would often listen to the message over and over again as they could not understand it the first time, but had the desire to engage.

He also said it is easy to help governments who genuinely want to use technology to improve the lives of citizens. For instance, he worked with a health ministry who wanted to provide remote diagnosis and had the data and algorithms ready. However, sometimes governments are much more hesitant and need a push in the right direction after which they often realise that it’s actually beneficial and not that difficult, he said.