Pakistan: “Diversity should not be an afterthought”
The Bahawalpur Service Delivery project in Pakistan is interesting. Usually government accountability projects come from civil society: this has actually been led by a local government officer.
The project, which is currently being trialled, aims to improve service delivery in under-resourced conflict areas. Essentially it is using mobile phones to improve accountability in education by enabling citizens and officials to report teacher and pupil attendance. The hope is it can also be used in areas like health.
One of the challenges is ensuring that diversity issues are not just an afterthought. People often think the mobile phone is everywhere but there are lots of barriers to engagement, gender for example. Households may have a mobile phone but women often don’t have access to it.
Duncan Edwards, programme manager – research and evidence component, Making All Voices Count, at the Institute of Development Studies, UK
Originally published on The Guardian.