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ANSA
Global panel meeting & Social Accountability (SAc) ICT Fiesta
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from
NAMFREL Election Monitor Vol.2, No.15
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The first ANSA (Affiliated Network for
Social Accountability) Global advisory panel meeting was held at the
Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Manila from June 27 to 29. With the
theme One ANSA – learning from the ANSA Experience & Launching a
Global Network, the three-day event brought together global social
accountability stakeholders from government, civil society, and
other development partners. The gathering aimed to convene the ANSA
global panel, the equivalent of Executive Committee to launch the
ANSA Global hub; share lessons among regional ANSAs; facilitate
information exchange among ANSAs and other regional partners; and
discuss future ANSA Global initiaitves.
Since 2007, regional "ANSAs" have been established in Africa,
East-Asia Pacific, South Asia and in the Middle East. These regional
ANSAs are hosted by local institutions and act as the secretariat
for the regional network. The networks serve as clearing houses of
information, facilitate knowledge exchange on social accountability
mechanisms and tools and provide opportunities for capacity building
and networking amongst practitioners.
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ANSA Global was created to support social accountability in regions
where ANSAs are not established through providing project grants to
civil society organizations and building capacities and competencies
within both state and civil society institutions.
During the gathering, sessions were held to discuss:
1) a background on what the ANSA regional networks are doing within
their respective region, 2) lessons learned by ANSAs and other
citizen groups to establish a broader view of social accountability
initiatives, and 3) experiences and lessons of select ANSAs such as
CCAGG (Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government) of Ms. Pura
Sumangil, con-currently the NAMFREL Abra Provincial Chairperson,
sharing their experience in infrastructure monitoring.
One of the highlight activities during the meeting was the “SAc.NET:
A Social Accountability and ICT Fiesta” which showcased Philippine
as well as regional ANSA-EAP initiatives that make use of
information and communications technology to promote social
accountability. The program included conversations on ICT as an
effective platform for social accountability. |
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The fiesta-themed event feted a new generation of web-based platform
for learning and participation in improving governance. Through the
conduct of an “Open-Space” activity, participants were inspired to
reflect on the future for social accountability in the field of ICT.
Among the showcased ICT initiatives were:
checkmyschool.org
– an online and community mobilization project that collects and
provides information on Philippine education services and
facilities; SAC101.ning.com
– an online networking & resource portal on social accountability;
checkmypeace.org
– an online mapping project that contains measurable and verifiable
indicators of conflict and development in Mindanao;
Plutopia- a free interactive game where one can role
play as a citizen watching government do its job. Others shared
initiatives were ansa-eap.net
– a portal to connect citizens to improve governance;
transparencialegislativa.org - website of the Latin
American Network for Legislative Transparency (LALT network) a group
of civil society organizations working in Latin America that
actively promote legislative transparency, access to information,
and accountability; and
maps.worldbank.org – an online platform that visualizes
the location of World Bankfinanced projects to better monitor
project impact, improve aid effectiveness and coordination, enhance
transparency and social accountability, and enable citizens to
provide direct feedback on project results.
From the use of networked personal computers, citizens/amateur band
radios & facsimile machines for the 1984 Parliamentary (Batasang
Pambansa) Election to transmit elections returns for it parallel
vote tabulation (Operation Quick Count) to its current use of
converged technologies in open-source internet based and cellular
mobile telephone technology as well social networking sites; NAMFREL
has always been an early adapter of information and communication
technologies to empower its volunteers in carrying out their
election and good
governance monitoring tasks.
Read more about NAMFREL and ICT on Election and Governance
Monitoring: http://wp.me/pEoZs-6j |
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