LAB 2 - Rebuilding trust in institutions

Popvox, USA

In 2019, POPVOX is building a new kind of network (POPVOX / Nexus) that allows public officials to post updates but limits interactions to their constituents (though anyone can "follow" and view). The first stage of this network, "LegiDash," is now in beta for Congressional staff. The next phase, "POPVOX Local," will be tested in several pilot jurisdictions this year. The goal for this network is to tangibly improve tone, trust, and truth in online civic engagement – and to broaden and diversify public participation at every level of government.

Presenter(s)

Marci HARRIS

Cofounder / CEO, Popvox

USA

Marci Harris is co-founder and CEO of POPVOX, a civic engagement platform with a mission to empower people and make government work better for everyone. A former lawyer and Congressional staffer, Marci is passionate about the responsible use of technology to benefit humanity. She serves on the board of the People-Centered Internet, co-founded by “father of the Internet,” Vint Cerf; and the American Political Science Association’s Technology and Innovation Task Force on the Modernization of Congress. She was a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democracy, New America Foundation, and the CITRIS Policy Lab at UC Berkeley.

initiative 2

Follow the Money, Connected Development, Nigeria

CODE’s social accountability initiative, ‘Follow The Money’ (FTM) is a participatory advocacy-based initiative that tracks and advocates for proper utilization of government and international aid funds in grassroots communities, to ultimately ensure that public services work for the people. Follow The Money is a network of activists, social workers, lawyers, journalists, development consultants, researchers and data analysts, that are signed up on our social mobility platform and use media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, mainstream media to amplify the voices of marginalised communities.

www.ifollowthemoney.org

Presenter(s)

Kevwe OGHIDE

Lead, Communications and Strategy, Connected Development

Nigeria

Kevwe Oghide leads CODE’s strategic communications and advocacy works, which seeks to amplify voices from the grassroots, task elected representatives on accountability and transparency with the purpose of bridging the information gap between the people and the government. Using the Follow The Money initiative, CODE’s advocacy works have transformed over 2million rural lives in Nigeria and empowered them to participate in governance and demand better public service delivery. Kevwe worked with a team to remotely monitor the 2019 Nigerian General Elections using a Real-Time (Web-Based Map) Situation Technology, Uzabe, to observe and report incidences of violence at polling units.

initiative 3

Database of assets of Serbian politicians, Crime and Corruption Reporting Network, Serbia

In 2016, KRIK team has created a unique online Database of Assets of Serbian Politicians, a platform that in one place provides all the key information about officials and candidates for the ruling positions in the Republic of Serbia; Its aim is to increase government transparency and accountability. The Database reveals what politicians and their family members own (real estate, companies…) as well as how they acquired these properties. The database provides another important category of information: all violations of the law and court proceedings against these public officials.

Presenter(s)

Jelena RADIVOJEVIC

Investigative journalist, KRIK

Serbia

Jelena Radivojevic is 26 years old investigative journalist, she works for portal KRIK since the beginning of 2017. Radivojevic is a member of KRIK’s investigative team, but also involved in daily reporting on organized crime and state corruption in Serbia. Jelena regularly reports from some of the country's most important organized crime trials. She studied journalism at Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade. As member of KRIK team, in 2017 Jelena has won award for journalistic ethics and courage „Dusan Bogavac“ and in 2019 she was a finalist for National award for investigative journalism. Before entering journalism, Jelena was a human rights activist.

Discussants

Discussants are invited to take part in the Labs in order to share their experience with the presented democratic initiatives and try to bring broader perspectives to the following discussions.

Miodrag MAJIĆ

Judge, blogger

Serbia

Miodrag Majić is a judge of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade. Independently and as a co-author, he has published ten monographs and more than thirty articles in the field of criminal and international criminal law, and participated in the drafting of the laws of utmost importance in these areas. He is a member of the Board of Directors and one of the founders of the Judicial Research Centre (CEPRIS) in Belgrade. For ten years he has been regularly publishing texts on Judge Majić’s Blog (www.misamajic.com), openly talking about corruption, nepotism and political pressures in the judiciary.

Marjatta PELTONEN

Project Officer, City of Helsinki

Finland

Marjatta Peltonen develops digital solutions to enhance citizen engagement and participatory democracy in the City of Helsinki. Project Manager with background in social sciences and intercultural communications, she brings to the table a human centric approach to digital services. Currently working with multiple sectors from urban environment to culture, education and health care, she facilitates civil servants’ dialogue with the citizens through experiments, training, communications and service design.

Marjatta Peltonen will present the following action:

In 2019, the City of Helsinki has started to renew its digital citizen reporting and service feedback system that allows the citizens to send feedback for the City. The number of feedback on how to make the city more safe, equal, fun and functioning place is increasing. Helsinki plans to use machine learning to make the processing of the feedback more efficient and transparent. However, building trust in the feedback interaction between the civil servants and the citizens is not merely a digital task.

contributors

Marc COOLS

Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Belgium

Marc Cools started his political career at the local level in 1990 in the same city as today: Uccle (Brussels region). He went on to create his own political party in 2018 to run in municipal elections, “En avant Uccle” and sits now in the city council. As part of his mandate, and even before, he has been fighting for greater transparency in local administrations, especially regarding allocation and use of citizens’ money. It is one of the reasons the Congress chose him to be a rapporteur on the fight against corruption. He is also involved, as an elected representative, in the fight against climate change.