The Open SocieTIC pan-African ICT for Good Governance programme has been launched in Senegal, with the goal of improving the interaction between citizens and decision makers in West Africa.
HumanIPO reported in May OSIWA and CTIC Dakar had partnered to host the Open Societic accelerator programme, based in Senegal and open to applicants from all West African nations, which looks to assist startups in developing governance solutions.
In a statement, CTIC Dakar said Open SocieTIC is focused on civic engagement and the alleviation of corruption, notably in the health, education and agriculture sectors.
“Open Societic is a multi-faceted program carried out in several different phases.each of thesehavee provided interesting challenges and experiences. CTIC Dakar first set out to organise a few ICTs for good governance workshops in Senegal, Niger, Ivory Coast and Benin in order to educate the developers and entrepreneurs on the impact they can have on good governance before sending out a call for projects,” CTIC Dakar said.
Over 100 applications were received from nine countries, out of which six were selected for funding and support. The selected startups are from Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Niger.
CTIC Dakar said: “One of the 6 projects selected, www.senegalouvert.org, tries to aggregate as much data as possible from government agencies, render them visible and present them to the public. MamadouDiagne, the project manager, was keen on reminding us that this is not only beneficial for the populations getting more informed, but also for the government who has an opportunity to describe its actions and avoid unfair criticism.”
Abdoul Aziz Sy, CTIC Dakar project manager, said: “The OpensocieTIC program is the first prototype of a pan-African, theme-specific-accelerator-program, which will try hard to push an entrepreneurial mindset into ICT for Good Governance initiatives. It is also a concrete example of how a network like Afrilabs can foster collaboration between African Tech hubs and their communities, encourage common thinking and sharing of practices and accelerate the replication of startups in other African countries.”
