Implementing e-participation in Africa: What roles should public officials play?

Abstract

The implementation of e-participation by government entities almost always involves the transfer of technology and associated practices or skills from one context to another. This transfer can result in a ‘collision’ between source and recipient contexts, leading to project failure or harm to participants. More incremental implementation and adaptation of specific components and capabilities can reduce risk of failure and realise positive benefits. This paper identifies and maps out a range of e-participation technologies and projects across the engagement and political spectrum. We then open the ‘black box’ of these technologies and projects to examine the different capabilities they offer. From our analysis of the mapped technologies and projects, we uncover a diversity of capabilities that are relevant to distinct roles and align or conflict with their values. One set of capabilities is offered by the technology itself, and focuses on, amongst others, improving user experience, verifying online identity and synthesising diverse participant inputs. A second set of capabilities is related to the specific skills (and policies) that are required to facilitate virtual participation, such as moderating social media conversations. Finally, there are many new governance and community initiatives to ensure platform development and implementation is more inclusive and safe.