Making All Voices Count workshop

Duncan Edwards
Pedro Prieto-Martin
Preston Whitt
Rosie McGee

25 Apr 2017, 4:30 p.m.
Main Plenary (Sala Verde)

Making All Voices Count has been a four-year grant-making program, supporting over 160 innovative projects across twelve countries to explore how technology can support greater transparency, accountability and responsiveness of governments to their citizens.

In its final year MAVC is seeing a range of different governance outcomes from its work.

This session will illustrate what some of these outcomes look like in different contexts and, drawing on projects from the MAVC portfolio, how these changes have come about.

Two specific projects will be discussed in more detail.

Pedro Prieto-Martin researched the effect of adaptiveness and contextual embedding on the performance and impact of T4TA initiatives in Kenya. The research aimed to gather and analyse the perspectives and adaptation stories of those involved in the design and execution of the projects, both in their more technological and more programmatic dimensions. Their experiences and views are meant to enrich the current debates on ‘adaptive development’, bring this concept closer to the ground and increase its practical relevance.

Preston Whitt presents an investigation into tech innovation hubs and how the civic technologies they support have impacted the ways in which citizens engage with policymaking. While many technology innovation hubs are developing impactful, locally-relevant, civic tech solutions to pressing commercial and social issues, hubs are faced with becoming political animals, because many of the challenges they tackle require renegotiating power relationships and co-creating public policy solutions.