At the Open Institute, we have grown to believe that the power to fight inequality in all its forms lies in people. It is in people that the possibility of wide acceptance and tolerance abides. It in people that the ability of the world to change and find its better self lies. It is for…
Read articleWhen we started the Global Goals for Local Impact programme, we had a simple hypothesis: that when citizens are involved in the collection of the data that relates to their immediate lives, they are able to then take greater control of their destiny as a community. When they have facts about their lives, when they…
Read articleSometimes, our blog posts are so high level that we forget to give the interesting minutiae and details of our experience when we go every week. We are currently working in Lanet Umoja location working with women groups to collect SDG 5 data in partnership with Civicus Datashift and with the leadership of Chief Kariuki…
Read articleToday was a public holiday in Kenya as muslims celebrate Idd-ul-Adha, the festival that commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to please Almighty God. While the rest of the country took time off, my team and I used the day to bond with each other in the office over chocolate encrusted doughnuts, Mandazi (a…
Read articleVery frequently, and more so lately, our team gets up very early in the morning and prepares to set off to Lanet Umoja location in Nakuru County. We usually leave at about lunch time, having made many small and important logistical preparations. On most days, we are ferrying boxes filled with paper forms – data…
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At the Open Institute, we have centered much of our work around transparency – making government and corporate data available to everyone. The argument is simple: the more data and information there is available, the more citizens are empowered to participate in their governance. When citizens participate, the argument follows, life is improved because they…
Read articleWe are grateful to everyone who participated in the #Devolution Twitter chat at the World Bank Open Day at Nairobi Club. Here is a flavour of the discussions. [View the story “#WBGOpenDay #Devolution Storify” on Storify]
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Yesterday we met the administration leadership of the whole division, where Lanet Umoja is. As you may recall from a previous blog post, a division has several locations. The Dundori division has four locations – Dundori, Lanet-Umoja, Githioro and Mirironi. In the meeting, which was chaired by the Assistant County Commissioner in charge of Dundori…
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It’s always an exciting moment when an idea is formulated and the time to engage other users nears. The introduction of such a system needs to be well thought of especially if there are technical aspect involved. We (Open Institute) recently embarked on a citizen involved and engagement pilot project in one of the locations in…
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