We're excited to announce a new book release from Personal Democracy Media: Civic Tech in the Global South: Assessing Technology for the Public Good, edited by Tiago Peixoto and Micah L. Sifry. Published in partnership with the World Bank, the book is comprised of one multi-nation study and three in-depth field evaluations of civic tech initiatives in developing countries. The study reviews evidence on the use of 23 digital platforms from around the world designed to amplify citizen voices to improve service delivery, highlighting citizen uptake and the degree of responsiveness by public service providers. The case studies are an SMS-based polling platform run by UNICEF in Uganda, a complaints-management system run by the water sector in Kenya, and an internet-based participatory budgeting program in Brazil. Based on these experiences, the authors examine civic tech's impact on: i) the extent to which technologies have promoted inclusiveness, ii) the effect of these initiatives on public service delivery, and iii) the extent to which these effects can be attributed to technology.

As Peixoto and Sifry write in their introduction, while civic tech—the use of technology for the public good—has been described as "the next big thing," this book invites the reader to consider a more nuanced perspective. First, civic tech isn't an antidote to inequality; while its practitioners may seek to facilitate the participation of people who have been traditionally excluded from power, it may be further empowering the already empowered. And second, while civic tech may be making it easier for people to voice their needs and concerns at government, the levels of willingness, capability and resources available for governments to provide a meaningful response remain the same, at best.

In other words, Civic Tech in the Global South shows where progress has been made and where more work needs to be done.
Order your copy today directly from Civic Hall.
Best,
Andrew, Micah and the rest of the team at Civic Hall