Case Studies

The Open Society Foundations support Goal 16 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which could enable citizens to create more a inclusive society through participatory democracy.
«The SDGs, like the Millennium Development Goals that preceeded them, are likely to be perceived as the aspirations for how to fix the developing world—the things we want other countries to do. But there is much we can do to improve citizen participation in the affairs of this nation.

From participatory budgeting in Brazil to social audits in India to a group of senior citizens designing a center for the elderly in Finland, we can learn from innovations in other nations. And we can help bring compelling local experiments in our communities to the national, and even international, stage.»
→ https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/power-participatory-decision-making

I paid a bribe is an online platform on which members of the public can share experiences of corruption and bribe taking. This is the first database of its kind and hopes to get people spekingly openly about corruption in India.

«ipaidabribe.com is Janaagraha’s unique initiative to tackle corruption by harnessing the collective energy of citizens. You can report on the nature, number, pattern, types, location, frequency and values of actual corrupt acts on this website. Your reports will, perhaps for the first time, provide a snapshot of bribes occurring across your city. We will use them to argue for improving governance systems and procedures, tightening law enforcement and regulation and thereby reduce the scope for corruption in obtaining services from the government. We invite you to register any recent or old bribes you have paid. Please tell us if you resisted a demand for a bribe, or did not have to pay a bribe, because of a new procedure or an honest official who helped you. We do not ask for your name or phone details, so feel free to report on the formats provided.»

Gerald Abila discusses which technologies can and have been used to drive the open access to the law and through practical case study presentation, provides insights on how to overcome structural and non-structural challenges of these technologies and strategies to maximise the opportunity for mass engagement through information technology.

Gerald founded BarefootLaw while still an undergraduate Law student with an objective of overcoming the huge inefficiencies in terms of resources, and access to the Justice Law and Order Sector in Uganda. He believed in the use of existing IT, and innovative tools such as Social Media, SMS, Skype, Apps, Mobile Telephony, Radio, Video Conferencing and Email to develop solutions in the legal field. Gerald holds a Bachelors Degree in Law (LLB) and a Diploma in Legal practice from the Law Development Center in Kampala, Uganda and is currently pursuing a Masters’ Scholarship (LLM) with a specialization in Natural Resource Law. Gerald’s was awarded the Uganda Young Achiever Award in December 2013, was part of the BarefootLaw team’s that was recognized at SMA Awards and won the Social Justice Award, and was a finalist at the UCC-ACIA award. He also a recipient of the Young Achievers Award 2013