Tracka, is a tool that was launched in
June 2014. Tracka (tracka.ng) is a social platform for active citizens who are interested in
tracking budgets and public projects in their community. Using grassroots
monitors and partners of projects located across the Federation, this approach
explores the use of technology to track budgets and reports to executive and
legislative bodies that are responsible for these projects. Social media is used
to amplify discussions on projects. With the ability to use web, mobile web,
apps and SMS, citizens can have a focal point for tracking public projects and
report on-the-ground performance to institutions. The hashtag #KnowYourBudget
is used for tweets which receive the most attention.
Tracka has its main objectives as:
·
To expand the community network of
active citizens across the society by developing creative tools that encourage engagement
between citizens and public institutions resulting in improved service
delivery.
·
To widen, on a national and local level,
the scope of information available to citizens about Nigeria's budget
priorities.
·
To get digitally literate Nigerians to
collaborate on getting and disseminating accurate information for greater
transparency.
Tracka worked on the 2015 budget in Edo
State and also tracked the nature of roads in Lagos State. A press release was
published in the Nation Newspaper before starting the tracking work. In the Edo
State 2015 budget, 24 communities were involved,183 projects were tracked which
included roads, boreholes, schools, agricultural and rural electrification
projects, letters were written to the state governor, House of Assembly members
and commissioners of the respective ministries. Further, town hall meetings were
held in 21 communities out of the 24 communities mapped out for tracking. Citizen
participation was high side as the communities were interested in the work done
by BudgIT Teams. Out of the letters written, Tracka only got response from the
Ministry of Energy and Water Resources agreeing to execute the project in the
2016 budget. Further effort to get responses from the other ministries was not
requited.
The team embarked on aggressive
campaign on capital projects, by engaging citizen in the rural and urban areas.
Publication in the Vanguard Daily Newspaper was made as an effort to drive the
government to deliver quality service. Due to the financial crisis in the
country most of the projects stated in the 2015 budget were not executed; in
fact not until late November did the state government embark on construction of
a few of the projects tracked in the budget in the urban metropolis in the
state. Based on advocacy and consistent engagement through social media,
infographics and letters to the state government 75% of the projects tracked in
the 2015 budget that were not implemented have been re-awarded in the 2016
budget. This is a clear indicator that advocacy and civic engagement will lead
to the implementation of these projects in the 2016 fiscal year.
Herbert Macaulay Way along Yaba area
was faced with grid traffic congestion due to the deplorable condition of the
road. However after Tracka wrote to the Lagos State Ministry of Works and the
Public Works Corporation as well as consistent social media engagement after
two weeks the request for the repair of the road was acknowledged and work
started. The road is now motorable to commuters plying the road.
In 2015 Tracka also embarked on mass
tracking of all the bad roads and streets around the Lagos Metropolis by
engaging the state government on social media. In October the Lagos State Government
approved the construction of 114 roads; 95% of these were roads tracked by
Tracka. Tracka continues monitoring the work being done on these roads and
holds weekly chats to report on the progress as witnessed by the project
officers who conduct weekly checks on the roads until repair is completed
within six months.
