Latin America: Increase Citizen Participation & Government Accountability
This week I spent a couple of hours working with our Latin America team on a project that allows citizens to pose questions to politicians and share information about candidates' positions on pressing issues through a web platform. These types of projects have been popular throughout the region. Peru, for example, has launched the Promesómetro website, which allows citizens to measure their representatives' promises and engage in online conversations on their progress. Chile’s Ciudadano Inteligente portal provides citizens with a wealth of information, from tools that allow them to follow their Parliament's debates to report cards on how politicians are progressing on their promises. In Nicaragua, the website Viva el Voto allows citizens to report on election irregularities and allows them to get historical data on election processes. These are just a couple of projects - many more can be found throughout the region.
Latin America is a region that is still working to strengthen its democratic institutions, decrease corruption, and strengthen politician accountability to its citizens, yet some progress has been made from the late 20th century days of dictators, one party rule, and military regimes. As the region works towards improving its democratic institutions, ICT solutions are sure to play a role. Researchers have stated that Latin America will have a high growth in broadband penetration in 2010 to 2015. Governments have made note of these predictions and have responded with comprehensive plans to provide increased Internet access across the region. Moreover, the use of social media is extremely popular in the region with 82% of web users currently using these platforms.
These findings present an exciting opportunity for using ICTs for democracy. Yes, there will be challenges as we previously noted: increased Internet use should be combined with digital literacy trainings and tips to stay safe online. However, as more citizens come online and use social network platforms, these trends can be leveraged to promote these new platforms that allow citizens to be informed and have a stake in the democratic development of their country. The next couple of years will see much change in Latin America and ICTs are bound to play a role in these.