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Gov2u@TEDxYouth@Tallinn
Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative was part of the TEDxYouth@Tallinn "My way." Vasilis Koulolias, founder of Gov2u and Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative partner, presented the project at the November TEDx event for youth organized by the youth.
The speakers, who were chosen by highschoolers, shared their ideas, visions and accomplishments in a variety of fields.
Mr. Koulolias talked about the project and how important it is to enhance participation and direct communication between citizens and their elected Members of Parliament (MPs). The Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative can do exactly that as an eDemocracy project that will enable citizens, traditional leaders and local kgotla assemblies in four constituencies of Botswana (Nata/Gweta, Boteti North, South East South and Maun West) to share their views and policy concerns with their elected representative.
Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative will provide and pilot a user-friendly, innovative open-source Parliamentary Communication System (PCS) which will allow citizens to send messages directly via the online portal or by the means of text messages (SMS) on a dedicated line and then they can be viewed by the MPs for response.
Therefore, Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative is an ICT-based Parliamentary Communication System (PCS) aiming to enable governments to improve parliamentary efficiency, increase policy responsiveness and expand good governance through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Moreover, it will enable the MPs to better fulfill their function as policy makers and representatives in the broader objective of achieving wider societal development goals.
The project will run for 18 months from September 2012 to March 2014, with a pilot phase scheduled to start in the four constituencies in April 2013. This pilot program aims to build, evaluate and standardize an innovative ICT-based e-Parliament Framework designed to support MPs, citizens and local administrations in their efforts to execute their social contract.
It should be noted that Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative received an Editor’s Choice Award for 2012 from the European Commission’s ePractice.eu editing team!
The project is co-funded by SIDA (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) along with a consortium of multiple partners: the Parliament of Botswana, eGovlab at the University of Stockholm/ Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) and Government to You (Gov2u).
The TEDxYouth@ Tallinn event took place at the Rocca al mare School in Tallinn, Estonia and gave the young audience the inspiration to dream and seek the means to make those dreams come to life, as nothing is impossible for young, fresh minds!
Read more on Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative….
Read more on the ePractice Editor’s Choice…
View more from the TEDxYouth@Tallin event....