OGP Africa Regional Meeting
OGP Africa Regional Meeting
Open Government Partnership (OGP) Africa Regional Meeting held at the Serena Beach Hotel Mombasa
This week the Mombasa Tech Community also took part in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Regional Meeting. Our community Leads, Alifiyah Ganijee and Said Fuad were present for the meeting. A huge part of this blog post explains their observations during the meeting, great things lying ahead for Mombasa Tech Community
The Open Government Partnership Africa Regional Meeting is currently underway at the Serena Beach Hotel, Mombasa, with representatives from 16 countries in attendance. This is the first OGP Africa Regional Meeting that has attracted a wide variety of Participants and Speakers who include OGP participating governments, Civil society activists, Academia, Multilateral institutions and other interested actors and the Media. Read More
Reports sent back by Alifiyah and Said
Issues that were raised during the meeting:
- Creating awareness of the Open data to the general citizens
- How are citizens going to be engaged in Open Data process as we need this data for developing the county? By Deputy Governor Mombasa County (Hazel Katana).
- What are the priorities of OGP in Africa? (The discussion was led by KICT)
- When providing information to the citizens, do they understand what they are provided?and how much and what information should be revealed?
Why MsaTech was there and what MsaTech did there
Mombasa Tech was there to further network with Kenya ICT Board (KICT) and Kenya Open Data (KOD) and other organizations like HIVOS, Ushahidi, UN it added value in the IT sector by discussing with the KICT on ways to harness innovations especially amongst the tech community, went through the exhibitions, projects like Mzalendo and KOD were being demonstrated.
Mombasa Tech was also there to tap in how that data is obtained and how KOD and KICT make the data useful, open, transparent and accessible to the citizens and how the citizens can use the data to a more meaningful form and build applications or platforms that will help solve problems centered around Mombasa and Kenya at large.
Overall comments, observations and concerns, and how we think our attendance can bring positive change in Mombasa
The 2 day conference was totally enlightening especially for the young generation, it was indeed an interesting event, very well organized by the KICT and KOD, must say thumbs up to them.
We got to learn a lot from others, most important was the networking part, we met in person with the Deputy Governor of Mombasa County: Madam Hazel Katana and had a word with her about the Mombasa Tech Community, also spoke to Daudi Were, Project Director Africa Ushahidi, Tamara Leigh: Humanitarian Communications officer UNOCHA Eastern Africa, Wouter Dijkstra: Director TRAC fm, John Arum: Trinc Management, Evans Gikunda: Trinc Management, Jason Braganza and Kenneth Ochieng from Development Initiatives Nairobi and Muchiri Nyaggah: the Principal partner at Semacraft, Paul Kukobo CEO Kenya ICT Board as well as Kaburo: Kenya ICT Board.
We believe we can all work together for further growth of tech in Kenya and open up more opportunities in Mombasa. Of course, we will share with the rest of the community members our experiences at the OGP event and thus share the knowledge gained and also advise them on the Open data concept and ways in which technology can be used to provide open and transparent information.
All in all, this event was just worth it, and it was indeed an eye-opener, a wonderful opportunity to meet up with so many distinguished guests and members of the Government. Many thanks to Kenya ICT Board and Kenya Open Data.