A Platform Where City Government & Citizens Find Common Ground

On November 2^nd at the Commission on Science and Technology (COSTECH), Mayor Jerry Sixlaa of Ilala- Dar Es Salaam, joined City Council administrators, urban planning faculty and students and technologists to discuss a shared vision of how youth-driven, collaboratively built technology can help local government improve public services, increase transparency and manage effectiveness.

Mayor Jerry Silaa (Ilala, Dar Es Salaam), Dr. Hassan Mshinda (Commission on Science & Technology), Dean John Lupala (Ardhi University), Barjor Mehta (World Bank, Urban) discussing Dar Es Salaam Community Member

The workshop focused on the results from a recent community mapping exercise in Tandale, an unplanned community in Dar Es Salaam.  In Tandale, community residents joined Ardhi University School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP)  to use low-cost GPS devices and free and open source software stack to mark the location of roads, streets, street lights, trash dumps and upload urban infrastructure information to Open Street Map (OSM), a free and open online mapping platform. The training, provided by youth leaders involved in Kenya’s Map Kibera project, took only a few days in the field and computer lab.

Panel members share their experience with community mapping  projects

Following the results presentation from Nairobi-based trainers and SURP students, a panel of respondents made it clear that an Open Dar Es Salaam agenda is appealing to four groups who rarely have a chance to share an agenda: young people, local government, university students and local technology start ups.

Mayor Silaa opened the dialogue: “The most important thing is that we involve the community in solving their own problems,” and added that young people with few opportunity can see mapping as a way to develop skills and give back. “We can’t be everywhere. We rely on the community,” he said, and described how interactive maps can improve City planning by providing situational awareness around infrastructure, commercial and residential assets.

Dr. Hassan Mshinda, director of COSTECH, Tanzania’s leading business and innovation incubator, added that “linkages between industry and municipalities can help a new generation of policy makers use evidence to implement policies to improve people’s lives.”  Dean Lupala, of Ardhi University, explained how the university is actively considering incorporating OSM into their curriculum to become a regional center of excellence in the community mapping methodology.

In closing remarks, Joseph Ngwegwe, Tanzania Program Manager for Twaweza, the regional East African initiative that joined the World Bank to support the Tandale effort mapping effort, suggested that bringing local government, young people, urban planning students and tech start ups together for an Open Dar Es Salaam could be part of Tanzania’s broader commitments to the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global political movement for transparency and accountability.

Moving forward, local government leaders expressed keen interest in expanding the Tandale effort across Dar Es Salaam, and putting the resulting maps to use to better respond to citizen requests while giving young people an opportunity to learn valuable skills.