Accountability and transparency within the government are of significant concern in Uganda. Community members lack platforms to rate their interaction with public services, and thus, there is a critical need for innovative and independent accountability mechanisms. Without feedback, government offices lack data to make necessary service improvements where needed.

SEMA – Swahili for ‘Speak! What’s up!?’ aims to improve transparency and accountability of public services in Uganda and East Africa at large, to make citizen feedback central to how governments evaluate and improve their service delivery.

Through feedback devices, a toll-free telephone line (USSD code), and in-person interviews, SEMA can work closer to their goal of improving transparency and accountability of public services in East Africa by creating user-centered citizen feedback tools. By presenting this data in actionable, easy-to-understand ways to local and national governments, SEMA fosters better quality public services that can improve millions of people’s lives.

SEMA’s goal in presenting to the LabStorm community was to tackle the challenge of increasing feedback tool usage in the public sector and effectively closing the feedback loop by communicating those results back to the public. This is what LabStorm attendees had to say:

  • Engaging with individuals and institutions is essential in creating awareness.
  • Prioritize direct communication with citizens about the changes being made in public institutions using their feedback.
  • There is a need to define product and value propositions to the market clearly.

Read the full article about feedback loops in public sector communication by Conor Huynh at FeedbackLabs.