“If you build it, they *might* come”: Contrary to the pop-culture refrain, building (or in this case, developing or rolling out) a mobile tool is not sufficient to enact change
Case in point: Practitioners in civic tech talk about the benefits that flow from mHealthinnovations and information and communication technological (ICT) interventions as a “given” — that they will drive improvements in health systems, and support citizen engagement and service provision accountability.
But there is little systematic research here to back this up. In fact, the findings of a new Making All Voices Count (MAVC) report — by Tabitha Hrynick and Linda Waldman — found that strong stakeholder relationships with “government actors” are just as critical to success in mHealth accountability as the tech intervention itself.
This story was first published by the Civic Tech Innovation Network, a Wits Journalism project. Please click on the following link to read the full article: Mobile not an accountability ‘silver bullet’
