Does information work? Presentation by Rakesh Rajani, at ODI Washington Conference, Feb 2014

1. Does information work?
Lessons from two Twaweza cases in East Africa
Rakesh Rajani / twaweza.org / @rakeshrajani / 28 February 2014

2. Information Citizens Agency
Improved
Service Delivery
Outcomes
private
agency
public
agency

3. Case I – Daraja

4. Sources: Afrobarometer; WaterAid
% of rural Tanzanian citizens identifying selected issues
among top three priorities for government to address
Addressing a real, felt need

5. Programme model
Citizens Database
Media
Local Government
SMS-based feedback mechanism
Media partnerships
for accountability
Popularising
information

6. In practice
District / Category
Number of texts
received
Number of texts
forwarded to DWEs
Number of actions
taken
Njombe 35 13 11
Morogoro Rural 41 17 4
Mbozi 60 23 5
Total 136 53 20
Others (outside pilot area) 308 150 1
Unusable sms texts (unintelligible,
wrong number, etc.)
631
Total 1072 208 21

7. Why did it fail?

8. Case II – Uwezo

10. A lot has been invested in education:
Source: Tanzania Ministry of Education

11. 1 Primary School Leaving Examination; 2 Certification of Secondary Education Examination; 3 Grade A-C; 4 Division I-IV
Source: National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA), Big Results Now
But these investments do not turn into results

12. Source: Uwezo
Percentage who can do the Std 2 level, Tanzania (2011)
On completion of
primary schooling,
many still cannot
read Std 2

13. Communications

14. Average Treatment Effects:
Citizens Actions (Public Agency)
Involved in
improving
education
If actions
taken to
improve
school
Participated in
education
groups
If meetings
attended on
education
Contributed to
education
groups
Villagers
approached
officials
Villagers asked
officials to
improve
government
If actions taken
to improve
outcomes

15. Average Treatment Effects:
Private Actions (Private Agency)
Do you help
with reading
Did you read
to child last
week
Do you help
with writing
Do you help
with math
Do you ask
about teacher
presence
If possible
consider
switching
schools

16. Causal chain
From Liberman, Posner and Tsai

18. Concluding thoughts
• "Does information work?" is a very bad question
• People's experiences and bandwidth matter more than the merits of
the issue
• Only a few will be the trigger actors among citizens and govts, and
our antenna to know and work with them are clunky
• Don't underestimate the power of ideas and storytelling in shifting
norms
• Since there are no guarantees, curiosity is as good as it gets