2016 ICT4D Conference

Budeshi in Hausa means "open it" and it is a dedicated platform used to demonstrate the utility of the OCDS across the public procurement value chain. The platform seeks to structure budget and procurement data to the OCDS format; and this structure would enable the automated linking of budget and procurement data. In essence, the platform would make sense of the data by connecting them to the public infrastructure and services they represent.
The Budeshi project is premised on the fact that we can prevent some of the expensive corruption investigations and prosecutions as well as inefficiencies across the procurement value chain by deploying data standards that enable us link various data from the budget, to procurement and ultimately to public services in a timely and open way.
The Budeshi platform recognizes that no matter how structured data is, it is only brought to life when it is used to foster public engagement around a social issue that is of value to the people in question. Budeshi therefore has within it a visualization platform that enables individual user-interaction and engagement with the data. The platform therefore includes a blog where the visuals from the data (or the lack of it) are used to tell data driven stories within the context of pressing social and development issues. Additionally, budeshi has a radio program by the same name. All of these plugins are aimed at stimulating interest in the data and visualizations being developed; and use OCDS data to build a system of public accountability. The platform is located at http://www.budeshi.org.
The initiators of this platform are seeking its adoption by the Nigerian Government and seek to demonstrate its importance to achieving sustained development.
At the ICT4D conference, budeshi project initiators seek to demonstrate initial thoughts around the project, progress made and lessons learned. The initiators also would like to show that such a platform can be replicated across Africa to enable data-driven public accountability.
This presentation would be made by Seember Nyager of PPDC, and Patrick Enaholo of the Pan Atlantic University, school of media and communication, Lagos.