Citizen engagement and voice

Making All Voices Count works across a number of overlapping and mutually reinforcing thematic areas. Many of the projects we support are not easily categorised by theme: some fall into more than one of our thematic areas, while some are not quite a natural fit for any of them.

Projects under the theme of citizen engagement and voice are working to increase direct and indirect interaction between ordinary people and their government at all levels – from provision of new toll-free hotlines to report government corruption in Ghana, to supporting discussions on standards of care between social services and parents in Indonesia. They are working to make sure that ordinary people have the opportunity to voice their governance concerns and needs in local and national debate – from advocating for prisoner rights in Liberia, to publicising stories on health service failures in South Africa.

Research under this theme examines what happens to citizen engagement and voice when it is mediated through technological innovations. It also examines at the roles of the many organisations that act as intermediaries representing citizen voice.