Project Tracking (Tracka)

DONOR: UNDEF,OSIWA,MAVC

    Numbers:

  • Reach (No. Of people who accessed the site): 73,581
  • Engagements (User-generated reports): 3,500
  • Offline influence : 60,000
  • Notable Media mentions: 27
  • Tracked projects: 500+

THE PROJECT: Tracka (tracka.ng) is a social platform of/for active citizens who are interested in monitoring budgets and public projects in their communities. Layered on Open Data and integrated with existing social media tools, this platform is intended to bring people together to share photos, videos, documents and also post comments on existing projects, with a view to enabling active citizens track the progress - or lack thereof - of budget implementation at grassroots level.

    OUTCOMES:

  • Our field officers tracked 277 projects from 24 communities, as mentioned in Edo State’s 2015 budget. These include: 142 roads, 39 boreholes for access to water, 21 schools, 18 agri-based projects and,35 rural electrification projects, as well as 5 health centres, including the general hospital in Benin.
  • Town hall meetings were held in 21 communities of the 24 communities mapped out for tracking. Citizen participation was high, as constituents were interested in the work done by BudgIT Teams.
  • Based on our advocacy and consistent engagement through social media, infographics and letters to the State government, 75% of the projects tracked in the 2015 budget that were not implemented have been re-awarded in the 2016 budget. This is a clear indicator that continued project monitoring via Tracka will lead to the implementation of these projects in the 2016 fiscal year.
  • Also in 2015, Field Officers also embarked on a mass tracking of 263 bad roads and streets around the Lagos Metropolis, engaging the State government on social media in real time. In October,the Lagos State Government approved the construction of 114 roads; 95% of these were roads tracked and reported by Tracka project officers.
  • Tracka continues monitoring the work on these roads, holding weekly Twitter chats to report on any progress, as witnessed by the project officers who conduct weekly checks on the roads, using the #KnowYourBudget.
  • We are expanding to 16 States to engage citizens, converting them to agitators and advocates for budget performance. We are launching apps, and matching these with intense social media campaigns, as Tracka is now scalable to other countries with geo-tagging functionalities.
  • More outstanding impact stories under the Tracka Project can be found in this short documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QRB9sVNSg