The Media Foundation for West Africa and its partners Co Develop, are successfully building a core of journalists with knowledge to understand and report adequately on the broader implications of digitization through the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Journalism Fellowships.
The training is timely as the broad concepts of generating unique digital identification databases for citizens; creating digital payment platforms and building open source systems that data share and its attendant concerns of inclusivity and data security continue to engage the minds of national leaders across the globe.
Addressing the Ghanaian Cohort of the second batch of DPI Fellows, Executive Secretary of the MFWA Sulemana Braima asked salient questions that should sharpen the sensitivities of reporters in extending their watch dog roles into the areas of Digital Public Infrastructure and Digital Public Goods.
Zeroing in on Ghana’s National Identification System and Mobile Money Interoperability for digital payments he queried whether journalists had paid attention to the sovereignty and security of Ghana’s data, how inclusive and safe the whole data gathering process is and how the data was being used.
“They have our fingerprints, our iris, our locations etc. but while we do all of this, where does our data sit? Who is managing that big data and who is giving it to who to do what?”
Your bank may not have taken your Ghana Card details but eventually they can use that. How many of us haven’t received messages from our presidential candidates telling us they are coming to our area to campaign. How did they get that and how did they know you live at Asawase?” he questioned.
Sulemana Braima warned that it would be disastrous to leave journalists behind in the growing knowledge of the digital ecosystem especially at a time Ghana’s government continues to acquire surveillance structures and when leaders of the two dominant political parties both have manifesto promises to turn Ghana into a digital hub.
“We are the people that educate and inform so if these things are happening; we truly have a responsibility to understand what it all means. We must speak about those who have been excluded; those who are not digitally literate; the rights and privacy violations. As journalists you should understand these issues, write about them and ask the critical questions so that we can build an ecosystem that is enabling and empowering not just for a few but for all of us,” he admonished.
The global dialogue on DPI has gained traction, particularly following successful implementations in countries like India and Estonia, which have leveraged their DPIs—Aadhaar and X-ROAD, respectively—to significantly enhance their development by improving digital payments, public services, and fostering greater transparency.
For low and middle Income Countries Ghana included, Digital Public Infrastructure that enables the building of open source, safe and scalable Digital Public Goods (DPGs); offer an enabler that can be leveraged to solve a myriad of development challenges and to provide solutions in a manner that accelerates sustainable development.
DPI Accountability
The concepts have now directed discussions about accountability from merely focusing on how a country spends on and handles its Physical Public Infrastructure to also evaluating how a state invests in, handles and protects its investments in Digital Public Infrastructure.
Robert Karanja, Co-Develop’s investments and strategic partnerships lead in Africa referred to the millions of dollars states are investing into their own identification infrastructure to explain how essential it is for the media to be keenly interested in the DPI conversations.
He indicated that while the World Bank had approved a loan of US$350 million for Ethiopia to execute its National ID system, Uganda was likely to use an estimated US$400million to build its own unique identification system.
I think beyond roads, bridges, harbors and airports, the next large investments that our governments all over the continent are getting involved in, is around digital investments, IDs, payment systems, data exchange, cloud storage, data centers, etc…”
They are using government revenues and taxes so if the 4th Estate does not report accurately on these things, who do we leave that job to?” he asked.
He drew the minds of Journalists to the various procurement considerations that should accompany the procurement of services, equipment and material to be deployed for national registration processes and how the price of cards were to be determined.
Collaborative Efforts
While MFWA works as a CSO within the media space checking media ethics, protection of journalistic freedoms and direct reporting on accountability, climate change and sustainable developments; Co-Develop is a global non-profit fund supporting countries to build digital public infrastructure that is inclusive, safe, and equitable.
The joint endeavor provides a path that can define the future of low and Middle Income Countries; direct government towards a responsive and responsible DPI approach towards systems development and ultimately engender accountability, inclusivity and affordability of DPIs and DPGs.
The cohort is made up of 45 journalists from Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Ghana,
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Ivan Heathcote – Fumador
