MobiSAM : our story

After numerous water outages and problems, two friends were sharing their water woes and lamenting over the state of water in their town. They decided that instead of just complaining, they wanted to see how they could help to make a difference. Hannah has a background in mobile computing and Debbie used to train people to monitor service delivery from their government. They put their expertise together and created MobiSAM- the Mobile Social Accountability Monitoring platform. MobiSAM allows residents to report problems with service delivery, and allows government to view these reports and communicate with residents. It is the government's responsibility to provide basic services, but residents have an important part to play as well. We need to encourage integrity and transparency in our government by communicating with them, monitoring them and holding them accountable. After working with their local municipality, the MobiSAM team identified the lack of communication as a central problem. MobiSAM is a solution to this problem – a space where residents can communicate with their municipality and each other about problems with water, electricity, roads and sanitation. More than just a space to complain, MobiSAM opens up a two way conversation between residents and their municipality and encourages accountability and transparency.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

Say you turn on your tap, and there is no water. If you are a registered MobiSAM user, you log in to MobiSAM and report the outage at the click of a button. The municipality receives your report, investigates, and SMSes you with critical information about the cause and duration of the outage. Perhaps other residents in your suburb have reported outages that they have experienced while you are at work. The municipality SMSes all registered users in your area, warning of the possibility of an outage, giving you time to make alternative arrangements. Does this sound helpful to you? It only works if you register on MobiSAM.