Pollicy

Create Your Kampala

‘Create Your Kampala’ will utilise ‘Data Artistry’ to combine the aesthetics of digital illustrations with the hard facts of data through a data-focused collective. The aim is to thereby empower citizens to seek better public services in their communities. As part of this project, Pollicy plans to conduct a research study of 1,000 Kampala residents to better understand their perceptions of public service delivery around topics such as road infrastructure, water/waste management, school performance, etc. Pollicy hopes to stimulate communities (especially those from lower socio-economic groups) to demand that their local and higher-level leaders provide them with the services to which they are entitled as citizens. By engaging local governments, Pollicy believes that effective budgeting, resource management and community organisation can be rendered. Using the data collected from citizens, Data Artistry will take shape in temporary and permanent art installations across the city to educate people on their civic rights and duties. By combining digital illustrations with data, Pollicy plans to showcase the gap in local governments’ delivery of basic human provisions. In order to be accessible to a wide range of audiences, art and data analysis are combined, as even the most simple data visualisation chart is likely to create a feeling of exclusion for some citizens.

As a civic technology organisation based in Kampala, Pollicy works with the government and civil society to effectively use data and technology to improve public service delivery. Pollicy believes in the power of data to revolutionise how governments deliver services to their citizens. By using an information-centric approach, Pollicy aims to digitally transform government services across Africa and thereby craft better life experiences through improved data availability. The organisation provides design consulting to re-engineer civic engagement and participatory processes, technology solutions for communication, digital data collection, and crowdfunding. These are all services that help achieve a better understanding of what works within each local context. Through new technologies, Pollicy plans to bridge data gaps from grassroots all the way up to the national level. The organisation’s focus lies on influencing a culture of data use, promoting the use of shared data platforms, building analytical capacity, and advocating for improved data usage amongst political candidates, civil society organisations, NGOs and the government.