Using Africa’s precious civic innovation capacity to be Bee-Watcher-Watchering
- Write Geci Karuri-Sebina and Amy Mutua.
This story offers an evocative metaphor for the current state of affairs in African governance today, and the contribution of civic tech innovation.
"Civic time and resources are spent reacting to state deficiencies, tracking spending and corruption, demanding participation, and trying to prevent state actors from abusing their power - essentially, trying to make sure that governments are doing their jobs as they should." OpEd by Geci Karuri-Sebina & Amy Mutua
In Dr Seuss' classic story "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" (1973) he tells a curiously familiar tale about a place near Hawtch-Hawtch where a bee watcher was hired to monitor the lazy town bee because "a bee that is watched will work harder you see." Unfortunately, the poor little bee did not work harder ("not mawch"), and therefore another Hawtch-Hawtcher was put on task as a bee-watcher-watcher, ostensibly based on the same logic that this would make the bee-watcher, and thus the bee, work more effectively.
Read the full article as it appears on News24.