Citizen-generated data (CGD) plays a crucial role in enhancing transparency and accountability in service delivery, especially in resource-constrained environments. By empowering citizens to report local service delivery failures, CGD offers ground-level insights that traditional, centralized data collection often overlooks. This empowers marginalised communities to voice their concerns and contributes to more inclusive and participatory governance models.
Project Name
Detecting potential service delivery intervention areas through citizen-led reporting integrating WhatsApp and Large Language Models
Objective
This project aims to leverage the widespread use of WhatsApp in South Africa to create a scalable and inclusive platform for citizens to report service delivery challenges and thus providing information on potential service delivery interruption hotspots. The collected data will be analysed using AI to generate insights for improved service delivery and accountability.
The appeal of this concept lies in the integration of WhatsApp, a widely used communication platform, with a sophisticated Language Learning Model (LLM). This combination allows for the collection of rich, citizen-generated data in a familiar and accessible format, while also ensuring the data is interpreted and utilised effectively.
This concept creates a single platform to track potential service delivery hotspots and thus potential areas to intervene at scale. It complements current citizen-driven initiatives by creating an additional data source with which to cross-check existing sources. Additionally, this project makes possible a close to real-time analysis of potential service delivery interruption hotspots.
All citizen-generated data will be submitted anonymously, ensuring there are no privacy issues associated with the data collection.
