A Multi-Dimensional E-Participation Model to Boost Public Confidence in Democracy in Rural Uganda: Participatory Approach

Abstract

Electronic participation (e-participation) is an essential e-government instrument used by government across the world to support democratic decision-making processes. Despite its usefulness, e-participation initiatives face challenges, emerging predominantly from the limited involvement of the actual users in design and deployment of e-participation models and systems. Limited users’ involvement restricts guidance on which model requirements and dimension would be suitable for promoting democracy in specific settings through use of eparticipation initiatives. Consequently, the users’ needs suitable for specific context is inadequately addressed in most existing models and e-participation initiatives. This leads to the public losing interest in using e-participation initiatives to achieve democracy. This paper proposes a new multidimensional model derived from users’ perspectives on model requirements that boost the public's confidence in using e-participation to achieve democracy. Two participatory workshops involving 23 participants from local government leaders and ordinary rural citizens from two parishes in Isingiro district Uganda were deployed to generate insights and gather model requirements used to develop the model. The study provides a model consisting of seven dimensions including 1) socio-technical contextual discovery, 2) actors, 3) technology, 4) levels of digital device usage, 5) strategies, 6) e-participation system requirements and 7) expected outcomes. The model provides guidance on how e-participation initiatives can be designed so that they capture public's priority needs tailored to their context to boost the public's confidence in e-participation.