sierra leone

A Global Summit about
Mobile Technology for Social Impact
October 13-15, 2008
Johannesburg, South Africa

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Wireless Technology for Social Change

Read the new report on trends in mobile use by NGOs:

Wireless Technology for Social Change.

The report was commissioned by the UN Foundation/Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership and written by Katrin Verclas and Sheila Kinkade.

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Texting It In: Monitoring Elections With Mobile Phones

August 11, 2007 | KatrinVerclas

file under:
election monitoring, mobile phones, mobileactive, montenegro, sierra leone, sms

In Sierra Leone's national election today, 500 election observers at polling stations around the country are reporting on any irregularities via SMS with their mobile phones. Independent monitoring of elections via cell phone is growing aqround the world, spearheaded by a few innovative NGOs.

The story starts in Montenegro, a small country in the former Yugoslavia. On May 21, 2006 the country saw the first instance of volunteer monitors using SMS, also known as text messaging, as their main election reporting tool. A Montenegrin NGO, the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), with technical assistance from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in the United States, was the first organization in the world to use text messaging to meet all election day reporting requirements.

SMS as a Tool in Election Observation

July 11, 2008 | CorinneRamey

file under:
election monitoring, ian schuler, national democratic institute, sierra leone, sms

In 2007, Sierra Leone had its first election since the end of a 10-year civil war. Previous elections had been run by the United Nations (UN), and there was fear that these highly contested elections would not be run fairly and transparently under the Sierra Leone National Election Commission (NEC).