Social Impact Lab Foundation

The Social Impact Lab (SIMLab) makes it easier for citizens to access government information and services by using mobile devices, particularly in lower-income countries. As the team behind FrontlineSMS, the free mobile phone software, SIMLab helps lower barriers to citizen engagement by building and disseminating its open source software and by providing support to transparency and accountability groups. SIMLab also works with governments that are actively seeking more robust tools for soliciting citizen participation and feedback. This grant would enable SIMLab to tailor their software more to government and civil society needs and to measure and document the impact of using mobile technologies in promoting more productive citizen-government engagement.

This follow-on grant to the kiwanja Foundation would allow them to refine and develop additional applications for the FrontlineSMS software. Activities would also support the increased and targeted engagement with the transparency and accountability community. Enabling populations to interact with governments and civil society groups via SMS, the FrontlineSMS platform and associated tools use low-cost mobile interactions to reduce historical barriers to citizen access to information and channels for feedback and oversight.