The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IT Board (KPITB), Code for Pakistan (CfP) and the World Bank Group’s collaborative initiative the “KP Civic Innovation Fellowship Program” aims to help the Government bridge the gap between the general public and various government departments.
On 25 July 2017, during the public demo day held at KPITB’s incubation space “Durshal”, the teams showcased the products which they developed in front of Mr. Dawood Khan, Secretary ST & IT who was the chief guest on the occasion. Secretary Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Secretary Tourism Corporation KP, SSP Traffic and CEO Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar were present at the occasion.
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The 6 months long Fellowship program (launched on 7th March, 2017) aims to bring together talented researchers, designers and developers to build apps, increase citizen engagement, improve government service delivery and show the government how to innovate in public services. These Fellows have been housed at the KPITB’s incubation space “Durshal”, which is the first of its kind in the province. KPITB is planning to expand these Durshal’s to 12 other locations across different districts in KP to provide better opportunities to the young graduates and entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.
Ebtihaj, graduate of the first batch and now Program Manager of the Fellowship program said:
“Cities are meant to be for its inhabitants first and the best way to provide them with the services they need is by keeping them involved throughout the process of building the solutions for themselves. Thereafter, citizen-focused investments, policies and growth of the city would automatically follow.”
The Fellows have worked with 5 government departments to create the following solutions:
- Record Digitization and automation for the Directorate of Industries and Commerce: Joint Stock Companies, Firms and Societies. This product will minimize the time and the efforts to get a company, firm, society or a similar organization registered.
- Crowd funding platform for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB) which will help the startups and entrepreneurs from KP to raise investments to grow their startups into sustainable companies.
- Android based complaint and information application for Peshawar Traffic Police. Once this application is made available, the public would be able to register complaints against any kind of traffic violation as well as find out about the latest updates on the traffic situation in Peshawar.
- Web based application to improve the online experience of the Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP). This application is meant to showcase the natural beauty of KP so that not only locals can start exploring the wonderful sights but can also catch an eye of the international visitors.
- Crowd sourced complaint system for Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) would help the public register complaints regarding any trash dump in the city. This application has already been launched (in beta) on 7th May, 2017 and handed over to the WSSP officials.
Source: CfP
Image source: CfP
