Mobilize : Grass-root activism

[IMPACT]

Context

There are over 500 political parties and thousands of civil society organizations in the Dem. Rep. of Congo. Since 2006, national and provincial elections have been held every 4-5 years. The resulting outcome is that over 80% of incumbents are replaced at each cycle, but little is changing in the management of the country.

This can be traced to the individualistic framework guiding elections: candidates do not receive funding from their respective parties and grassroot support is mostly in terms of attendance. 

Due to low incomes and low education, the fundraising ability of candidates is limited locally. Given the sunk cost of an election campaign, each elected representative is incentivized to recoup the cost by being bribed by the governing coalition.

CrowdFunding candidates through blockchain offers members of the diaspora to support candidates on a contract-based basis whereby funding would be disbursed upon fulfilling their obligation.

Political dynasties can also be overcome given that funding and supporting allocations would not be controlled by the candidates, but rather through a decentralised organization.

Solution 

DApp connects supporters to political and civil society organizations. 

Local impact: Better candidates are fielded as supporters would be crowdfunding popular causes while more supporters will be engaged as their reputation will be recorded and can be transferable.

International Impact: Ability to support causes without being on the ground and without large sums of money. Many are willing to support a cause gaining public interest, but they are limited by the complexity of understanding the main objectives, the timing of the activities and transfer costs of sending relatively small donations.

Alignment with Challenge KPIs

Grass-root activism is a key application for nation building due to the power of incumbents within a clientelism and cronyism-supported system.  Several countries and organizations are taken hostage by leaders/entities that have concentrated “usable” resources and are fundamentally invulnerable to coordinated/centralised actions by overburdened or impoverished delegators (electors).

Proposers commercial approach and negotiation strategy with different Governments

Grass-root organizations improve negotiation strategies and blockchain Dapps are tools which can improve the efficiency, transparency and, ultimately, success for social organizations.

Political entities relying on blockchain funding will also be inclined to support legislation facilitating the use of crypto currencies.

Participation of Cardano's Local Community Centers

Having hosted the Cardano Summit in Oct 2021, a Wada Hub with weekly meet-ups to learn Haskell and Plutus through project-based learning, the Goma Cardano Hub is a thriving community of Cardano adopters and members regularly attend Town Halls and other digital events. Hub participants are mostly students who vote for activities within student unions and are also active among civil society organisations. Student campuses such as the ones for ISDR/GL are meeting grounds for such organisations and their leaders are often studentsl.

Participation and/or partnerships with other international organizations

Trusting international organizations to achieve stated outcomes was publicly challenged by Elon Musk’s offer to end hunger if these organisations could prove that the funding and strategy were indeed sufficient to end hunger. The reality is that information on funding allocation within organisations is not public and often mismanagement reduces the effectiveness of funds. A DApp to support grass-root CrowdFunding can serve as a channel for funding and reporting at the same time. While inefficient allocations go unnoticed within international organisations, the transparent nature of blockchain offers supporters insight on the raised funds and the achieved goals, leading to potential withdrawal/increase of support in subsequent funding rounds.

Risks

• Scaling challenges. One template may not fit all organisations which rely on grass-root support. Candidates are not a feature in all organisations, some are nominated by higher institutions. Profiles to showcase causes may not fit the template offered on the website
• Foreign or unregistered support may be legally restricted
• CrowdFunding smart contracts may be complex to accommodate causes, candidates and students committees.

Solutions

• Sites such as GoFundMe utilise a template which can serve as a guide for our website where voting tallying and profile grouping can be added.
• Small donations are expected to constitute the majority of the support and these often are not subjected to the restrictions
• Smart contracts to manage allocation and crowdfunding will consist of escrow and crowdfunding templates which are mostly readily available through Plutus use cases and the team has already implemented solutions involving both aspects on the Testnet.

[FEASIBILITY]

Roadmap

First Phase (Civil Society - Fund8)

Identify civil society organizations within the city of Goma whose members can be on-boarded for the minimum-viable-product of the DApp. Candidates include:

• Student Unions
• Human Rights organizations
• Trading board organizations
• Environmental Defence organizations

Based on our experience and proximity to learning institutions, student unions would be the first candidates.

Step 1: Review legal framework governing organization

This will allow us to establish whether supporters do have a role to play in the running of the organization. Some political organizations have statutes that effectively set them as private entities while supporters assume them to be public entities. This is the case for the majority of political parties in DRC.

Step 2: Review mission statement and visions of the oganization

This will allow us to match supporters with fund-seeking organizations. In the case of student unions, the vision of candidates will be substituted for that of the organization.

Step 3: Publish candidates, organizations and causes deemed open

The concept of being open is ultimately synonymous to being “democratic” or free in information sharing and opinion expression. Student unions are fundamentally free as the learning institutions offer an open and free space for all candidates.

Step 4: Crowd-voting on selected causes and candidates to support/field

The selection step will involve voting on a cause or candidates. Current transaction fees on the Cardano blockchain are within the means of students and the general adult population within the city of Goma. One vote can include several choices as it is done through Catalyst voting.

Step 5: Crowd-funding for selected causes and candidates to support/field

The benefit of blockchain resides in the ability of a smart contract to manage fund allocation. CrowdFunding through a smart contract will offer supporters the ability to fund causes based on their preferences and limit representatives’ mismanagement. 

Step 6: Assess deliverables

CrowdFunding allocations will be scheduled based on the choices selected by users in Step 4 and this can entail limiting the disbursement to a set schedule or based on deliverables (reports, speeches, public votes, public perceptions, etc.). In the case of student unions, deliverables are presented on the vetting of the student committee.

Second Phase (Political Lobby/Entity - Fund9 - Targeting 2023 National Elections)

• Environmental Scan to review social and political funding legislation: $1500
• Consultations (student unions or rising civil society group): $3000
• Front-end design with wallet integration: $4000
• Back-end design and integration: $3000
• Plutus Smart Contract Design (Escrow, CrowdFunding and Tallying): $3500
• Atala-Prism based DID integration: $3500
• Media coverage: $2000

Akilimali Cizungu Innocent: Proposal lead hi is the technical analyst within ISDR/GL (www.isdrgl.org) and holds a degree in computer science from ISIG (https://www.isig.ac.cd/). Akilimali is also the technician supporting the Cardano Stake Pool. Akilimali has experience in front-end and back-end developments.

https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/akili-innocent-7649951a8

https://github.com/Innocent-Akim

Bandu Balume Boaz: Graduating student at ISDR/GL, Boaz is the Hub manager who coordinates meetups for Haskell and Plutus learning. Boaz has completed several training modules on Cardano and is aiming to develop blockchain applications in the field of sustainable development. 

Paul Mupenda: Graduating student at ISIG, Paul holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. An avid blockchain learner and promising blockchain developer, Paul has completed several Haskell and Plutus learning modules. Paul’s technical blockchain skills include the ability to create and issue Atala-Prism DIDs

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-mupenda

https://github.com/paulmupenda

Frédéric Samvura (Genty): Wada Business Initiatives Lead, DRC Wada Coordinator. M.A in Economics, experienced in banking and public policy. Completed the Plutus Pioneer and Atala Prism Pioneer Programs. Haskell and Plutus trainer in Wada and Guimbalabs Education programs, Smart Contract Developper and entrepreneur. Director at a post-secondary learning institution in Eastern Congo (www.isdrgl.org). Telegram: @fsamvura Email: fsamvura@wada.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-samvura-907aa53b/?originalSubdomain=ca

[AUDITABILITY]

• Upon funding, a video highlighting voting procedure with student unions.
• Regular YouTube Video Updates
• Environmental scan of the statutes of the top 10 main political parties
• Update through Catalyst meetings and site for progress
• DApp to mobilize, channel funding and offer voting features.

• A democratic decentralized implementation of a grass-root organisation
• Increased transparency by supported organisation through publishing of relevant reports (financial revenues, visions and mision statements, etc.)
• Increased support for causes with high public visibility (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
• Increasing number of users connecting on the DApp to support a cause.
• Voting tallying and smart contract integration to results.
• Activists' reputation linked to DApp and transferable to compatible DApps (DID interoperability)

New Proposal

SDG Rating

Sustainable Development Goals 13: Climate Action is potentially applicable as we may opt to support local grass-root organisations that defend biodiversity in the limits of the Virunga National Park.