Anode Governance Lab is a Bangalore based organisation that works towards strengthening governance and enabling public institutions to function effectively. Our belief is that vibrant and learning institutions adapt and negotiate with the external environment to deliver their mandate consistently. Our institution building efforts leverage organisation development (OD) principles, which adopts a systemic view to change, associating with members of the institution as participants and not recipients of change. 
Working in partnership with @Tech4Good, we are trying transform local government engagement through a participatory and co-creative process. Together, we are addressing challenges, generating solutions, and shaping a shared vision for community development. 
We started our journey with @Tech4Good , to develop tools to clarify, engage and handhold Gram Panchayat (GP) elected members and citizens in their journey…
With @Tech4Good we are working on a comprehensive and systematic approach to engaging with local government (Panchayat) members and various stakeholders for community development in a participatory, co-creative process aimed at problem-solving and innovation. It is geared toward collaboratively identifying challenges, generating solutions, and creating a shared vision for the future.
We started with a couple of co-creation workshops.
One of the first - involved participants brainstorming and coming up with small-scale, practical ideas to address specific challenges. micro-solutions which could be easy implement and test.
An outcome was an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for a local governance project. The co-creation workshops are a brilliant way to generate practical and scalable ideas. The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for local governance projects is a great example of how technology can be leveraged to enable real-time feedback, rapid adjustments, and inclusive participation.
In one, our Panchayat facilitators rated the service delivery in their wards through the mentimeter. engaging the participants in visualizing the long-term impact of the solutions being developed. This can be a powerful motivator for continued engagement and can also help identify larger goals.
We recently had a couple of workshop to brainstorm and develop larger-scale solutions or initiatives that address systemic or root causes of the issues.
We started with a session around stakeholder mapping where we looked at the different stakeholders / touch points for Anode’s framework –
We looked at how we could develop a comprehensive program to support and the role that technology could play
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Panchayat Members’ Journey: Develop a comprehensive program to support Panchayat members, from understanding their roles and responsibilities, to how they can become role models and effective leaders in their communities and the role that technology could play
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Information Access & Management: Identify all the information resources that need to be made available to Panchayat members and other stakeholders. This could include information on government schemes/funds, standard operating procedures (SOPs), handbooks, tool components, etc. Develop mechanisms to ensure this information is accessible and regularly updated.
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Solution Development & Implementation: Based on the needs identified, develop solutions to address those needs. For example, training for Panchayat members, creating a helpdesk, providing a facilitation handbook for ward level meets, etc.
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Collaboration & Partnership: Engage with different organizations (NGOs, Govt Depts, ZPs, etc.) for collaboration and partnership. This could include providing training, sharing resources, and working together on solution implementation.
And then recently we brainstormed on a multi-tiered framework or pathway for Panchayat members and the wider community to engage in local governance.
This framework is geared towards facilitating problem-solving, promoting active participation, and developing leadership. We brainstormed around developing a panchayat member registry and a dashboard of indicators for effective rural governance.
We were exploring
- How we can use ERPNext to create a Panchayat Member Registry
- Creating Indicators for Effective Rural Governance
- Use ERPNext’s built-in reporting tools to create a dashboard that displays the data from the “Panchayat Member” and “Governance Indicator” DocTypes. You can create charts, graphs, and tables to visualize the data.
@JinsoRaj & @Tech4Good demoed us a a panchayat member registry built on ERPNext
@JinsoRaj , @Tech4Good Onwards to the next step of the journey!