TOLOnews Launches Govmeter To Track Election Promises

Fuente: 
Tolo News
Fecha de publicación: 
21 Oct 2015

Mir Abed Joenda.-

TOLOnews on Wednesday officially launched a new website - From Words to Action - which aims to track the progress of President Ashraf Ghani's pre-election commitments and the National Unity Government's (NUG) post-election commitments.

The aim of this is to promote government accountability.

"This mechanism ensures and brings transparency and transparency removes the gap between the people and the government leaders," said Khpolwak Sapai, deputy director of TOLOnews.

Addressing guests attending the official launch, women's rights activist Mahbuba Saraj said: "This is a vital move by TOLOnews. It can be used in good ways. But the most important thing is its management - that it should be managed properly."

Jandad Spinghar, director of Election Watchdog Afghanistan (EWA), also welcomed the move and said: "When we do monitoring and seek justice based on it, this move brings changes and paves the ground for accountability and the next step is transparency which is created by accountability. And finally, transparency is a good indicator of good governance."

In the lead up to the launch, TOLOnews researched Ghani's pre-election manifesto as well as other sources including media, pledge letters and government documents in order to identify key commitments made during the presidential campaign period.

In addition, TOLOnews consulted with more than 60 civil society organizations from the Afghanistan Civil Society Elections Network (ACSEN ) to prioritize commitments that are most relevant to the lives of Afghan citizens.

Following the consultations with civil society organizations, 100 of the most relevant promises were shortlisted and grouped into five definitive categories, that being Governance and Rule of Law; Human Rights; Socio-Economic Development; Peace and Security and Foreign Affairs.

TOLOnews also consulted with representatives from the National Unity Government to encourage the government's participation in updating citizens on progress made towards their pre-election and post-election pledges.

Commitments are then tracked and updated accordingly in four status categories - Achieved: When a commitment has been met; In Progress: When the NUG is working towards meeting the commitment but the commitment has not yet been met; Inactive: When there is no recorded progress on a commitment and Not Achieved: When a commitment has not been met within the specified timeline or deliverables set by the NUG. This will also apply if a commitment has been abandoned by the NUG.

Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/21994-tolonews-launches-govmeter-...