FOI Vault Catalogues FOI Requests, Responses

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A web platform, www.foivault.com, has been developed as a one-stop platform to catalogue  Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and responses. The platform is available to members of the public to share FOI experiences: upload FOI requests made as well as those for which they got responses. Users can also access information requests made by other citizens and the responses they got.

The FOI Vault is one of the platforms that was developed during the Civic Codeathon [Hackathon] organized by BudgiT Nigeria as part of its ‘Accountable Governance for Justice and Security’ project. The Coodeathon took place from April 25 to 27, 2014 during which six teams pitched their ideas; decided on the platform or tool to use and actually coded. The solutions by the six teams were assessed by judges who also selected the winning solutions.

The FOI Vault was developed to address the challenge: Can we build a one-stop platform to catalogue all FOI requests and responses? Can the plaform allow people to make their FOI requests and responses public?  Can it allow them to state if the response was satisfactory or not? Can the platform allow for categorisation of the requests and responses? Will there be an administrator for the platform to answer questions and comments from the public?

Information about FOI requests made and responses received uploaded on the site are in different formats including Jpg, Microsoft Word and PDF. Each request and response shows the date it was made and when the response was received. Every person who has made an FOI request can upload his or her request and response on the platform and is automatically made public.  The platform also allows for categorisation of the requests and responses.

During the Codeathon, six teams built platforms and tools that that can be used to address issues affecting the lives of citizens. The Codeathon posed six different challenge questions and the six teams were required to address one each by using simple technology for an improved society.

Teammates were given the opportunity to build platforms and tools that could address issues affecting the lives of citizens and where justice, security and corruption challenges could be married with technology.

Each team was asked to provide solutions geared toward showing clear and compelling explanations of how the app or solution improves its targeted sector. The FOI Vault addressed the FOI requests and responses cataloguing challenge.

The vault is now being managed by Budgit in partnership with Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC). It was funded by Patners Global