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Using digital feedback platforms to improve accountability and service delivery in education: Olavula, Mozambique

Digital feedback platforms can strengthen citizen voice and contribute to improvements in education service delivery. However, they need to be embedded in functioning institutional and accountability systems in order to work well. The Olavula platform in Mozambique shows how SMS-based feedback can support local-level responsiveness of public services despite constraints of weak capacity and limited follow-up.

3 February 2026
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Using digital feedback platforms to improve accountability and service delivery in education: Olavula, Mozambique

Main points

  • Digital feedback platforms can strengthen citizen voice and transparency, but their effectiveness depends on institutional capacity and follow-up rather than technology alone.
  • The Olavula platform enables citizens in Mozambique to report education service delivery problems through free, anonymous SMS, lowering participation barriers and supporting local-level responsiveness.
  • During the period analysed, reported complaints focused primarily on infrastructure gaps, staffing and materials shortages, and administrative problems, pointing to systemic service delivery constraints rather than isolated misconduct.
  • Hybrid implementation approaches combining digital tools with community mobilisation, intermediaries, and radio outreach have been essential for reaching marginalised and low-literacy populations.
  • Weak data management, uneven handling of sensitive complaints, and limited central government ownership constrain the platform’s efficacy as an accountability mechanism.
  • Despite these constraints, Olavula demonstrates that well-designed digital feedback platforms can contribute to incremental improvements in local accountability and service delivery.

Cite this publication


Soares da Costa Rosário, C.; Kirya, M.; Aarvik, P. 2026. Using digital feedback platforms to improve accountability and service delivery in education: Olavula, Mozambique. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Issue 2026:02)

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About the authors

Carmeliza Soares da Costa Rosário

Carmeliza Rosário is a Social and Development Anthropologist, with extensive experience researching poverty, vulnerability, inequality, and gender. In addition, she has conducted research on social media and commentary, sexuality, sexual and reproductive rights, and governance. Currently, she is focusing on decolonial knowledge production through research on African female traditional leadership. Her main country of research is Mozambique. She holds a PHD in Anthropology from the University of Bergen (Norway).

Monica Kirya is a lawyer and scholar-practitioner working at the intersection of anti-corruption, gender justice, and institutional reform. She is Deputy Director and Principal Adviser at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, and holds a PhD from the University of Warwick, UK.

Per Aarvik

Per is an independent writer on applied digital technology for humanitarianism, development, governance and anti-corruption. Social media data, satellite imagery, geographical information systems, and applied artificial intelligence are among his interests. He holds a Master's degree in Democracy Building from the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway. His thesis focused on the potential of crowdsourced civil society election monitoring as a tool to combat election fraud. His background is from journalism, advertising, and higher design education – as a practitioner, educator, and in managerial roles. In recent years, he has led digital humanitarian work during disasters and in democracy projects.

Disclaimer


All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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