bandafrancismicheal/ishiwi

Multi-channel civic participation platform for Zambia — deliberate and be counted on the matters your representatives vote on, from any phone. Web, USSD, SMS & WhatsApp. One NRC, one voice. # Ishiwi — Every Zambian Counting > **Between elections, the opinion of the Zambian people has no institutional form.** > Ishiwi is an attempt to change that. A multi-channel civic voice platform: citizens read both sides of every matter before their representatives vote on it, are counted (Aye / Nee / Undecided), rank their constituency's CDF projects, and see — matter by matter — how their MP voted next to what the constituency said. One NRC, one voice, on any phone in Zambia. 📄 **Read the paper behind Ishiwi** — *"Every Voice Counted: The Democratic Value of Continuous, Multi-Channel Citizen Participation in Zambia"* (SSRN, 2026): papers.ssrn.com 🌍 Built for the reality that most Zambians reach digital services through USSD on a feature phone — not an app — so every channel below counts equally. --- ## Why this exists Zambians vote once every five years, choosing one representative for thousands of future decisions. Between elections, Parliament decides by voice vote and what constituents actually think stays unmeasured. The Constituency Development Fund Act of 2024 already *mandates* community participation; the Access to Information Act of 2023 already gives citizens a right to public information. Ishiwi is the instrument that turns those legal duties into something every citizen can actually use — from a smartphone in Lusaka or a K150 handset in Shang'ombo. ## Channels in this MVP | Channel | Where | Status | |---|---|---| | Web app | `GET /` | working | | Editorial desk (admin) | `GET /admin` | working, token-protected | | USSD (*384#-style) | `POST /channels/ussd` | working — Africa's Talking gateway format | | SMS keywords | `POST /channels/sms` | working — `REG`, `MATTERS`, `VOTE`, `CDF`, `SUPPORT`, `MP`, `RESULTS` | | WhatsApp bot | `POST /channels/whatsapp` | working — webhook wrapper over the same engine | | Open data | `GET /open-data.json` | working — counts only, never identities | See `docs/archi …