Map via Transparency International. A score of 0 (darkest blue) indicates high corruption; a score of 10 (lightest blue) indicates low corruption. With the exception of Botswana, Mauritius and Cape Verde, none of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa fall above the midway point of the 2009 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures how citizens perceive the level of government corruption. In its profile on the region (PDF), the organization writes that corruption can “undermin[e] political stability and well as the governments’ capacity to provide effective basic services…. In such a context, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death.” Civil society throughout the continent has been pushing for greater public sector transparency, and some governments are beginning to respond. Ghana's Ministry of Information recently announced the “Ghana Policy Fair 2010,” a showcase of government projects and policies open to public comment. In Cape Verde, the Núclea Operacional da Sociedade de Informação (NOSI), or Operational Nucleus of the Information Society, makes information on the government's financial activities accessible to citizens while allowing them to apply for a variety of civil services — birth and marriage certificates, for example — online. The Portal do Governo da República de Angola, performs similar services in Angola. Civil society has also begun to move its transparency and accountability efforts online. These efforts are supported by a growing tech community in sub-Saharan Africa, though a widespread lack of access to information and communications technology (ICT) and a consequent lack of understanding of and interest in these tools constitute a significant challenge to their success. Despite low rates of Internet and mobile phone penetration compared to the rest of the world, sub-Saharan Africa is home to a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, web companies and software developers who are responsible for mobile social networking applications, local blog aggregators and much more. Technology incubators like Appfrica Labs in Kampala and iHub in Nairobi are fostering new developments in this space. ICT4D Much of the attention on ICT in Africa has been focused on the use of these tools for economic development, or ICT4D. Mobile banking, which brings financial services to rural and extremely poor customers who lack access to traditional banks, is rapidly spreading throughout the continent. One of the better known examples is Kenya's M-PESA, which in just three years has grown from serving 50,000 customers to serving nearly 6.5 million. Question Box, a mobile phone-based tool developed with support from the Grameen Foundation, allows Ugandans to call or message operators who have access to a database full of information on health, agriculture and education — it's a little like Google for people without Internet access. Mobile phones are also being used to help rural health workers diagnose minor illnesses and counsel HIV/AIDS patients. Ushahidi It has become nearly impossible to discuss citizen technology efforts in Africa without mentioning Ushahidi, the crowdsourced reporting tool first developed to track post-election violence in Kenya in 2007. Ushahidi has sparked a wave of election monitoring projects that utilize the tool, both in Africa and in other regions. Sudan Vote Monitor, which tracked the country's presidential elections in April, is one example. The crowdsourced reporting tool has also been deployed in Togo, and a project is being planned in time for the 2011 elections in Liberia. In addition to election-related projects, Ushahidi has also been deployed to track medical supply shortages in eastern Africa, xenophobic attacks in South Africa, and conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Though Africa's tech community is growing, popular lack of access to ICT is still a major obstacle to the use of technology for government accountability projects. In all but a few African countries, less than ten percent of the population has Internet access. Mobile phones — some with data services, but most with only simple texting abilities — have fared much better, with penetration rates reaching around 30 percent continent-wide. Map via Online Africa. This lack of access affects governments as well, which can often be less familiar with emerging technologies than their citizens. The Ghana Policy Fair mentioned above has its own Facebook page, indicating the government's desire to reach out through ICT, but some Ghanaians wish an even greater effort had been made to put information online.