Open Source

Bungeni is based on Open Source software to allow parliaments to achieve long-term ownership of the solution and exercise a degree of control over issues like support, maintenance, software obsolescence and future development. The possibility to customise Open Source according to specific needs and languages is a very important factor in the context of Africa and the many indigenous languages spoken on the continent.

This Open Source approach also encourages the participation of local African IT companies, since they have access to the system development process and the system code, and they can appreciate the opportunities that may exist for them in supporting their local legislative assemblies to adopt and adapt the product to their specific custom requirements. This in turn leads to technology transfer and building of local capacity to deal with technical issues of Bungeni.

African public administrations have began to perceive the advantages of implementing Open Source. Both continental and national authorities have begun to make open source software and open standards as the strategic choice for the development of information system for the public administration but also in order to create an indigenous local IT industry.