The Centre of Governance and Human Rights has run a two-year pilot project to study the transformative impact that ICTs such as mobile phones have had on governance in Africa. This paper presents the theoretical background and questions that the project aims to discuss and answer. The first section integrates critical insights from the literature on ICT for Development and on governance in Africa to outline and clarify the main objects of analysis. Section two introduces and justifies the Human Development and Capability Approach (HDCA) as the primary analytical framework guiding the research methodology.