CTIN’s Regional Ambassadors

We are excited to launch our flagship Regional Ambassadors Programme (RAP), a programme aimed at strengthening regional connection and participation in the civic tech space.

RAP grew out of CTIN’s intentions to function as a Pan-African Community of Practice (CoP) in response to ever-increasing interest from the wider African civic tech community, a testament to the need for a community for people in this space. Meet the RAPs – Our uniquely positioned organisational ambassadors representing four regions in Africa. 

  1. Pollicy is representing East Africa, 
  2. Magamba Network representing Southern Africa, 
  3. Chad Innovation representing Central Africa 
  4. and finally, Co-Creation Hub (ccHub) representing West Africa.

Background and context

The Civic Tech Innovation Network (CTIN) is pleased to introduce our flagship Africa Regional Ambassadors Programme (RAP). A programme aimed at circumventing our geographic limitations and strengthening regional connection and participation within the African civic tech community. This programme will help CTIN, as a CoP, to build an active civic tech community, as well as build awareness and strategic ties with innovators, organisations, researchers, practitioners, and other civic tech actors across the continent. The RAP is thus being initiated as a way to solidify CTIN’s reach and regional partnerships in the African civic tech space. 

As an African organisation that uniquely convenes and maintains a CoP with civic tech actors, it is important that the CTIN actively and intentionally seeks out visibility in African regions currently underrepresented within our Network so that nobody is left out of the community building and beneficiation. While the CTIN is based in South Africa, it has functioned as a Pan-African CoP in response to ever-increasing interest from the wider African civic tech community since 2018. 

The Regional, local knowledge and networks of the RAP ambassadors will combine towards building a community that will connect both physically and online. The RAP ambassadors’ local knowledge will expand our knowledge of initiatives across all the regions of the continent and in turn create a wider network of African civic tech initiatives. 

The CTIN recognises the importance of identifying ambassadors that best understand the nuanced experiences of their region and as a result, ambassadors serve a dual purpose of not only representing the CTIN but also championing their regional civic tech actors and landscape. CTIN ambassadors are also chosen on the basis that the candidate organisations could also strategically benefit from playing the role, and not see it as extraneous to their existing mandates. The identified Ambassador organisations are considered to be uniquely positioned to increase our reach and mobilise participation by various civic tech actors across Africa in the CTIN CoP. This is because they have been strategically chosen to represent all the regions of the African continent. Learn more about these ambassadors and the regions they represent below. 

Learn about the ambassadors

Pollicy, Uganda

Pollicy, based in Uganda, functions at the intersection of data, technology and design to improve government service delivery. Pollicy is a portmanteau that stems from Opinion polling and Policymaking. Pollicy was founded and registered in 2016 with a mandate to redesign service delivery for citizens. Pollicy’s work focuses on influencing a culture of responsible data use, promoting appropriate data governance practices and advocating for policies that support an enabling data ecosystem. Pollicy recently celebrated 5 years and their influence has been felt in the community through their projects which include CREATEYOURKAMPALA, Choose Your Own Fake News, Wetaase, Digital Ambassador Program and many more. Learn more about Pollicy. 

Magamba Network, Zimbabwe

Magamba means ‘Heroes’ or ‘Freedom Fighters’. It all started when two young Zimbabweans, Comrade Fatso & Outspoken, met at a poetry slam and battled each other – with words. Magamba Network, based in Zimbabwe, has grown into Zimbabwe’s leading creative organisation and one of the country’s trailblazers in digital media and youth engagement. Magamba was born at a time of hyperinflation, disillusionment and political oppression. The network emerged in 2007 and was all about inspiring young people to be part of the change our country desperately needs. And Magamba decided to do that using fun, creative tools that speak to young people in a language they understand: from hip hop to satire, from social media to innovation.

Magamba Networks Open Parly Africa project is a cutting edge open data project using digital media, urban culture and civic tech to track and aggregate parliament data, defend civic space and increase young people’s participation in national political processes with operations in Zimbabwe (Open Parly ZW), Zambia (Open Parly ZED), Nigeria (Open Parly Nigeria) and Kalfadhi (Open Parly Somalia). 
 Follow them on Twitter and Facebook

Chad Innovation, Chad

Chad Innovation represents a community of young volunteers, Chadians and foreigners, entrepreneurs, executives, and students whose objective is to raise awareness, mobilize, engage and equip young Chadians to learn and explore careers in entrepreneurship to build a resilient generation. young Chadian leaders.

During the pandemic, Chad Innovation builds a digital citizen platform, available through the web but also accessible via conventional telephones with real-time medical assistance and providing information relating to the evolution of the pandemic in Chad.  Chad Innovation also led a campaign on sensitization of citizens, in particular, young people, women and vulnerable groups (including people living in rural areas, nomads, people with disabilities) on their rights and civic duties for the 2021 presidential elections through campaigns awareness using digital tools especially – Disco – where we sell music on tape, disk or USB in Africa in major markets. This led to Chad Innovation to be selected by FHI360 to carry out awareness-raising actions for peaceful and united citizen participation in the transition process by USAID after the tragic death of the former President using digital tools (Social media, citizen tech platform, etc.).

The CTIN programme will enable Chad Innovation to learn and expand its network in Central Africa and the rest of the continent. 
Follow them on Facebook and Twitter

Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), Nigeria

Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) is Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space designed to be a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures take place. The HUB is a place for technologists, social entrepreneurs, government, tech companies, impact investors and hackers in and around Lagos to co-create new solutions to the many social problems in Nigeria. CcHUB is a Pan-African innovation hub with tremendous experience in accelerating technology adoption across Africa. Amongst other areas, CcHUB contributes to good governance through initiatives that bridge the gap between the government and its citizens. ccHub’s most recent initiatives include GoVote and Data 4 Governance. 

Since its inception in 2015, ccHUB has celebrated milestones that assert its mandate to increase civic participation and engagement and to enhance public service delivery. The CTIN Regional Ambassador Programme provide a platform to impact and mobilize the West African stakeholders through civic tech initiatives to promote transparency, accountability and public participation.
Follow them on Twitter, FacebookMedium and LinkedIn.

What to expect from the programme

The ambassadors will be responsible for several activities in their regions, including:

  • Identifying Civic Tech actors in the region

Regional ambassadors will be responsible for ongoing scanning, identifying and sharing of civic tech actors and activities in their respective regions.

  • Regional member integration into the network

Once regional ambassadors have identified the civic tech initiatives, they will facilitate the integration of these organisations into the CTIN’s Community of Practice (CoP). 

  • Collaborative engagement 

Under the ambassador programme, CTIN and each regional ambassador will co-plan and co-host one collaborative event. 

  • Regional civic tech news/content contribution

In order to highlight regional African civic tech stories, the ambassadors will also be expected to share the latest civic tech and related news, features and stories with CTIN in order for CTIN to share with the wider community. 

Look out for more announcements about the programme on all our platforms. Join the network here

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