Melesse will be speaking at our upcoming event, Civic Tech Innovation Forum 2021. Digital Rogue Society Experiment Group aims to challenge and experiment with ideas in the digital space. According to their website, the organisation “advocates for digital civic solutions for individuals, civil society organizations, the business sector, and the government to address undemocratic practices. Digital Rogue implements its programs in nine regions and two city administrations in Ethiopia”.

Digital Rogue Society Experiment group was established in December 2019. It was founded by seven professionals who are from different career backgrounds. Most of us are lawyers, with one in management, IT, a musician and a social worker, and we are composed of people with these diverse skill sets. We had a start-up where we worked on catalysing accessibility of finance for individuals and small and medium enterprises using smart scoring. We worked on this initiative for three years and we observed setbacks especially on the legislative side. We wanted to establish a civil society organisation with the motive of addressing the advocacy gap that we observed across the start-up ecosystem.

The Ethiopian population is more than 110 million and the culture is deep-rooted and we have different cultural norms. We want all Ethiopians to be digitally included and can have conversations and interact with each other online, despite these differences. Another main concern we observed is that Ethiopia is laying a foundation to build a digital economy and we have witnessed diverse actors such as start-ups, companies, entrepreneurs, investors coming into the country and many people in Ethiopia do not understand privacy, data and consumer protection is low. So we need to inform the community, citizens, in these areas.

The thematic areas of focus for our organisation are informing citizens on areas of digital rights, elections, privacy and consumer protection and informing citizens regarding issues on civic engagement. When you have an informed citizenry then he or she can ask the government or can report the government for any kind of misconduct or illegal encounters. In Ethiopia, we have been witnessing misinformation, disinformation especially on Facebook and we want to tackle this problem.

At the Digital Rogue Society Experiment Group, we are developing different kinds of civic technology products. For example, we implemented an experiment during the elections landscape and we served as a licensed adviser for the national electoral board for Ethiopia. We taught people online on voter education for over three months to inform people about the electoral process and we reached more than 400,000 people. It is all about accessing the information on the election process and for voters to get the necessary information about the election process, what mandates of these political parties are and what is required by the election commission. We disseminated the information using different kinds of educational content: infographics, written content, animated videos and we disseminated this content using two local languages.

The internet penetration in our country is around 20% and we have around six million people using Facebook and it’s growing by the day. So we created a website and used various social media platforms to disseminate this information. We also created a political party portal that allows citizens to access information on political parties- their contact details, manifestos and social media links allowing people to get this information instantly. The other experiment is the online observation campaign, which is not finalised but the campaign is an analysis of the political parties and their social media activities.

We first have to understand our target audience and the kind of tools they require. For example during the elections we mainly used websites and social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and Instagram to deliver content. For Instagram, we used infographics and videos. So it depends on the audience.

For online voter education, the impact starts from analysing how many people we have reached and how many people have obtained or accessed our content using their devices, which was 400,000. During online voter education, we witnessed different kinds of engagements. Some people called to ask questions regarding the electoral process. I think I am safe in saying that voters primarily called us before they even called the national electoral body and we referred them to people who they can contact in their areas. So I think I’m safe in saying that within this short period we contributed to conducting a safe and fair election.

There is this saying that you have to solve your problems, nobody’s going to come and solve your problems for you. So if you are not going to take the lead, you can’t just sit and wait for the answers to be given to you, you have to face the challenges and reflect. I think the major thing that I have learned in regards to ‘do it yourself’ is about self-reflection. You have to reflect, you have to know what kind of story you want to tell the world or your community and nobody’s going to do it for you.

I was reading an article that said that every nationality living in Ethiopia is recognised by the Ethiopian House of Federation but there is a new community that is not recognised by the federation. That community is the digital community and we have an attitude or we reflect our emotions, opinions on the digital space, contrary to what we as a person reflect. So we try to be rogue, so we try to be against the system and challenge opinions. So we want to experiment with those opinions. After the experimentation, we have to reach some kind of result. So I think experimentation of the digital space’s opinions, and the digital ecosystem needs to be assessed.

The Civic Tech Innovation Forum will be held on September 13–17 and for more details, click here.

“As entrepreneurs, we always have these big visions of how to make a dent in the universe,” said Roland Perold, co-founder and COO at Volume, a podcast production company. However “one of the most important lessons that I’ve learned over the last couple of years is the value of starting small and starting with an uncomplicated product focusing on a smaller market and building a small sustainable business,” he added. That was the sobering advice Perold gave to founders of start-ups on how to fund and sustain their ideas and platforms.

He along with panellists spoke at a virtual discussion hosted by Jamlab in collaboration with the Civic Tech Innovation Network. The discussion focused on ways in which start-ups can finance and monetise their new ventures. The panellists included Perold, Paul Mashegoane, Founder at Seasoned Capital, a private equity firm that consists of seasoned business leaders in the country. Iyanu Fatoba, Communications Associate at BudgIT Foundation, a Nigerian civic technology organisation that simplifies government data particularly public finance which allows citizens to openly engage with the government. Deepa Iyer, Impact Investor at Luminate, a global philanthropic organisation that invests globally in several different markets. The sentiments shared by Perold were echoed by the other panellists, who all agreed that it was important for founders to focus on a core idea and who their stakeholders are.

“I think the most innovative ideas that I’ve seen are ones that find a vision and stick to it early,” said Iyer. She explained that, “there are a lot of funders in different ecosystems that have different strategic agendas and so often start-ups are thinking about that funding ecosystem, instead of thinking about who their stakeholders are, what their product-market fit is, and really reiterating on that early on”. Iyer noted that it is important for start-ups to not get distracted by different opportunities and funders, but to remain focused.

Perold from Volume echoed Iyer’s sentiments that, “focusing on your early users or clients is where you’ll find the answers”. They both noted that it is important to focus on an idea that fits in the market.

“As a podcast production company our clients are our core stakeholder and focusing on that, getting that first client really figuring out what is the value that we can create that they are willing to pay for,” he said.

Mashegoane said when it comes to raising funds, innovators should start with the three F’s: friends, family and fools, — it is those people who are willing to bet on you. Mashegoane encouraged start-ups to take the road less travelled and find untraditional ways of funding such as partnering with an established company. He explained that funders can be reluctant to fund start-ups due to a lack of credibility and doubting that the start-up is able to return their investment or funding. He also advised innovators to get a mentor, who can invest or fund a start-up. He said that the best way to get a mentor is when you show interest in the mentor’s projects or companies, “people respond when you are singing their praises”. However, Mashegoane warned innovators when approaching mentors, not to start by asking for favours as it repels them [funders].

Thirdly Mashegoane said that innovators should look into the enterprise development departments within banks. The fourth piece of advice he shared was that start-ups should group themselves with other peers within the industry, “as companies tend to listen to a collective rather than individuals”.

Iyer said that it is important for innovators to do their research in advance and understand who the funders are and who have these funders funded in the past. She advised that some of the best people to connect with are people who have been funded by the funders, to “get an understanding of whether the funder is someone who you want to work within the first place”.

Iyer said that it is less about the formal application and more about understanding the problem these start-ups are trying to solve. She explained that, “I think generally it’s less about the application and more about meeting people in person and really understanding their motivations for building what they’re building”.

Mashegoane said that in South Africa, funders are more concerned about return on investment, whereas, in developed economies, funders invest in companies that are not profitable in the beginning. He said that funders also look at whether there is a need for what the innovators are offering and then look at the numbers. “If the numbers make sense, it justifies why they should invest in your business plan in its entirety,” he said. The Seasoned Capital founder said that it is important for start-ups to test their ideas, “you might have a great idea that makes sense to you, but the market might not respond as you think”. Mashegoane said it is important for innovators to test their ideas with actual market feedback.

Fatoba from BudgIT said that it is important for founders “to shoot their shot the right way, but you have to prepare that shot before you shoot it when it comes to funders”. She stressed the importance of researching funders and what their interests are and innovators need to find a way to bring in their interests to align with the funders. The Communication’s associate said that “numbers don’t lie,” meaning that founders need numbers to show their impact in order to get funding. She explained that founders need to prepare a report that shows a success story, “try to visualise your impact story”.

Perold said that, “I think the pandemic brought the future 10 years closer and the rate of innovation in both media and civic technology is going to be incredible to see, it is going to be all around us”.

Elections play a pivotal role in facilitating democratic processes by allowing citizens to choose their representatives. However, the pandemic has disrupted electoral processes across Africa, affecting how elections are organised and have raised questions regarding the outcomes of some elections.
The African continent is expected to hold 13 national elections for the remainder of the year, with eyes mainly on the presidential elections in Ethiopia, which has been delayed twice and set to be on 21 June. However, due to security and logistical problems, voting will be delayed in some areas. In Zambia, elections will be held on 12 August and possibly in Nigeria in 2022. The continent will also see numerous legislative and parliamentary elections this year.
Speakers, during a virtual discussion hosted by Jamlab and the Civic Tech Innovation Network unpacked the roles and strategies for promoting democracy and development during upcoming elections across Africa. The speakers during this discussion included Kathy Magrobi, founder of Quote this Woman+; Ivan Louis Pinno, co-founder of Digital Woman Uganda; Dr Caroline Khene, senior lecturer at De Monfort University in the United Kingdom and Daniel Odongo, director of implementation at Ushahidi. The speakers provided strategies that journalists and civic technology organisations can adopt during elections.

Quote this Woman+ (QW+) is an organisation that aims to contribute to the gender transformation of the media landscape through the use of women and other minority group’s voices and narrative.

Magrobi said that, “when women do make the news it’s often with gender reinforcing qualifiers of a woman being someone’s victim, wife or mother”. Across global news, the voices and actions of men are amplified at the expense of women, said Magrobi. She added that men and women have different lived experiences and the exclusion of women’s voices results in issues or challenges women face not being addressed or highlighted.

QW+ works to close the gender representation gap within media reporting by helping journalists find women experts to interview as sources for their work. “We have a database of 500 leading women experts that we curate mainly from Southern Africa, but increasingly further into Africa, we make it really easy for journalists and newsrooms to access this,” said Magrobi. The founder added that the organisation works with all marginalised voices in mainstream media.

“The voice that tells the story, writes history,” explained Magrobi, adding that “journalists must ensure that they access a diversity of voices and narratives”. However, she said that journalists should not skew the narratives by deciding which voices are given a platform or not. She appealed to civic tech organisations to help the QW+ create a technological tool that could automatically check the ratio between men and women sources in a story. Magrobi emphasized the importance of including women’s voices because if women’s voices are not heard their stories are not reflected and “history is going to be written in a way that isn’t going to tell what really happened”.

Another organisation that works to amplify the voices of women and their participation within society is Digital Women Uganda, which provides digital literacy skills to women and girls in rural areas, allowing them to be able to participate in the online space. During the Ugandan elections in January 2021, Digital Women Uganda provided women with technological tools and training to participate during the elections. The organisation also provided journalists with the skills to report their stories on different platforms. Pinno said it was difficult for journalists to disseminate information during the elections as there was an internet shutdown in Uganda on the eve of the elections.

He explained that the challenge they have faced is that some women do not have mobile phones and cannot use the platforms provided. However, the organisation’s has a community radio, which disseminates information to the women.

Khene works with MobiSAM, a project that uses mobile technology to support two-way communication between citizens and the government on basic service delivery issues. The project aims to support citizen engagement and government responsiveness by providing platforms that citizens can use to engage in social accountability practices. She said it is important for journalists and civic tech to encourage civic engagement and government accountability. “We need our journalists to actually act as facilitators, to empower citizens and enable them to see the value in the data that they have access to,” said Khene. She categorised journalism as traditional gatekeepers and facilitators. Khene explained that facilitators “empower citizens to enable them to see the value of the data that they have access to and this may be in the form of summarising key elements of the data or encouraging citizens to go and access the data themselves”. She described gatekeeping as the process of selecting news which is then filtered to various modes of communications.
She said that journalists should be more of facilitators, working with civic technology organisations and data. Khene said that their organisation would work with journalists to generate data-driven reports. “There needs to be this complementary relationship between journalists and civic technologists,” said Khene.

Ushahidi is a global non-profits tech company aiming to provide people with equal access to tech resources to solve problems in their communities and enact social change effectively. Ushahidi, which translates to “testimony” in Kiswahili, was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008. “We created a platform for people to be able to share their first-hand experiences via text, email, SMS and on our website,” said Odongo. He said their tool had been used 160,000 times and in 160 countries.
He explained that, “we are an open-source tech tool that is easy to understand and can easily be used to respond to critical events quickly. The tool also amplifies the voices of marginalised groups who tend to be left out of meaningful conversations”. He said that there needs to be an increase in electoral processes and broad civic and voter education. “We need to be able to counter misinformation by enhancing credible and reliable information regarding the electoral processes”, said Odongo. He added that there need to be data-driven campaigns on social media to enable citizens to better understand their role and rights during electoral processes.
Odongo said to encourage participation during elections, information needs to be disseminated to people who need it most, and the tools that are developed need to be low-tech.