Ushahidi as a Catalyst Part 1 - Making All Voices Count

At this year's World Economic Forum Africa in Capetown, there was a public session on entrepreneurship and innovation. The panel had young global leaders, and entrepreneurs answering questions from students and young people in Capetown. Two young women left an indelible impression on me, and got me thinking about Ushahidi's role as a a catalyst. The first was a young woman stood up and asked the panelists what we/our affiliated organizations were doing to provide options for young people with ideas. I mentioned the work that Ushahidi is doing as part of Making All Voices Count (MAVC), which for example, through its competitive approach of innovation competitions and working with technology hubs, there are avenues for young women like the one who asked the question to contribute to their countries with ideas, organizations and future companies. Making All Voices Count is supported by Omidyar Network, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is implemented by a consortium consisting of Ushahidi, Hivos and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Sheilan Clarke from Levity The second woman was Sheilan who came up to me and told me that her organization is a beneficiary of Making All Voices Count. She told me that this meant a lot to her, her ideas and her community. I was so excited and thankful that this initiative is making a difference. Meeting these two young women underscored for me why Ushahidi should continue to play its role as a catalyst and enabler. That Ushahidi can model how this can happen in Kenya and can scale to other countries is something that struck me as important. How is Ushahidi playing its catalyst role? It provides the base of support for individuals and organizations. Making All Voices Count is an international initiative that contributes towards effective governance and accountability by enabling citizen engagement and open, responsive government in 12 countries in Africa and Asia. As part of  Ushahidi's work for Making All Voices Count together with our implementing partners we run the Global Innovation Competition, pitching competitions, have a fellowship and mentorship program and work to incubate these ideas in various countries.  Why should Ushahidi continue to be a catalyst? Because it creates opportunity for the unusual suspects with bold ideas n how to transform their communities positively. For the young girl who is finishing high school, has an idea and needs someone to take a chance on her and her team. To give them the early stage rocket fuel to prototype and test their ideas. Because as a catalyst, Ushahidi is a vector for human development. This is made clearer to me by Sheilan Clarke of Levity. It is about localized impact and growth, where an organization can go from a team of two to more as it realizes its potential. The way forward We will continue to engage with partners at Making All Voices Count, learn from our experience, taking and feeding this learning back into the programme and also into Ushahidi while continuing this journey of seeing how the relationship between citizens and government can be improved using technology using appropriate technology. We welcome partners interested in innovation, scale and impact in Africa and across the globe to reach out, we are interested in working with you. There are many global challenges, but together we can be creative and collaborative to leverage our network, technology and learning.