The African Union Civic Tech Fund Webinar: The Role of Women and Youth in Active Citizenship

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janvier 10, 2022

WHAT: The AU Civic Tech Fund Webinar: The Role of Women and Youth in Active Citizenship

WHO: The Youth Division at the African Union Commission in cooperation with the GiZ Delegation to the African Union and the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), stakeholders and potential applicants is organizing the AU Civic Tech Fund Webinar.

Speakers will include:

Ms. Chido Mpemba - African Union Youth Envoy
Mr. Samson Itodo - Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Mr. Okoth Opondo - CampD Voices

The moderated session will see young panelists taking turns addressing specific targeted topics on digital tools, the role of women and youth in active citizenship and civic engagement alongside the AU Youth Envoy, Ms. Chido Mpemba. After the panel discussion, panelists will then have the chance to answer questions from the virtual audience. This will thereafter be followed by an introduction to the AU Civic Tech Fund, and the opportunities available with the Fund.

WHEN: Monday 10th January 2022, 14:00 EAT

WHERE:

Zoom: https://bit.ly/civictechfund

The webinar will be streamed on Facebook (@AUYouthProgram)

BACKGROUND

Ensuring meaningful participation by African citizens in addressing governance and development challenges in Africa are critical drivers towards attaining Africa’s Agenda 2063. Innovative tools and digital technologies are central vehicles through which citizen participation can be achieved. As highlighted in the AU’s Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030), digitalisation does not only represent a driving force for innovative, inclusive and sustainable growth, but it also offers concrete opportunities to enable participative and inclusive decision-making.

The African Union Civic Tech Fund aims to support and demonstrate effective models in citizen participation, to support the scale up of initiatives, and to influence policy in support of replicable and/or scalable civic tech initiatives and citizens led transformative action across the African continent.

The Fund will establish a mechanism to provide financial and technical support to original initiatives or existing ideas making use of civic technologies. The Fund will be able to support initiatives in all AU member states within limits of capacity. Furthermore, the Fund will focus on the provision of support to non-governmental organisations acting within the civic space. Particular attention will be paid to youth- and women-led initiatives. Additionally, the Fund may also provide support to initiatives led by small and medium businesses with a deep civic participation objective.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Please follow the links below;

Registration link: https://bit.ly/civictechfund
Livestream link: https://www.facebook.com/AUYouthProgram
Website and Application link: https://civictechfund.africa/

NOTE TO EDITORS

ABOUT THE CIVIC TECH FUND

The African Union Civic Tech Fund is a pan-African initiative designed to contribute to achieving ambitious goals contained in the policies of the African Union (Agenda 2063 and Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa, 2020-2030). In particular, the Fund responds to the need to drive forward meaningful citizen participation in spaces of governance through the innovative use of data and digital technologies to address governance and development challenges while recognising the central importance of Africa’s youth in shaping the future of the continent.

To do so, the African Union Civic Tech Fund supports initiatives, particularly those led by or relevant to youth, that strengthen citizen engagement through the innovative use of data and digital technologies, or, in other words, that can support targeted civic technology solutions. The objective is to demonstrate effective models of citizen participation, support the scalability of initiatives, and influence policy to support replicable and/or scalable civic technology initiatives and transformative citizen-led actions across the African continent. The Fund includes a virtual accelerator program organised by AfriLabs.

The African Union Civic Tech Fund is hosted by the African Union, managed by the European Partnership for Democracy and financially supported by GIZ.

For further media inquiries, please contact:

Nadia Bako - Entrepreneurship Lead, AUC Youth Division: BakoN@africa-union.org
Janet Faith Ochieng| Communications Officer, Directorate of Information and Communication, African Union Commission | Tel: +251(0) 911361185 | E-mail:OchiengJ@africa-union.org