Subject: Fwd: Young Innovators in MENA, US Pitch 'Civic Tech' Ideas to Improve Their Communities
From: "Ken Wollack" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:28:38 -0500

I thought you would be interested in the following progress report, in the
form of a blog post, on the NDI Steven's Initiative programming -- funded
by the Department of State and the Bezos Family Foundation.  The
Initiative, named after the late-ambassador, Chris Stevens, is managed by
the Aspen Institute.  This civic technology program has already connected
thousands of youth from 120 countries followed by an intensive mentorship
and learning exchange for hundreds of young people from the U.S. and the
Middle East. Based on their video proposals for civic engagement projects,
16 young leaders were then selected to meet with technologists, social
engineers and policymakers in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

With best regards,

Ken

Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 (Tel)
888-875-2887 (Fax)
email: [email-masked]
website: www.ndi.org

*YOUNG INNOVATORS IN MENA, US PITCH ‘CIVIC TECH’ IDEAS TO IMPROVE THEIR
COMMUNITIES
<https://www.ndi.org/our-stories/young-innovators-mena-us-pitch-%E2%80%98civic-tech%E2%80%99-ideas-improve-their-communities>*

Wednesday, January 18, 2017
By Sarah Welsh, Senior Program Officer on NDI's Governance Team

Their ideas include an online platform to combat misinformation during
Middle East and North Africa election campaigns, an app to support
Arabic-speaking victims of domestic violence in the United States, and a
blockchain-based system to protect property ownership rights in Libya.

These are just a few of the project proposals submitted by aspiring civic
innovators for a video competition in the National Democratic Institute’s
online Civic Tech Leadership Program <https://civictechleaders.org/>.
During the months of Nov. and Dec. 2016, an intensive mentorship and
learning exchange engaged 200 young people from 14 countries. From those
participants, 16 young leaders have been selected based on their team video
projects, and are being invited to join an Innovators’ Exchange Study
Mission in April 2017 to meet with technologists, social entrepreneurs and
policymakers in Silicon Valley, CA, and Washington, D.C. The program is
supported by the Aspen Institute’s Stevens Initiative,
<http://stevensinitiative.org/> which honors the legacy of Ambassador Chris
Stevens, with funding from the U.S. Department of State and Bezos Family
Foundation.

Youth need to act in order to see positive social change. Someone has to
start these civic projects. Now, I believe that I can really execute a
civic tech project in my local community. I can be that person! - Myriam
Echeikh, program participant from Tunisia

“The selection committee had a very difficult task, reviewing 29 videos
from a wide range of amazing and inspiring teams, many of whom met in this
program and worked across thousands of miles and two languages,” NDI Senior
Program Officer Sarah Welsh said. “These video pitches are a jumping-off
point, we hope, as participants take the project design, communication and
teamwork skills they’ve practiced and apply them to challenges in their
home communities or institutions.”

The teams that collaborated on the following video submissions were
selected for invitation to the study mission:

   - BetterVote <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnRRLqXrh3g>: A team with
   members from Egypt, the U.S. and Algeria proposed an online platform that
   would combat misinformation efforts during electoral campaigns in the
   Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by collecting and displaying
   independently-verified information about candidates, including their policy
   proposals and campaign finances.
   - Saeduni <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv7p0y48FHs>: Teammates from
   the U.S. and Tunisia proposed a mobile application for vulnerable immigrant
   populations in the U.S. It would enable non-native English speakers to
   safely report domestic abuse and connect with support groups.
   - Masahati <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itHbHWqJtMM>: A team from
   the United States and Libya proposed a blockchain-based system that seeks
   to protect the property rights of citizens and businesses in Libya by
   digitizing land records through a transparent, secure, and multistakeholder
   online land register.
   - Eye on Corruption <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOdzFBF5vuo>:
   Teammates from Syria and Tunisia proposed an open-source platform that
   would enable citizens to submit and map anonymous reports of bribery
   demands, using SMS, smartphones or the web.
   - Connecting People to Disability Services
   <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhUrFNaD8xk>: Participants from Tunisia
   pitched an online service, starting in Tunisia, that would connect persons
   with disabilities to providers of essential services such as education and
   healthcare through a simple, easy-to-use platform.
   - Assessing Education in Syrian Refugee Camps
   <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzRM2tbjjY>: A team from the U.S. and
   Egypt proposed a data collection and visualization tool that would assess
   the education levels of Syrian refugee children in Jordan, identify access
   gaps and recommend ‘best fit’ educational programs to aid workers.

This program allowed me to work hard, and unleash the creative potential
within me. Instead of silently enduring the effects of [a traumatic] event,
I was offered the possibililty to create positive change. - Wala Ben Ali,
program participant from Tunisia

The videos honored by the selection committee, including honorable
mentions, can be viewed on the program website at CivicTechLeaders.org.
<https://civictechleaders.org/>

Wala Ben Ali from Tunisia, one of the participants being invited to visit
the U.S. as part of the study mission, worked with two women from the U.S.
on the pitch for Saeduni.

“On November 25, The International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, I witnessed an act of violence against one of my dearest
acquaintances. I felt horrified,” Ben Ali wrote. “But I also felt I was
right to work on women empowerment during the Leadership Program. This
program allowed me to work hard, and unleash the creative potential within
me. Instead of silently enduring the effects of that event, I was offered
the possibility to create positive change. This experience has definitely
helped me develop myself on so many levels.”

Awatef Riahi from Tunisia, another participant invited to join the study
mission, was also motivated by a personal struggle to develop her project,
Eye on Corruption, with a teammate from Syria.

“I have always been a hardworking student, and I graduated first in my
class, but one of the most significant reasons I could not realize my dream
of getting licensed to work as a teacher was bribery,” Riahi wrote. “The
Leadership Program offered an opportunity to develop my civic tech project
to fight corruption that I have always wanted to establish.”

The study mission aims to help participants translate their learning
experiences into real-world change by connecting them with technologists,
policymakers, elected officials, and civic innovators. Many program alumni
have also joined a Facebook group to keep their conversation and
collaboration going.

“Unlike other programs that did not offer any resources to continue working
on my project beyond the program’s end date,” Wala wrote, “the Leadership
Program has provided us with enough training to tackle social issues, such
as domestic violence (the subject of our project).”

Honorable mentions were given to an additional eight teams who had proposed
equally diverse projects:

   - An e-parliament website that combines an information portal with
   digital activism tools to expand the audience for political engagement;
   - An information portal and citizen-engagement platform for municipal
   government;
   - A mobile app in Yemen to track cholera outbreaks and provide
   information on prevention and treatment to patients;
   - A website and mobile app to combat nepotism and promote equal
   opportunity by publishing and crowdsourcing information about job vacancies
   and hirings;
   - An app that uses geolocation services to provide personalized data
   about city resources and solicit citizen feedback;
   - A mobile tool that would regulate traffic stops through centralized
   and open data to combat bribery;
   - An open-data dashboard for local governance, starting with education
   data for Marrakech, Morocco; and
   - A mobile app that would improve ambulance services to Egyptian
   villages using GPS support.

*ENGAGING GOVERNANCE THROUGH CIVIC TECHNOLOGY*

While many young leaders in MENA and the U.S. are civic-minded and
interested in addressing social problems, many are also disillusioned with
politics and government and looking for new models of engagement. In both
regions, this new generation of digitized millennials is finding that
social media, games and mobile applications can provide remedies to social
and political challenges. As a result, a ‘civic technology’ movement is
unfolding in universities, tech hubs and co-working spaces.

Recognizing this potential, NDI launched the Leadership Program
<https://civictechleaders.org/> in June 2016, in partnership with Stanford
University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)
and the Institute for Representative Government (IRG.) The program began
with Stanford Online’s first bilingual English-Arabic open course
<https://www.ndi.org/civic_tech_leadership_program_story>, the Technology
for Accountability Lab, which attracted more than 3,450 registrants from
more than 120 countries and enabled virtual teams to initiate more than 50
project ideas. Two hundred young course alumni from MENA countries and the
U.S. were then admitted to the intensive mentorship and teamwork track
during November and December. Participants from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt,
Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia,
Yemen and the U.S. came together, were matched based on common civic
interests and developed project ideas in cross-cultural teams.

One of the reasons this experience was really different to me was the
access participants had to many top level professionals, who answered our
questions and evaluated our projects. It added a lot of value to the
program, and gave us opportunities that we wouldn't be able to achieve
otherwise. - Paula Berman, program participant from the United States

“My team members come from different ethnic backgrounds and speak different
languages,” said Rahmoune Salah, a participant from Algeria. “At first, I
thought it would be impossible to communicate with them and share my ideas,
so I was not optimistic about the prospects of our project, but after I saw
their amazing motivation, I knew that we could overcome barriers to
communication and achieve our goals. This whole experience made me realize
how inspiring and motivating this journey was.”

To support participants in identifying problems, brainstorming solutions
and building compelling pitches, NDI provided a collection of readings and
videos, available in English and Arabic, about how to identify and address
social and political challenges using appropriate, user-centered
technologies.

In addition, NDI coordinated weekly group mentorship sessions with civic
tech experts who offered hands-on guidance to assist project teams in
refining their ideas. NDI also hosted four live discussions
<https://www.ndi.org/Civic_Tech_Leadership_Program_MENA_2016> for the full
program cohort with design experts, entrepreneurs and former elected
officials who shared their experiences and expertise. One participant noted
the value of these professional networking opportunities.

“Most online programs that I did before weren't as engaging as this one,”
wrote Paula Berman, a participant from the U.S. “One of the reasons this
experience was really different to me was the access participants had to
many top-level professionals, who answered our questions and evaluated our
projects. It added a lot of value to the program, and gave us opportunities
that we wouldn't be able to achieve otherwise.”

After the program activities concluded, participant Myriam Echeikh from
Tunisia reflected, “Youth need to act in order to see positive social
change. Someone has to start these civic projects. Now, I believe that I
can really execute a civic tech project in my local community. I can be
that person!�=9