Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) across West Africa are showing innovation by using technology to advance their work. Over the last two years, Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) has conducted security vulnerability assessments on twenty-eight civil society organisations across Nigeria and Ghana. 

In conducting these assessments, we discovered the current crop of technologists at CSOs across the two countries are not adequately equipped to tackle the technical needs of the advocacy space. This dearth of competent technologists in the advocacy space not only diminishes the desired impact of the work of CSOs but also puts them at risk of cybersecurity mishaps such as data breaches and identity theft.

CcHUB is currently working to solve the aforementioned problem by aggregating both current technologists and aspiring public-interest technologists into a community of practice where they will receive training, peer support, network weave and leverage expertise to tackle critical technology issues as well as wider issues facing the civic space.

The training will span across the focus areas of:

• Digital Security
• Computer Networking
• Data Analytics
• Internet Rights and Policy
• Graphics Design
• User Interface and User Experience Design

The Community of Practice (CoP) program will create an environment for practice members to reach a global audience of other public-interest technologists, organisations and communities across Nigeria and Ghana and foster an environment of learning and growth.

Locations

Training will be held in 5 cities, namely: Accra, Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna

Benefits

In addition to giving members an opportunity to belong to an expansive network doing impactful work across the continent, the Community of Practice will also:

• Help members access high-end training resources and mentoring from a group of world-class master trainers;
• Assist members to solve problems and create innovative tech solutions to tackle issues faced by communities and civil societies;
• Support members and their projects to various international human and internet rights fora, like the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum, RightsCon, Internet Governance Forum, Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, etc, where they would pitch their solutions to a global audience and receive needed support to expand their efforts;
• Access various jobs and start-up opportunities from within Co-creation Hub’s community and network of partners.

Criteria

Applications are welcomed from students, young professionals, IT personnel working with civil societies, and individuals generally interested in building for public good.

Deadline

Application for the Community of Practice closes on Friday, 8 November 2019 (for Accra, Enugu and Kaduna applicants. Applications for Lagos and Abuja residents are now closed).

Apply here.