Media workshop

Civic tech in Africa: when citizen connections work for democracy

Audio 43:13

The 1st Civic tech forum in French-speaking Africa brought together more than 120 journalists, activists, experts and personalities from African civic tech in late June in Abidjan.

© CFI

By: Raphaëlle Constant Follow |

Steven Jambot Follow |

Simon Decreuze Follow

3 mins

The first civic tech forum in French-speaking Africa was held at the end of June in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, at the initiative of CFI.

For

, Raphaëlle Constant held out her microphone to those who are developing digital initiatives in several African countries to improve the flow of information and trigger citizen mobilizations to weigh in on the public debate.

Advertising

The first real large-scale civic tech initiative in Africa is already 15 years old.

In 2007, in Kenya, a group of bloggers and developers decided to create Ushahidi, testimony in Swahili, to identify post-election violence.

In the following years, this platform will be used in several countries around the world to mobilize citizens in activities to collect and provide useful information to all. 

Since then, the explosion of mobile Internet and social networks has encouraged citizens to express themselves and their ability to participate actively in public debate.

African youth have seized these opportunities and intend to contribute to the public decision-making process, promote transparency, and make governance issues a daily concern.

It is in this context that the first civic tech forum in French-speaking Africa was held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, from June 28 to 29, 2022. These two days of meeting, prepared by Samsa Africa, brought together more than 120 journalists, activists, experts and figures from African civic tech. 

The event was organized by

as part of the

project , a system for supporting, developing and incubating digital citizen action projects.

This project is co-financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Where are the Civic tech today?

Who are these young people who want to change the continent and its image through digital and what are their projects? 

For

RFI's

was in Abidjan at the end of June, where she met several civic tech figures who exploit the power of digital tools to build citizen action projects:

Nnenna Nwakanma

: This Nigerian is one of the pioneers of the Internet in Africa.

Chief Ambassador at the Web Foundation, she works with the United Nations.

This tireless activist for an Internet that is deployed for the better has many other battles: free software, data protection, ... She also puts pressure on the Gafam to improve women's access to the Internet.

Caroline Mveng Mengue

: this Cameroonian activist and feminist is 34 years old.

She is vice-president of communication for the association Réfugiés sans frontières.

She develops the online media They shine together, supported by CFI's Citizen Connections 2 program.

She is also a blogger for Mondoblog, a platform for French-speaking bloggers at RFI, supported by

.

Aïsha Dabo

: journalist and web activist, she is co-founder and coordinator of the AfricTivistes platform.

She grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal and Gambia. 

Sally Bilaly Sow

: Guinean web activist and blogger.

He is a member of the Association of bloggers of Guinea, Ablogui, and Mondoblog.

He co-founded the Open Street Map Guinea community in 2015 and GuineeCheck to fight fake news in his country.

He is the coordinator of the Villageois 2.0 association, a project incubated by CFI's Connexions Citoyennes 1 program.

The Malian Fatoumata Harber, the Guinean Sally Bilaly Sow, the Togolese Rolande Aziaka and the Malian Tidiani Togola participated in the civic tech forum of CFI, at the end of June in Abidjan.

© RFI / Raphaëlle Constant

Subscribe to the “Media Workshop” podcast

The Media Workshop

is available to listen to every Saturday on all podcast platforms:

,

,

,

,

,

,

or any other application using the

.

If you like this show, give it 5 stars and post a comment on podcast listening apps so that it is visible and therefore even more listened to.

Mondoblog audio

is embodied by the Ivorian blogger

 who offers us a short tour of the subjects that annoy her parents, first and foremost marriage, which crystallizes all expectations... and all misunderstandings.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Media

• media education

• Journalism

• Social networks

• Africa

• CFI

On the same subject

The Media Workshop

How to develop investigative journalism in Francophone Africa

The Media Workshop

Iwaria and WakatLab are a reflection of today's Africa

The Media Workshop

When African “civic tech” boosts democracy