The Civic Hive Tech BootCamp
Building ideas that solve social problems, building institutional efficiency and strengthening governance using Civic Technology.
November 15, 2018, marked the start of the 2019 Civic Hive Fellowship. This marks the second year the fellowship program has been running. The call for applications lasted through the festive period giving us the opportunity to gather as many applications as possible in the period of three months. In February 2019, we started the reviews of the applications, and to our utter amazement, we were able to get over 200 potential Civic tech solutions! What did that tell us? We were able to deduce that a lot of people were now more interested and want to participate in the field of providing solutions that solve civic problems in Nigeria. However, we were not able to choose everyone, but we were afforded the opportunity to choose some very strong ideas that we could run with for the six month period of the program.
The Selection Process
The process of selection was a very rigorous one, we had a six-man team who combed through all of the ideas one after the other and the selection process was based on four main things namely how their projects and ideas intended to solve the problems relating to institutional efficiency, sustainability of the ideas and also the intended theory of change the idea brings into play.
From over 200 applications, we were able to screen down to 6 applications who will be presented with the opportunities to pitch their ideas to our esteemed Judges. It was a tough process I must tell, however, having professionals on the team made it easy to have solid ideas get a chance to come to pitch their ideas.
The Boot Camp
The boot camp was a 3 days affairs which we could also have tagged to be our “Big Brother Naija” this is just solely because, some people will proceed into the six months fellowship program while the others will have to go back home to continue building on their ideas. March 29, 2019, the doors were opened to all associates who will be participating in the program and we started putting a face to all the names. The participants came in from Osun, Ondo, Oyo, Benue, Abuja, Lagos and Rivers state.
The agenda was really packed so as to be able to touch everything possible during the very short period we all had together at the boot camp. Highlights of the events ranged from planned speaker sessions, deep learning and master classes for all the participants at the camp. Basically, we wanted to empower everyone at the camp with the knowledge they need to navigate in the pool of Civic Technology.
BudgIT’s HR Manager, Mr Niyi Soleye, opened the floor to the associates welcoming them to the Civic Hive and also let them into the vision and mission of BudgIT. He was able to explain into details what the whole fellowship program was all about and how very important the Civic Hive Fellowship Program is to BudgIT as an organization. He further told the associates, “Everyone is a winner, for you to qualify to this stage means you have something everyone is yearning to see, be confident and give it your best”.
The speaker sessions started with Nelson Olanipekun, Team lead, Citizens’ Gavel, who was part of the pioneer session of the Civic Hive Fellowship Program. He spoke on his journey so far and how much work himself and his team has put in so far to have an organization. In the same frame, Dotun Olutokun, Team lead, Amplify also spoke extensively about his own journey and how much impact his team has been able to assert with the project. The associates were “wowed” with the stories and we believe they are going to do more with time and resources at their disposal.
We wanted to know more about all of the associates’ ideas and what they have been working on, which qualified them to be part of the Civic Hive Fellowship Bootcamp. We started the pitch! Let me quickly introduce you to our Judges. We were very particular about how they influence the Civic Tech Space and made sure their judgements will have a reflection on the finalists.
Mr Akinfolarin Seun, Director, Civic Media Lab, he works extensively to promote civic stories to call the attention of the appropriate quarters in solving the problem that has been highlighted. Luckily for us, he was also part of the inaugurating partners of the Civic Hive Fellowship.
Mr Odeh Friday, Director, Accountability Lab Nigeria, he works extensively in raising new sets of leaders in the Civic Tech space, he has worked to raise over 2000 leaders in the space through their programs ranging from accountprenues, voice2rep and intergrityIdiol.
Ms Olusola Adeola, Executive Director, Designing Futures a platform where new innovations and models are introduced into the system of education to birth new results.
The first pitch gave the Judges the ideas of what problems associates solutions intend to solve and also helped to give the associates feedback on where the ideas and solutions were lacking. This process helped the fellows have an introspection to prepare for the final day.
The second day was for the Master Classes, you remember we mentioned earlier, our focus is to make sure everyone who came from far and near distances learns the appropriate skills and lessons to help them in building the solutions as they want to. We went shopping for the best of the best!
Oluyomi Ojo, Executive Director, Printivo. He took all the associates on the solid art of pitching. He told his own story majorly, on how the journey has been so far, from the rudiments of knowing exactly what your solution is intended to do, making sure you understand how to explain to a donor or an investor who is interested in putting money into your idea. His section was the ground opening for the second day of the boot camp.
Hamzat Lawal, Executive Director, CODE. His focus was on Scaling and Fundraising Strategies, it's a known fact that without plans to scale, then you already have plans to die in quick succession. Hamzat told the powerful story of how Follow the money started in Abuja, from just having himself, partner and two volunteers coupled with resilience and delayed gratification, all in a bid to build a sustainable enterprise. He also spoke extensively on how to land donors to contribute to the success of the idea “without money, you can’t possibly scale” this makes it very important for someone to be willing to take an early bet on you. for us, Hamzat said, Indigo Trust were the early founders who took the first bet on us and we had to manage the relationship very well. To make all of the strategies work for the associates, he left them with three important points; Honesty, relationship and accountability.
Chioma Agwuegbo, Founder, TeachHer. She is an expert in communications who has worked with organizations like Yiaga, Reboot, The Huffington Post etc, just to mention a few. Her session was a very interesting one as it focused on Impact Measurement & Storytelling! “You have to be able to tell a story in one minute” she laid emphasis on the importance of a good story, you can never go wrong with a good story and it helps you to keep tabs on your progress. You will know from your story if you are making progress or not! She showed the associates the rudiments of coming up with good stories and also tools which can be used to curate their stories and how well to publish their stories per time.
Emeka Eluemunor, Deputy Team Leader/M&E Expert, Coffey. He is an expert in the field of Monitoring and evaluations with over 10 years of experience. He came with whole full knowledge of projects and how to manage each cycle to be successful. He took the associates on a journey of guided learning for two hours straight on all the nitty gritty of M&E.
Faruk Ibrahim, Senior programme officer, Yiaga. To be successful in the Civic Tech space, you need to have a track record of successful course which you have championed in the length of the years of your existence, Not too young to run was a very good example for our new associates, a journey of about 5 years, it was practical enough to let all associates know what they were getting into, and also learn how they are to build movements and make sure they sustain it in the long run. Faruk was able to relate to the fellows all the skills needed in making sure once a movement is birthed, they are able to follow it through to get the desired results. You must know how to dialogue, make compromises and be stern.
Gabriel Okeowo, Principal Lead, BudgIT. He took the associates on Planning and Organizational Strategy, all of the lessons will not be truly effective if we don’t have in place proper planning and organizational strategy into the potential organizations the associates are looking to build. He used his experience at BudgIT as a good example and also all his activities at the SOS children's village as pointers to what they could achieve putting proper structures in place as this will influence the cultures of their organizations and help build it even beyond their presence as the leaders of the organization.
With all the extensive classes, we didn't leave the venue without having to also feed everyone to a sumptuous meal. We had the D-Day to go into. It was obviously a tensed up environment as everyone is trying to prepare for the D-Day where we will be knowing those who will be lucky winners of the 6 spots we have for the year.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning, March 31, 2019, At the end of this day, we will be presented with those who will be our FELLOWS for the next six months. If you were paying attention all along, you’ll realize we have been calling all the participants associates, yeah, the final results is what will distinguish the associates from the fellows.
We started with a motivational speech with Mr Oluseun Onigbinde, Director, BudgIT who spoke extensively on his own journey and prepared the minds of the associates on the challenges that are in front of them all. He stated how tough the 7 years journey has been and also how rewarding it has also been if they don't intend giving up along the line. He expressed how much the fellowship program was willing to support all the fellows and even the associates who don't get to make it to the final spot. He also made them understand that no idea is a bad one, it might just be the timing. However, “Your personality is what matters most, as this is what people see even before the idea,” he said.
We had enough time to eat before going into the final moments where we draw cotton for the 2019 Civic Hive Fellowship Bootcamp. The judges, we have introduced them earlier, were on ground to select the finalist who will be our fellows for the year 2019.
At the end of the whole pitch, the judges made their final decisions and we had the chance to officially meet the finalists of the Civic Hive Fellowship Bootcamp! It was a eureka moment for the finalists as they were excited to what the journey ahead is said to bring.
Stay tuned to us, as we will be bringing you at the end of the fellowship program the success stories of the 2019 Civic Hive Fellowship program.
