1.
How Is Technology Influencing Youth
Activism and Accountable Governance?
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2.
Technology | Innovation | Leadership
Ethel Cofie
US Secretary of Commerce tweeting
about Ethel Cofie
6
Ethel Cofie speaking at Global
Entrepreneurship Summit Morocco
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3.
YOUR
OPPORTUNITYEXAMPLES
CONTEXT THEN AND
NOW
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4.
CONTEXT THEN AND
NOW
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5.
African youth will lead the world…
5
BENIN
Data
› 40 % of World’s population an d workforce will sit in Africa
› Opportunity or Challenge ?
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6.
Expansion and Creation of new Channels
oMobile First(Only Continent)
oCheaper Internet Cost
oExplosion of Social Media
oEnd to End Encryption of Peer to Peer
Networks
Technology , How far we have come …
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7.
The combination of cheap Nokia mobiles, liberalization of
telecom licenses and pre paid subscriptions, steeped the
trajectory for mobile.
GSMA :500 million mark in Q1 2013, increasing by about 20%
year-on-year. Connections are expected to grow by a further
50% (250 million connections) over the next five years.
Even telecoms underestimated the market. The business plan
for the Kenyan telecom Safaricom in 2003 was to have
500,000 mobile phone subscribers by 2013: traders, priests,
taxi drivers, prostitutes—people willing to pay a premium to
stay in touch. Safaricom hit 21 million users in 2014
Between 1998-2000, this happened
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8.
The growth was so dramatic that ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio UTSUMI,
at the ITU Telecom Africa Forum Opening 12 November 2001 proposed
changing the definition of Universal Access, Universal Service and
Affordability
re
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ?
Old definitions >>>>>>
 Universal access: >>>
 A telephone within walking distance
 Telecentres in every community
 Universal service: >>>>
 A telephone in every home
 A computer in every school
 Affordability: >>>>>>>>
 Subsidised access (high usage charges
subsidise low line rental)
New definitions
 Universal access:
 Mobile coverage of all main population
centers
 Internet cafés in every community
 Universal service:
 A mobile phone for everyone who wants
one
 An email address for every citizen
 Affordability:
 Pre-paid access
(pre-paid usage charges include line
rental)
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9.
Social Media and Broadband Statistics
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10.
Social Media and Broadband Statistics
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11.
“Youth activism is youth engagement in community organizing
for social change. Youth participation in social change focuses
more on issue-oriented activism than traditional partisan or
electoral politics.”
Youth and Activism
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12.
Technology as an enabler of effective Activism
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Traditional media and bureaucratic
restrictions are no longer high walls
that deprive our society of
accountable governance through
youth activism. Technology offers the
youth with innovative and multi-
faceted ways to:
1.Voice out their opinions on
government policies and issues of
concern to their target audience
through social media such as
Facebook, Twitter, Blogs etc. Good
examples would be the "Dumsor
March" in 2015, "Bring Back our Girls
campaign", “The Occupy Ghana
Campaign” and many others.

13.
Technology as an enabler of effective Activism
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2.Test government efficacy by making all
elements and information associated to
governance and government decisions
accessible to both the government and
citizenry such as figures and technical
data or reports related to public projects
for example, the recent "bus branding
saga" etc.
3.Facilitate accountable governance
through data collection and effective
record keeping using data management
systems.
4.Simplify complex information,
government decisions and policies for
the citizenry using interactive websites,
videos and mobile applications.

14.
What Technology helps with
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1.Crowdsourcing. Let’s do it
2.Reaching and connecting with the
crowd to mobilize action and holding
people accountable.
3.Generating and sustaining public
interest in issues and governance.

15.
What Technology helps with
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16.
EXAMPLES
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17.
What others out there are doing ..
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#DumsorMatch
#PolicingLawmakers
#WhereisOurMoney
#CrowdReporting
#GreenPeace
#BringBackOurGirls

18.
Budgit
18
› Facilitating Social change and Development by using Technology to simplify National
Budgets. Present in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone
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The website targets the urban youth, Civil Society
Organizations and government institutions to:
• Track Government approved Projects, eliminate
corruption, corruption and also identify cases of
abandoned government projects within States or
Regions.
• Present abridged State and National budgets in the
form of infographics, interactive application and
Videos to ask clear and relevant questions
pertaining to Government spending.
• Publish bi-annual policy document that for
improving budget processes, institutions and
encouraging transparency.

19.
Ushahidi
19
› Crisis Mapping Software that helps anyone receive real-time feeds, collect reports and
respond to crisis such as natural disasters, political protests, etc…
www.ethelcofie.com
Ushahidi:
• Collects meaningful data, submissions or posts
from anyone, anywhere, anytime using any
device or all the different social platforms.
• Manage and prioritize submitted reports with
workflows and filters.
• Visualizes data collected into Map tiles and
configurable charts.
• Sends automatic alerts about changes and
updates to the collectors.

20.
Odekro
20
› Odekro promotes transparency, provides online access to public records and empowers
citizens to keep an eye on public officials, especially parliament
www.ethelcofie.com
Odekro:
• Monitors and publishes parliamentary
proceedings, making it freely accessible to all.
• Features information on MPs and
Constituencies

21.
Green Peace- Twitter Campaign
21
› Greenpeace gives the earth a voice by acting to change attitudes and behaviour, protect
and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Green Peace uses Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube and Flickr to:
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Thousands of social media users posted comments
criticizing the company’s practices and posted altered
logos, like one that replaced “Kit Kat” with “Killer.”
This led to …..
Kit Kat campaign Nestlé’s eventual commitment to
remove products coming from rainforest destruction
from its supply chain is a positive step. Another
measure is how many people became engaged with
the campaign–the video reached over 1.5 million
people, over 300,000 of which directly contacted
Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke via e-mail, and a countless
number of people took up the cause on Facebook
providing a steady stream of criticism on Nestlé’s
infamous Facebook fan page.

22.
What others out there are doing ..
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#womenintechweek

23.
We still face the same issues
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24.
Technology is not a magic pill
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25.
YOUR OPPORTINITY
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26.
www.ethelcofie.com
1.Create
2.Innovate
3.Influence

27.
THANK YOU
Leave me a message
Website : www.ethelcofie.com
@ethelcofie