Meet the Fellows: Reflections on lessons, skills and growth during the 2022 Pollicy Fellowship Programme
Since 2017, we have been running a fellowship program that aims to introduce students and young professionals to civic technology initiatives while enabling them to utilise their development skills to create innovative data products and/or initiatives by the end of their fellowship.
Beyond the fellowship, some of these young fellows have gone on to be trailblazers in their different fields. For example, Esther Ndagire from the class of 2017, went on to become a Project Manager, Regional Project Manager and Product Manager at Code For Africa. She’s currently a Fellow (Digital Transformation) at the African Union. Jarvin Mutatiina ( a Civic Technology Fellow, 2017), went on to become a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Groningen, Netherlands and he’s now a Consultant (Artificial Intelligence and Data) at Deloitte. You can read more about our past fellows here.
This year’s team of exceptional fellows spread out in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have been at the centre of some of our leading products and projects for the last 3–6 months. These were young people that emerged from a pool of over 500 applicants that applied for the fellowship from across Africa.
As you will read, these fellows have been provided with opportunities to meet with civic technology innovators, conduct exploratory research on topics related to using civic technology for improved government services and to bolster their capacity in using data. They have used their time to develop a final body of research, multimedia products, blog posts, and curricula, finally culminating in a presentation of their work to the civic technology community.
So, who are our 2022 fellows?
Bobina Zulfa (Community Engagement Fellow)
Bobina has been working as a Community Engagement Fellow directly attached to the Programs department at Pollicy. Much of her work throughout the fellowship has been around programmatic planning and execution particularly on the Digital Ambassador Program. She has also been building and congregating communities of various persons under spaces we have been directly engaging over the six months including students and members of academia.The other half of her work as a fellow, has been working on a personal project which is a research paper in collaboration with many members of the team.
“I have learnt so much during my fellowship. Firstly, I have grown a number of digital skills from a number of tools we use at work but also been greatly opened up to a world I knew little about including digital rights, internet governance, data and a lot of other tech-society outstanding topics in today’s world. Additionally, I have learnt how to effectively engage communities through the human centred design approach and effective communication tactics which I came to appreciate through my direct mentor Gilbert (Director of Programs, Pollicy) and Navina (Program Coordinator). I have also learnt much about the research process which personally is the most technical gain of mine from the fellowship. My outlook on work culture, team work and work dynamism has also been positively influenced through my interaction with the team over the months.”
Phyllis Macharia (Research Fellow)
Phyllis has been a Research Fellow who got integrated into the team swiftly and assigned to the Greater Internet Freedom Project. In this project she worked on mapping of organisations in the Eastern Europe countries and compiled over 88 organisations. She also took part in writing the white paper; What Is an Ideal Internet to You? A Global Exploration of Digital Rights Trends She has also been running her fellowship project on digital literacy among youths in their first year at university. She got to develop the project concept note; data collection instruments and conducted focus group discussions.
“As a fellow at Pollicy, I have learnt a lot and experienced immense growth. Looking back when I started the Fellowship and where I am now there is a big difference. Through writing the whitepaper, I got to learn a new style of writing a white paper than the one I learnt from school adding to my skills list. Independence is a value I got to develop at Pollicy. Pollicy gave me the opportunity to think outside the box while executing a task, an aspect that has helped me learn a lot and be creative because your contribution is not limited but rather encouraged to bring to the table as much as you can.”
Providence Baraka (Francophone Research Fellow)
Providence is a final year student of Computer Sciences and Management (Programming and Information Systems). As a fellow at Pollicy, he has had the privilege of working on issues that he is most passionate about, especially those that reconcile digital technologies with humans, including internet safety for women journalists and women human rights defenders in French-speaking African countries.
“During the fellowship, I experienced the true meaning of working remotely and especially in a team, but also, as a native of a French-speaking country, I faced some challenges like the language, but that I was able to overcome thanks to my personal courage but also the patience, the spirit of support and solidarity on the part of my mentor and the other Pollicy staff.”
Rachel Magege (Programs Fellow under the Feminist Movement Building Program)
Rachel is our latest addition to our 2022 fellows pool based in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. She is currently supporting the team on different programs such as DataFest Africa (Dar es Salaam post event), VOTE:Women Programme, Digital Ambassadors Program and she is currently working with the Research Department on the Are We Together project.
“I have learned great time management skills, managing tasks and assignments, teamwork and how to work remotely. I would absolutely recommend this fellowship to another young person. The work environment is friendly and engaging. The tasks and skills used in this job are also very much relevant and applicable to the world right now.”
Evelyn Masaba (Communications Fellow, Feminist Movement Building)
Evelyn has been working with Pollicy for three months in 2022. She is a Communications Specialist by profession and has worked with the rest of a team for the VOTE: Women Digital Leadership programme under the Feminist Movement Building program, as well as working on the Future of Work project with the programs team. Beyond that, she has been undertaking other communications tasks for the general organisation.
“I have learned and am still learning a lot about feminist movement building through working with such resourceful people. My highlight has been working with the Communications team, we are so in tune with each other especially when working on (it was missing on) tasks that flow into each other. The other highlight is working with Phillip on the Future of Work project, he is one of the most patient and easy to work under mentors I have had the opportunity to work with. This opportunity has been very good for me and I have met so many interesting people that have helped me on this journey, I am grateful.”
We put out a call of applications to the fellowship program every year. Keep watching our social media and other platforms, and when the call is out, fill out our application form.
