InfoNET is a technological, innovation and development facility that is committed to expand the democratic space by strengthening collaboration between Government, Private Sector, Civil Society and Citizens in fostering good economic & democratic governance and service delivery through the strategic use of technology.
With the expansion of a robust technology architecture in Africa, InfoNET designs and develops strategies that add value to technological innovation through research, client engagement and feedback.
Here are the main services we expertly offer.
We ensure that there is good governance by providing citizen engagement platforms which in turn strengthen the relationship between the government and the citizens.
We harness the power of mobile and web technologies to improve citizen's access to information and ensure better service delivery.
We develop interactive web platforms for service delivery, budget tracking, public engagement, election monitoring and user feedback.
We integrate SMS/USSD applications for better access by a majority that still remains in the margins of internet connectivity.
We work with your team to offer the best Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package that suits your organizational needs.
We strengthen capabilities through capacity building in the use of technology for efficiency and improved responsiveness.
We develop Android and Windows Apps for a richer experience for users.
We grow your organization’s social media presence through content management, social media optimization, and full-service management.
Latest news from InfoNET Initiatives
InfoNET’s commitment to openness and transparency drives the organisation to work on projects championing causes such as these. With a credible track record of harnessing the use of ICTs to enhance civic participation and monitor elections, we provided the Zambia Elections Information Centre (ZEIC) with technological support and capacity building for their work on and around the 11th August, 2016 election period. The election centre, which is ICT driven was set up to provide relevant, verified and timely information on the election situation around Zambia and is the country’s first ever Election Situation Room (ESR). Having been a part of the project from inception we met with several of partners of ZEIC, namely the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), Southern Africa Centre for Conflict Resolution and Dialogue (SACCORD), Zambia National Women’s Lobby ( ZNWL) and Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) as we helped bring to life the information centre. We set up all the technology platforms for the centre, allowing the flow of information from the citizens to the centre and vice-versa to be seamless, easily accessible and wide reaching. In addition to this, we developed the SMS response systems as well as the Elections Action Response Model that the centre uses to manage and respond to the information that it receives in a systematic manner. The project not only relies on information from citizens but that from selected monitors and data officers on the ground. Our team conducted training sessions for data officers as well as monitors in different parts of the country. The regional monitor training, which was a ‘Trainer of Trainers’ will have a spillover effect targeting 9,000 monitors whom these “new” trainers will go on to train. Similarly trained were up to 156 Media Monitors in the capital city, 255 Women Monitors from the Womens Lobby, Lusaka and 50 TIZ monitors in Zambia. The technical support rendered has helped the centre meet its objectives of being a credible source of information that the Zambian people and various stakeholders can access and rely on through various ICT platforms and as the nation goes about writing its future.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted how we live, learn and work, with populations in most countries under a form of stay at home order, creating unemployment, especially to a majority in Kenya who depend on daily wages from trade and other entrepreneur activities. While the pandemic is already creating untold suffering, Kenya has the unique opportunity to turn the economic tide, if personal safety measures are enhanced and its young population incentivized towards harnessing technology and innovation. It is universally acknowledged that COVID19 has fundamentally changed the world where technologically enhanced modes of living, learning and working environment will be the new normal, where digitization will become a priority, especially in the provision of health services, retail and other sectors that can rapidly be automated. It is with this backdrop that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Chair of the National COVID19 Response Committee, Hon. Mutahi Kagwe rightly noted that COVID-19 is a challenge that requires a whole-of-society response and therefore, the technology and innovation community is also required to harness it capabilities towards this common challenge. The COVID-19 Innovation Challenge The challenge is an opportunity for different technological companies and communities (hubs, co-working spaces, SMEs) to merge their efforts and create a combined-capabilities to birth the next frontier of techno-developmental-governance interface needed for accelerating our Big 4 Agenda, Vision2030 and SDGs. The main categories for the COVID19 Innovation Challenge are: 1.Health Systems innovation 2.Food Systems Innovation 3.Dignified Work Challenge Register here 1.Health Systems Innovation: Creating adequate awareness in the population and Health workers on all aspects they need to know on the COVID19 disease, including mitigating against “fake-news”. Train Health workers on COVID19 in the shortest time to enable them protect themselves, and provide the best care for suspected and confirmed patients. Strengthen health systems capacities for prompt detection, testing, treatments and contact tracing, Adapting the developed solution and scaling up to predict and tackle future pandemics that may arise, Provision of timely information to the population & stakeholders involved in the fight against COVID -19 spread. Rapid prototyping and deployment of commodities and supplies through 4th Industrial Technologies such as 3D Printing. Creating agile governance framework to enable adoption of innovations (data standards, interoperability, protocols and guidelines). Create a communication solution for internal and/or community engagement on COVID19 and other relevant information, that also allows feedback Crowdsource movement data in Red Zones Using Social media meta data to aid in contact tracing. 2.Food Systems Innovation: Provide real time data and information on food availability and accessibility, including pricing Policy innovations, capacity and financial packages that ensure adoption and sustainability of adopted solutions Support small-scale farmers to access to inputs, capital, information and knowledge to grow food amidst COVID19 restrictions Incentivize young people to rapidly deploy across the entire agricultural value chain (from farm-to-fork) Scale practices and incentives for larger farmers as a measure to de-risk food insecurity Improve supply chain practices to reduce food loss, scale new business models for producer-market connections Create localized market-places that are technologically driven for food access, processing, distribution and delivery Create policy modelling applications that can stimulate policy options/incentive pans to promote agri-business. 3.Dignified work challenge Enabling individuals in the informal economy to acquire digital skills for the future of work; Improving access to technology that enables the management of businesses and access to clients and market Since the declaration of Covid -19 as a global pandemic, the world has moved with speed to find ways of mitigating the effects of the pandemic as well as provide solutions to communities who have had to change the way they live, learn and work. This pandemic offers countries like Kenya, that have invested in technological, human and infrastructural capacity to reinvigorate its economy, create new businesses; skill, re-skill and up-skill its young populations to play an even bigger role in the Post Covid19 Technologically enhanced economy. “The pandemic has proved that local solutions to such a global challenge are critical to the country’s efforts to mitigate and flatten the curve. “Through collaboration, partnership,co-creation of ideas and harnessing the skills of youth, Kenya stands, a chance of mitigating the effects of the pandemic. ” The challenge therefore is looking to match issues articulated by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, with scalable solutions that can be co-created and adopted for use, matched by policy and financial incentives. The innovation challenge focuses on ensuring that the response to COVID19 is data and insight driven. Globally, technology and innovation centers and hubs are at the forefront of developing solutions towards the COVID19 pandemic. Konza Technopolies, National Youth Council, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Thunderbird School of Global Management (Arizona State University), UNDP Accelerator Labs (Kenya) and InfoNET Africa is developing a series of challenges to harness the collective capability of the technology and innovation to advance solutions as a practical response to mitigating against the impact of this pandemic and to build resiliency post COVID
The outbreak of corona-virus disease (COVID-19) has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and the virus has now spread to many countries and territories. While a lot is still unknown about COVID-19, what is known is that it is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets from an infected person (generated through coughing and sneezing). Individuals can also be infected from touching surfaces contaminated with the virus and touching their face including eyes, nose and mouth. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating impact globally, the African governments have imposed measures such as travel bans, curfews, prohibition of mass gatherings, mandatory quarantines, closure of learning institutions, entertainment spots and borders to curb the pandemic. Some of these measures have boosted the use of digital technologies. Many technology workers and companies are also joining efforts to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in various ways, including developing products to combat the virus, tracking and predicting its spread, and protecting hospitals from cyber-attacks while enabling continuation of day to day operations at work, school, shopping just to name a few. The evolution of technology has changed the way government and citizens respond and adapt to pandemic situations as compared to the past. Given that the people live in the digital age, it has opened many doors of technological opportunities for many individuals and hence, enable them to better manage and deal with the Covid-19 situation. Below are a few Countries in Africa, and some of their efforts in fighting COVID 19 documented; Kenya The country’s largest telecommunication, Safaricom, has implemented a fee-waiver on East Africa’s leading mobile-money product, M-Pesa, to reduce the physical exchange of currency and all person-to-person (P2P) transactions under 1,000 Kenyan Shillings (≈ $10) is free for three months. Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has authorized the deployment of Google loons in the Kenyan airspace to provide 4G internet access across the country in partnership with Telkom. CBK also approved the increase of daily M-Pesa transaction limits from the current KSh70,000 ($700) to KSh150,000 ($1,500) specifically to support small and micro business enterprises (SMEs). Kenyans are also able to transact up to Ksh300,000 ($3,000) up from the current limit of Ksh140,000 ($1,400) and hold up to Ksh300,000 ($3,000) in their M-Pesa wallets. Kenya will begin automatic testing of the virus. KEMRI new tech has the capacity to test upto 35,000 samples on a daily basis. They will use the Cobas 6800 or the 8800 HIV viral load machines and the GeneXpert used for point of care testing for tuberculosis. Kenyatta University Students have developed Ventilator prototype, through their innovation and incubation center in fight against Covid-19. Eneza Education has partnered with Safaricom to deliver free learning materials by simplest way of mobile phones. South Africa In order to combat the spread of fake news, the South African government has set up an automated WhatsApp group to provide credible and factual details around COVID-19. At the same time, the Department of Health has launched a website specifically on coronavirus It provides citizens with the latest number on the virus and all the necessary information to help curb the spread of COVID-19. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa are expecting “surge in usage of data as the majority of South Africans across all sectors have no option but work from home, learn from home and carry on their day to day life activities for instance shopping, entertainment from home through technological means”. They have requested mobile operators and pay-TV services to give people free DStv and data. South African cellphone companies have agreed to give the government cellphone location data in order to help fight against the coronavirus behind Covid-19. The data could be used to determine at least how many people an infected individual had been in contact with. Uganda Government has been asked to waive off the “over-the-top” (OTT) tax, commonly known as the social media tax to ease communication and access to information during the Corona Virus (COVID-19) outbreak. Zambia The bank of Zambia has set measures in use of cashless transaction to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and also they have reduced inter-bank processing to promote the use of Real-time gross settlement(RTGS) systems. Rwanda Rwanda is now using technology to raise awareness against the COVID-19 pandemic. They have added the use of drones which moves around to raise awareness about the disease. The government has recommended the citizens to embrace E-commerce and online grocery platforms to turn during and even after the coronavirus lockdown. Ethiopia Internet connectivity has been restored to a part of Ethiopia’s Oromia region which has been without connection for about three months and this has helped citizens access to critical information about covid-19. Ghana The Government of Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications have launched a new app designed to help in tracing people who have come into contact with COVID-19 positive individuals. The app is meant to augment the government’s effort in the fight against the global pandemic. Ghana’s central bank has directed mobile money providers to waive fees on transactions of GH₵100 (≈ $18), with restrictions on transactions to withdraw cash from mobile-wallets. Nigeria In Nigeria, health officials are partnering with the messaging service owned by Facebook to send push notifications to users with advice on symptoms and how to avoid infection. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is also getting free ad space on Facebook for outreach about the pandemic, a benefit available to public health authorities. Egypt The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the executive IT arm of the Egyptian Ministry of CIT, is detailing its efforts with the tech community in Egypt to support the attempts to tackle the global Coronavirus outbreak. The agency is mobilizing its available resources to accelerate research and innovation collaboration that could help in mitigating the impacts made by the global pandemic. The agency is also giving a helping handwith the tech and startup community in the EMEA region supporting the ‘Wild Card’ online hackathon that called to build different components of a response system that helps people, businesses deal with the disruption. Morocco Morocco is encouraging local institutions and universities to manufacture locally medical devices to assist to country’s efforts in the fight against the novel coronavirus. In this connection, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Digital Economy brought together a cluster of 20 researchers and engineers who invented two 100% Morocco-made devices, an automatic ventilator and an infrared thermometer. Senegal The government of Senegal have developed a site which is available to Senegalese citizens by the Administration through the State Information Agency in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Social Action to enable them to follow the latest developments of the Covid-19 pandemic and take the necessary preventive measures to fight the virus. Tunisia The National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology in Tunis, are exploring how digital tools and Artificial Intelligence can play a vital role in containing and overcoming the pandemic. Somalia The International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) have provided tents for isolation to the Mogadishu hospital, where they are supporting and implementing a surveillance system to monitor suspected cases at clinics supported by the Somalia Red Crescent. Cameroon MTN Cameroon has partnered with the Ministry of Public health to support “National Operational Plan for Preparation and Response against COVID-19 in Cameroon 2020” through the following initiatives: Intensification of Awareness Campaigns. MTN’s network, technologies and digital platforms will be used to disseminate the messages designed by the Ministry of Health to address the crisis. The Facilitation of Communications by health personnel involved in operations to combat the spread of COVID-19. Contributing to set up test centres envisaged by the Ministry of Public Health. In most of African countries, they have not embraced the use of technology and due to this, internet access remains out of reach for many, with high taxation being a key driver of the high cost of access. While governments and health experts see mobile tech as a fast and efficient way to help a large number of people stay healthy during the outbreak, not everyone is able to go online whenever they need information about the virus. For example, paying for data to access health sites and mobile tools is an expense many Africans can’t afford.
There is a growing disconnect between the involvement of the younger generation and the management of government institutions and programs in Kenya. The youth constitutes the larger segment of the population, not only in Kenya but also globally, and designing the future or direction of this country should be done with the active participation and inclusion of young people at all levels. Engaging young people in local governance increases accountability and the number of quality initiatives made by communities. There needs to be open spaces, aided with technology and social media for dialogue and improving transparency and hidden social structures that always generate corruption. Many studies, reports and surveys reveal persistent economic, social and political challenges the youth face. Addressing these challenges requires the involvement of the youths in decision-making and oversight roles, more so, in Public Funds Management (Good governance) The youth are the most important human capital of any economy Daily news of graft related stories reminds us that transparency and accountability is yet to be achieved. The challenge has cascaded down from National Government down to County Level. This has inevitably fueled youth unemployment, impediments in the access to healthcare, education and decent housing (Iwasaki, 2016). Despite government interventions such as the establishment of the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs (MOYA), National Youth Service (NYS), Kenya National Youth Policy (KNYP), National Youth Council (NYC) the challenges facing the youths has persisted. While the target group is the youths, for a long time, the interventions have been designed and implemented without the input of the youths. The youth receives little or no recognition before and during top decision-making. The youth are the most important human capital of any economy. Not only are they agile, adaptable, and receptive, but the modern youth also understand employment in the millennial age. Young people, as citizens, have a relationship with the state and they are entitled to hold the state accountable for their performance. They should, therefore, be included in decision-making processes, particularly on issues that affect their lives directly, for instance on service delivery, quality of education, fighting corruption. Young people’s participation in governance refers to the way in which they voice their views and concerns, exercise their rights, and engage in dialogue with and influence decision-makers In a survey conducted by the UN IANYD in August 2012, a majority of 13,000 respondents expressing their voices from 186 countries highlighted that the main challenges for youth were limited opportunities for effective participation in decision-making processes. With limited opportunities and exposure to meaningfully participate in inclusive decision-making processes, young men and women feel excluded and marginalized in their societies and communities. Youths’ active participation in governance will ensure accountability, redress of youth-specific challenges, adequate allocation of funds… Promoting Youth Participation in Governance The data and big data revolution present enormous opportunities for young people’s participation and greater involvement in governance, from the local to the national level, using different forms of ICTs. Generating real-time data that can contribute to young people’s ability to monitor implementation and communicate findings can be an effective and immediate method of promoting accountability. There is thus an opportunity to use such data to foster good governance, transparency and accountability. With the advancement of ICTs, it is critical that local government institutions are given the necessary software (and related training) to make use of them to engage with young people and promote good governance. Based on the discussion by the youth, the following needs to be worked on in order to improve the inclusion of the youth in governance: Build the capacity of decision-makers to engage with and respond to young people’s concerns and needs. This calls for supporting young people to navigate these complex structures and processes and bringing their voices to the fore. It’s also important to support governments and decision-makers to be more transparent by making their information available and accessible to young people. The capacity of local government institutions should not be overlooked in this respect: several of the examples of effective participatory governance activities are based on young people’s engagement with decentralized governance structures. Create an environment that encourages youth participation and acknowledging the role of youth in public policy formulation, planning, implementation, decision-making and governance in general. The governments(both national and county governments) and government agencies need to make available governance-related information in order to foster transparency. This data should be populated on their websites and other related platforms. Advocate and lobby on behalf of the less empowered through being knowledgeable and acting; strategy, timing and who to use. The youths should be trained on different vocations which access to platforms that can improve governance. Facilitate channels for young people to be involved in governance dialogues require working on their individual capacities, as well as those of duty-bearers. This broadens the issue of civic empowerment beyond the governance agenda and provides opportunities to engage other policy and practitioner audiences. For instance, where linkages between improved governance and enhanced individual or group capacities can be made – such as in the area of basic services or economic empowerment programs County governments should support NGOs, private companies, initiatives with resources like land licenses permits and venue. The inclusion of Kenyan youths in governance can only be achieved through the implementation of policies that support their ideas, innovative strategies (Ugatuzi and Sauti Yetu) and programs focusing on mitigating the challenges and risks the youth face and how the Kenyan government currently perceives them. Youths’ active participation in governance will ensure accountability, redress of youth-specific challenges, adequate allocation of funds for youth programs and the design, and implementation of youth sensitive policies for the betterment of lives of the youths and that of all Citizens collectively.
Corruption remains a strong constraint on growth and development whilst others argue that corruption can be grease to the wheels and that it helps overcome cumbersome bureaucratic constraints, inefficient provision of public services, and rigid laws especially when countries’ institutions are weak and function poorly. In places where bureaucracies and organizations are inefficient, corruption is said to improve efficiency and growth. Bribes can act like a piece rate or price discrimination and give faster or better service to the firms with highest opportunity cost of waiting. However, has this worked positively for African Countries? More so Kenya, where a quick review of Kenyan daily newspapers confirms that corruption is an urgent issue of concern for this country at all its levels (from national to the individual). Corruption in Kenya has extended from the level of individuals to the institutional and structural levels and to our relief, the appointment of Mr George Kinoti as Director of Criminal Investigations and Mr Noordin Haji as Director of Public Prosecutions breathed a new lease of life in the war on graft, this move has seen public officials charged in court with the loss of billions between 2014 and 2019, and Nairobi’s Governor Sonko has not been spared, he has been accused of irregularly awarding tenders to his close friends , misappropriation of county funds among other charges. State of corruption in Nairobi County A closer look at the 2017 Nairobi’s audited reports, the Office of the Auditor-General expressed dissatisfaction with the evidence provided to support the presented financial statements. The expenditure that reflected a total of 1.8 Billion could not be explained. In the acquisition of assets expenditure 1.7 Billion was not accounted for as well only 61 million Kenyan shillings was verified as paid out to suppliers. In the same financial year, there were occurrences of unauthorized expenditure where 226 million was reallocated for use without formal approval from the County Assembly. Under Vehicle parking fees, 45 Million was missing that out of the amount said to be collected. The expenditure that reflected a total of 1.8 Billion could not be explained. Nairobi Ward Development Fund account was opened by the county executive and had 4.9 Million Kenyan Shillings and out of that 3.9 Million has not been accounted for, nor disclosed. Statutory deductions to Lapfund and Laptrust were not made thus incurring penalties. It is evident that in the year 2017, the County Government of Nairobi was not compliant with regulation 90 (1) of Public Finance Management (County Government) regulations 2015. The County Government received free maternity reimbursement from the Ministry of Health amounting to about 281 Million shillings for various hospitals, however, even after receiving these funds, reimbursement was not made to hospitals thus affecting daily operations of the hospitals. Under Development Projects, the Transport, Infrastructure and Public Works was allocated about 2.4 Billion Shillings, however nine months down, six projects worth 266 Million had not commenced and the ones that had started only 61 million was ascertained payment. There was also an increased number of stalled projects that were paid halfway and never completed, such as Ruai Street Children Rehabilitation Center, Joseph Kangethe Social Hall, Mji wa Huruma Social Hall. This goes to show that the residents of Nairobi County did not get value for their money in respect to the plans and money used by the county. Procurement records and documents of goods and services amounting to 40 million were not provided for verification . Furthermore, the procurement process was not Done through IFMIS. Another alarming case is where Mbagathi and Mama Lucy Hospitals were holding drugs that were about to expire worth at least 1.5 million Kenyan shillings, the county incurs carrying costs and failed to get value of the taxpayer’s money for the expired drugs. There were cases of underfunding Educational and Social Services that affected learning uptake from those institutions. The County Government moreover irregularly allocated County Land without enough reasons to Private Developers, a case of where High Ridge Health Center was demolished, and the land allocated to private developers. In 2018, even after the Auditor’s recommendations, Nairobi County Government’s financial audit results were nevertheless not pleasing. The anomalies such as unaccounted cash withdrawals of 200 million shillings and an additional 6 Billion from the Revenue account, irregular payments of about 399 million shillings were made to suppliers through cash and not recommended IFMIS system, failure to deposit cheques to revenue account for up to a year. The County Government of Nairobi made cash transfers up to 474 million shillings in form of scholarships and other educational benefits, however no supporting documents were provided to verify if indeed citizens benefited from the allocation. In 2018 too just like 2017, the County Government of Nairobi failed to adhere to the regulations of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) in several ways including failure to achieve a 30% allocation on Development Budget, this has evidently impacted negatively service delivery to the residents of Nairobi. Under Procurement of goods and services in the same financial year, 13 contractors were awarded contracts amounting to 420 million irregularly and documents to support the same were not provided which affected some of the ECDE project’s completion and consequently, it is hard to ascertain the exact value of realized in the implementation of all these projects. The scourge of corruption in Kenya must be urgently addressed otherwise it could bring the economy to its knees. As things stand, Kenya is already struggling to pay its debts. Corruption compromises the quality of life of Kenyans and their development. It costs a fortune and its already draining our economy of the resources needed for projects like education, healthcare, agriculture and infrastructure development. Finding Solutions The heightened role of the media and social reformers have joined to create greater demand for accountability and transparency in Governments. Yet, the issue of accountability is particularly complicated for the public sector. When things go wrong for Government offices, it can often make front-page news – instantly transforming a management issue into a political problem that results in slow or no action altogether. Corruption builds and enhances poverty and exclusion. While corrupt individuals with political power enjoy a lavish life, millions of Kenyans are denied of their basic needs like food, health, education, housing, access to clean water and sanitation. Over time, this has been proven and manifested in most African countries. Better stewardship of resources would make it better for the government to provide basic services such as education, water, health and housing in a subsidized or affordable manner. County Governments should consider involving the citizens of Kenya in managing public resources through the use of these innovative systems. Citizens need to stand up for themselves, and claim what is rightfully theirs, Citizens today are more aware of their rights, have better access to information on public services and consequently have higher expectations of service levels. Platforms such as Usajili and Ugatuzi are looking for ways that can complement and enhance how citizens are able to get involved in the process of allocating, reviewing, tracking, and monitoring public expenditures. These initiatives look to increase greater efficiency in the allocation of resources and encourage less corruption and leakages. County Governments should consider involving the citizens of Kenya in managing public resources through the use of these innovative systems. Citizens need to stand up for themselves and claim what is rightfully theirs, for their sake, and the sake of future generations to come. Source: Report of the Auditor- General on the Financial Statements of Nairobi City County Executive for the year ended 30th June 2017 Report of the Auditor- General on the Financial Statements of Nairobi City County Executive for the year ended 30th June 2018
Youth Employment Challenge Africa is the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world. Africa has the youngest population in the world, and it’s growing fast. By 2055, the continent’s youth population (aged 18-35), is expected to be more than double the 2015 total of 226 million. The youth account for 60% of all African unemployed, according to the World Bank. There is a significant gap between the number of youth seeking employment and the work opportunities available. There is also a mismatch between the skills offered by the youth and the needs of the employers. In tackling youth unemployment, it is important to note that there is a disconnect between curriculum-based learning at primary, secondary and university levels with the requisite skills needed by the employers. Despite the initiatives adopted by various governments towards enhancing skill development, it was pointed by the various employers in the room that there still exists a large gap between supply and demand. This can be observed through the high number of students who express their frustrations by way of limited job opportunities As an organization, our strategy is to build partnerships with foundations that offer scholarships to students across the world who come back to seek employment opportunities. We are focussed on finding solutions to the youth employment challenges in return promoting the Sustainable Development Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) Improving youth employment Addressing youth unemployment calls for innovation, investment and commitment among all stakeholders. Companies and organizations should help young graduates boost their skills by providing internships, apprenticeships, on-the-job training and mentoring. Employers have an important role to play in providing viable pathways into the workforce, particularly amid uncertainty about exactly what the future of work will look like. This can be achieved through partnering with local high schools, to creating internal skills development programs, to identifying the skills they need and communicating these skills to local education and other partners. Partnerships with education institutions repeatedly surface as a crucial strategy in providing employees with opportunities to develop the requisite skills and knowledge Youth employability is linked to SDG 8 which focusses on Inclusive and sustainable economic growth. This SDG promotes sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to this, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labour, slavery and human trafficking. With these targets in mind, the goal is to achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all women and men by 2030. In order to improve youth employability, it is important that career advisers at schools should tap into the students’ skills and help steer them on a career path. Students need to be provided with a sense of direction regarding career pathways and be made aware of the vast opportunities out there for them. The young people should also develop skills (soft skills included) that are sought after by employers. Creativity, persuasion, time management, adaptability and time management are the most demanded soft skills by employers. Entrepreneurship; Teaching young people the skills to start, manage and operate their own businesses would be the first step in creating a more independent and driven generation of youth. The government also needs to invest more in agriculture, tourism, construction and also in projects that employ young people. “Everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world.” Sergey Brin
Data is the lifeblood of decision making and a necessary tool for accountability and transparency. It is the pre-requisite for any development in a democracy and in ensuring that no one is left behind. One of the benefits of data is that it opens up the government to the people. With open data, the government becomes more transparent and accountable, allows scrutiny by the public and also reduces opportunities for corruption and increases chances for detection. This, therefore, makes open data a critical ingredient in accountability interventions and also reduce the mismanagement and misallocation of resources. Corruption is a complex problem and it can societies and result in increased poverty, undermine economic growth and even reduce employment opportunities for the youth. As technology advances, the methods of the corrupt are also getting more sophisticated. Open data offers numerous ways to fight corruption by providing information and empowering citizens to be key actors in driving anti-corruption. Data in addressing Corruption If data is open, and especially if it is big, it can be analyzed to uncover, prevent and deter corruption. Data scientists are joining forces with anti-corruption activities to develop tech-savvy applications and deploy powerful anti-corruption analytics (World Economic Forum). Platforms like Usajili provide an open Beneficial Ownership Registry Portal, which holds data on past and existing tenders awarded by the Government and linking them to the respective companies awarded whose ownership/directorship shall be made open to public scrutiny. This is geared towards unmasking corruption in the government agencies by exposing the beneficial owners of contracted companies. Beneficial ownership is a term that refers to anyone who enjoys the benefits of ownership of a security or property, without being on the record as being the owner. If data is open, and especially if it is big, it can be analyzed to uncover, prevent and deter corruption. Public procurement in Kenya and the world at large plays an important role in the economic development of any country. It is the implementation vehicle by which service delivery is achieved. Due to the huge financial flows involved in public procurement, the sector is the most prone to corruption. Major corruption scandals in Kenya have revolved around public procurement. Billions of shillings have been lost through under deals in procurement which takes years to trace and recover. While corruption is one type of fraud, there is a big difference between more traditional fraud and corruption in that corruption involves the payment of monies stolen from a company, through a variety of mechanisms such as shell companies. A shell company is, by design, created to hide the true or ultimate beneficial ownership of the individuals who are the final beneficiaries of the corporate structure. Shell companies that cannot be traced back to their owners are one of the most important mechanisms by which corrupt officials transfer illicit wealth from public coffers. This process damages these countries’ development prospects. Usajili, in essence, focusses on improving transparency by sharing information about companies being awarded contracts in order to prevent fraud and corruption Corruption and Youth Unemployment Corruption causes lost employment opportunities for the youth, it is against employment as it causes unfair recruitment process, favoritism and bribe. Those in power misuse their authority and give jobs to their dear ones rendering many young people jobless. The higher the number of corruption cases in an economy, the higher the unemployment rate. What happens to this youth, who is denied an opportunity to pursue his dream of a better life by a selfish individual who out of sheer greed, decided to engage in acts of corruption? Aside from corruption, there is a huge disparity between the Education System and the skills required in the industry have greatly contributed to the whole unemployment menace in the country today. Despite the recent change in the education curriculum, there are still fundamental issues that haven’t been sorted and that continue to fuel this problem. For instance over-emphasis on formal education, resulting in too many educated-unskilled people in the market as they cannot be absorbed into the economy that is looking to industrialize. The situation worsens as even the government projects such as NYS and KKV are not lucrative enough to the graduates and they, therefore, remain unemployed or forced to work on projects that are not in-line with what they studied. The government projects which are supposed to address the youth employment issue are also marred with corruption Youth employment is also affected by the impact of technological change on the future of work which differs across emerging markets and developing economies depending on demographic trends. For training programs to be effective, hard skills training needs to be combined with life and employability skills training, and on-the-job experience. Although youth unemployment is probably the most visible aspect of the current youth employment crisis, the challenge for the majority of youth in developing countries is to improve the quality of employment rather than the quantity. With poverty reduction as the principal objective, policies need to have a specific focus on the most vulnerable groups of youth in low-income countries. The key weapon in the fight against corruption and secure the future of work is the widespread adoption of technology accompanied by a culture of full disclosure and openness (Open data). Together, we can work towards building the corruption-free nation that we all aspire to be proudly part of and let us remember that for nothing is beyond our capability if we put our minds and resources to it.
Our Past Projects
The Election Situation Room in Eastern Africa is an initiative that aims to contribute to the credibility and integrity of elections
The Kenya Elections Information Centre (KEIC) is an election strong room which is a complementary to traditional election observation.
InfoNET through Orodha is dedicated to track the actions of the government against its promises.
The objective of Open Contracting is to improve transparency in companies being awarded government contracts and also the provision of adequate evidence to support legal prosecution.
Citizens make the future of the country. Every citizen can do something useful for the development of the country when given a chance. This trickles down to being given access to important information which is key to development. In Kenya, the right to information is enshrined in the constitution. State Summits provide critical information to citizen […]
SautiYetu seeks to contribute to the improvement of Service Delivery through a two-way communication citizen engagement to state channel. This platform/tool allows citizens to amplify their suggestions, concerns and complains directly to the responsible service provider. It also allows for the escalation of non-responsive providers for action thereby improving service delivery. The purpose of Sauti […]
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) adopted in September 2015, by the United Nations General Assembly, will require intense mining of data from public, private, and citizen-generated sources. The essence of investing in high-quality data, from an array of sources, is to enable the country scale effectiveness of projects set to meet these goals. […]
InofoNET’s commitment to openness and transparency drives the organization to work on projects championing causes such as these. With a credible track record of harnessing the use of ICT to enhance civic participation and monitor elections, we provided the Zambia Elections Information Centre (ZEIC) with technological support and capacity building for their work on and […]
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The KEIC situation room model aims to bring together civil society groups, independent management bodies, development partners for the period of the election, sharing information and resources, observation, monitoring, anticipating problems and responding swiftly when they occur ahead of the general elections in Kenya.
Sauti Yetu is an online portal for real time information sharing on service delivery by county governments.
The Ennova Model seeks to develop a complete cycle ecosystem that identifies the gaps, the strengths, the partnerships, addresses the gaps and builds a sustainable model that is actionable at all levels of the ecosystem.
“When citizens are actively involved in their civic and democratic institutions, their community and their nation are stronger, more just, and more prosperous.”
Alan Solomont
