HARNESSING SOCIAL INNOVATIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION IN NAMIBIA

Glowdom is a Namibian digital education tool and software company, a Southern Africa Innovation Edupreneurs award-winner and a national coordinator for UNESCO and SAP YouthMobile, Africa Code Week, Africa Code Challenge, CODEMAO Africa Asia Coding and African Development Bank’s Coding for Employment initiatives in Namibia. In order to consolidate all these efforts that the company is involved in toward building a Namibian tailor-made and sustainable model for youth digital skills foundation through coding, Glowdom created the Coding for Jobs Digital Ambassadors, in-short referred to as C4J. “The C4J initiative is aimed to equip Namibian youth with the skills that are in high demand; skills the labour market requires both locally and globally. This will complement government efforts and will create a positive impact on Namibia’s workforce and lead to economic transformation,” said Sebulon David, the founder and CEO of Glowdom.

Sebulon further stated that the Digital Ambassadors that will go through this program will embark on a three-month course during which they will be equipped with in-demand digital skills, such as software development, digital marketing as well as soft skills, such as problem solving, project management and communication through in-person and hybrid mentorship and incubation approaches. They will then lead a peer-to-peer training model that seeks to expand digital skills to more Namibian youth, especially in rural communities with limited internet connectivity.

In order to meet these objectives, they invite partnership building and dialogue between innovators, partners and communities to the greater good of job creation for youth and women. On that note, Glowdom have developed an engagement process with City of Windhoek to strengthen and support youth social innovations, promote development and transformation, as well as socio-economic development in Khomas region and beyond. City of Windhoek is an institutional and infrastructural support pillar to the C4J initiative, by availing its available resources such as the information resource centers and halls to kick-start the program in Khomas. 

The C4J Digital Ambassadors launch took place at the Khomasdal Community Hall, on the 27th July 2022. It was the first step taken before the implementation of the online portal that will capture and map youth social innovations in the country. The aim for the C4J Digital Ambassadors launch was to engage with the target audience and to obtain structured information for planning a successful implementation. Over 160 people have already subscribed online and 28 young people between the age of 18 to 35 years have attended the in-person launch. So far, 38 youth are already involved in the online learning experience through a community of practice and peer-to-peer training.

“I can’t wait to learn among people with the common interest, a group with a common goal of improving and a group of people who share experiences”, said Emilia Shili, one of the participant that attended the launch. Emilia is a recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Business Systems from the International University of Management.

The main goal of C4J is the strengthening and supporting youth social innovations, both proactive and reactive, for the promotion of youth development and transformation, as well as socio-economic development of Khomas and beyond.

Joining hands with Ministries of ICT, Youth and Education including the private sectors will stimulate sustainable interventions in areas such:

• Promoting youth civic engagement, national integration and unity through inter-cultural dialogue and celebration of a common heritage.

• Indigenous knowledge systems in all sectors including the environment and food security by incorporating values of Ubuntu.

• Advancing Ethical Reactions to address inequality, the safeguarding of intellectual property, conflict resolution, fake news and anti-corruption.

• Supporting youth social entrepreneurship e.g. in cultural creative industries, media and communication, community development, etc.

Through these efforts it is expected that there will be:

• Increased participation of young people in national socio-economic development

• Increased youth employment, youth civic participation

• Increased number of youth social innovations formally identified and captured

“It is very important that we build upon the success of the C4J in Khomas to take digital literacy to the grassroots. The community-based model will ensure that the youth in rural and township areas are digitally empowered, which further affirms the City of Windhoek’s commitment to raising the next generation of digitally enabled youth and women in Namibia and beyond,” said Samuel Kamati, City’s, Social Worker.

The C4J Digital Ambassadors initiative aims to achieve at least 50% women participation by collaborating with women’s groups and strongly encouraging women to be part of the program.

Edupreneurs Finder https://edupreneurs.ahaa.glowdom.com/