Call for African Innovators in People-Centred Tech
Open Society Foundations–Africa invites African innovators to showcase people-centred peace technologies at a high-energy exhibition during the Summit on People-Centred Technologies in Africa — Nairobi, Kenya, 5–7 October.
Africa remains the world’s youngest region: around 60 percent of the continent’s population is under 25, and the African Union estimates that more than 400 million Africans are between 15 and 35 years old, making youth central to the continent’s peace, governance, and digital futures. This demographic reality intersects with rapid but uneven digital change. Internet use in Africa reached about 38 percent in 2024, while mobile broadband coverage extended to roughly 86 percent of the population, creating major opportunities for youth-led digital organizing, civic participation, and peace innovation, but also exposing deep inequalities in access, skills, and influence. The attached draft concept note further emphasizes that technology now shapes not only communication and mobilization, but also elections, public discourse, policing, extractive economies, and who gets to participate in governance and peace processes.
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The event will combine strategic dialogue with practical showcasing. A central feature will be a call for entries from African innovators, especially youth-led teams, collectives, and community-rooted organizations building technologies, methods, or platforms relevant to peace, policing accountability, critical minerals governance, and inclusion. Selected entrants will be invited to exhibit their work, engage with practitioners and funders, and test how their solutions speak to real governance and peacebuilding needs across the continent.
Identify and elevate locally grounded African innovations that are already contributing to transformative peace, accountable policing, inclusive governance, or conflict-sensitive resource management.
Clarify the governance and ethical conditions required for peace technologies to strengthen justice and public trust rather than deepen harm.
Generate practical insight on how local actors can finance, sustain, and scale promising approaches without losing community accountability or political relevance.
Build stronger connections among youth innovators, community peace infrastructures, civic actors, digital rights advocates, and funders working at the intersection of technology and peace.
Generate a sharper shared framing of peace technologies in Africa, anchored in local realities, political economy, and rights-based governance rather than technological solutionism.
Identify a pipeline of promising African initiatives and innovators for possible accompaniment, visibility, partnership, or future investment.
Surface a practical agenda on governance, ethics, and financing, including the kinds of safeguards, accountability mechanisms, and resourcing models needed for durable and inclusive peace technology ecosystems.
Strengthen a cross-sector network of actors able to carry this work forward through continued exchange, advocacy, and collaborative experimentation beyond the conference itself.
- Prepare an engaging way to showcase your initiative at the Summit (e.g., live demo, interactive display, storytelling booth, short activity, or data visualisation).
- Be present and available to interact with participants, share your journey, and learn from others.
- Contribute to a learning environment that is collaborative, respectful, and rooted in African ownership and perspectives.
A diverse panel convened by OSF–Africa will look at:
- Relevance to one or more of the five thematic areas
- Clarity and importance of the problem you are addressing
- Evidence of local ownership and community anchoring
- Creativity and suitability of your technological or methodological approach
- Attention to ethics, rights, and inclusion
- Demonstrated or potential impact on peace, governance, or social justice
- Diversity across regions, languages, organisational types, and levels of tech sophistication