On 25 to 26 May 2022, UNESCO in partnership with Pwani Tecknowgalz organized a hybrid consultative workshop themed: MobiPeace Hackathon for the development of mobile solutions on peace building initiatives in Kenya. This intervention attracted participation of 50 young girls drawn from Lamu, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nairobi, Kilifi, Uasin Gishu, Laikipia and Marsabit counties in Kenya.
At the opening of the consultative workshop, Ms Misako Ito, Regional Advisor for Communication and Information in Africa at UNESCO stated that:
“We are glad that this initiative is tailored to engage young girls to develop mobile solutions for peace. From this process we expect three mobile applications to be developed in Swahili, Sheng and English languages to help create awareness of positive peace narratives and tackle online hate speech and disinformation ahead of the upcoming elections in Kenya”.
Francesco CARBONI, Regional Crisis Response Planning Officer at the Delegation of European Union in Kenya highlighted the critical role of leveraging technology and media as tools that can potentially foster peace and stability. He said:
“I wish to thank UNESCO for organizing and supporting the Mobile Peace hackathon by girls in Kenya to develop mobile applications for peace in Kenya. I applaud the young girls for choosing to participate in this workshop as this would be beneficial towards ensuring peace throughout the 2022 electioneering period and beyond in Kenya.”
He further highlighted ‘Kijana Jiihusishe’, a youth-led EU-supported peace-building initiative that seeks to strengthen collaborative youth networks towards peaceful 2022 elections in Kenya.
Rana Taha, Peace Development Advisor at United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) applauded UNESCO and EU for supporting the MobiPeace Hackathon and for their commitments towards ensuring peaceful co-existence in Kenya. She encouraged the girls stating that they should ensure that the developed mobile application solutions seek to make a difference in Kenya. She said:
“… specifically, to the girls in this meeting, your ability to engage, to make a difference, to be a historical force of change and to take really the time to reflect on your role as active peacebuilders […] in this day and age, we are still in the process of really defining what peacebuilding through social media looks like, so you are the pioneers, you are the ones that will paint the path and pave the paths for generations to come on what that means and how it’s done”.
In the workshop, Ms. Olive Metet, Assistant Director Communication and Knowledge Management, National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), highlighted the background of NCIC in establishing a peaceful Kenyan society. She further encouraged young ladies to be at the forefront of ensuring peaceful co-existence among Kenyans.
“I encourage the young ladies to rise to the occasion and become our social media warriors in terms of peace messaging”.
Andrew Masila, Innovation Leader at Safaricom PLC stated that digital skills should be at the center of any innovation and digital transformation efforts. He encouraged the girls to continue building a digital ecosystem that will transform society and make it peaceful. Furthermore, Hugue Ngandeu Ngatta, Programme Specialist for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO encouraged the girls to design mobile applications that offer tangible and concrete answers to solving some of the emerging issues and trends related to peacebuilding, particularly tackling hate speech and disinformation.
At the workshop, participants were taken through reflections on the current state of peacebuilding in Kenya by technology experts and peacebuilders in Kenya. Possibilities for cooperation on peace initiatives, and setting up safety and ethics principles around new technologies such as the Metaverse were also explored. In addition, the significance of gamification of peace was also discussed.
Presentations were also shared on the importance of freedom of expression principles and safety in the digital environment and on ‘Una Hakika’ platform that helps tackle misinformation and disinformation by Catherine Muya, Advocate and Program Officer at Article 19 EA and John Green Otunga, Programme Manager at The Sentinel Project respectively. John further encouraged the girls to borrow some inspiration and ideas from Una Hakika platform to inform their co-creation process of mobile solutions for peace.
Other presentations also included; Approaches for ensured safety across METAs platforms and on perspectives and mechanisms for safety and responsibility in Digital Platforms by Suzan Elsayed, Safety Policy Manager (Africa, Middle East, and Turkey) at META and David Muya, Country Director from iEARN Kenya (META affiliate). The young girls were encouraged to apply for the ‘Digital Ambassadors’ programme post the hackathon as young digital peacebuilders at iEARN Kenya.
The workshop attracted participation of organizations such as Search for Common Ground, National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Universities and Colleges Students’ Peace Association of Kenya (UCSPAK) Build Up, The Sentinel Project Safaricom PLC, European Centre for Electoral Support, UNDP Accelerator Lab.
About the Social Media 4 Peace Project
UNESCO’s Social Media 4 Peace project funded by the European Union seeks to strengthen the resilience of societies to potentially harmful content spread online, in particular hate speech inciting violence while protecting freedom of expression and enhancing the promotion of peace through digital technologies, notably social media.
