The journey to the establishment of the West Africa Civic Tech Network dates back to the conceptions ideas and birth of Civichive which were built on four major pillars :
- Capacity building and mentoring of civic tech solutions leveraging civic entities: To promote the raising, coaching and mentoring of technology innovators providing solutions to social challenges and promoting civic technology inclusion in Nigeria;
- The business and marketing of technology innovations: To promote the development of the business of technology innovators;
- Hubs of excellence: To establish centers of excellence for capacity development, directly or in partnership with organized private sector, government or parastatals or other corporate bodies.
- Information build up and release: To collect and disseminate data and other information for the purposes of enhancing the development of civic technology activities in NigeriaÂ
In the course of the years, since its founding in 2017 and formal registration in 2021, Civic Hive has in many ways moved significantly towards the realization of these founding ideas and concepts. Interestingly these concepts have expanded beyond the shores of Nigeria, as we realized the immense potential within firstly the West African sub-region to leverage on the youth bulge and our core demography’s enthusiasm and commitment to driving better governance outcomes in their countries through the development of civic tech solutions to address the many challenges of governance including service delivery deficits.
This forward thinking and the need to coalesce conversations across the sub-region among civic tech entities on the state of civic-tech solutions, emerging possibilities and challenges as well as the future in the context of AI, steered our convening the West Africa Civic Tech conference held in Lagos, earlier this year, which in itself was heralded by an hackathon to probe for new ideas of regional replicable solutions. The conference and the hackathon outcomes birthed the establishment of the West Africa Civic Tech Network (WACTN) as a platform for enabling greater collaboration and partnership across the region among civic-tech leveraging civic entities to share ideas on new civic-tech solutions, co-create and develop these solutions, publicize, utilize and monitor the use of these solutions as well as build in scale, marketability, effectiveness and sustainability.
In the course of the last few months, we have worked closely with the screened and most rated solutions from the hackathon earlier in the year, to fine-tune the ideas, connect ideas with solutions developers, undertake dry-runs and prepare for launch and public release of the solutions.
We have birthed three brilliant ideas:
- Observe West Africa: https://observewestafrica.org/Â
- Open West Africa: https://openwestafrica.org/Â
- Know West Africa:Â https://knowwestafrica.org/Â
- OBSERVE West Africa – https://observewestafrica.org/Â
Observe West Africa is a civic-driven platform dedicated to strengthening democracy by promoting transparent and inclusive elections across the region. By tracking, documenting, and analyzing electoral processes, Observe West Africa empowers citizens, journalists, and policymakers with credible information that enhances electoral integrity.
The platform serves as a hub for training citizen observers on how to contribute to credible election observation. It also serves as an election tracker providing real-time updates and comprehensive data across every stage of the electoral process. Importantly, the platform is an open data resource offering accessible, searchable, and reusable election data to support accountability and informed decision-making.
Through this solution, Observe West Africa works to build trust in democratic institutions, serves as a coalescence of election data in the region, and ensures that citizens’ voices genuinely shape political outcomes.
- OPEN West Africa–https://openwestafrica.org/about/Â
OPEN West Africa is a regional platform at the intersection of technology, media, and civic space, dedicated to defending democracy through press freedom and investigative journalism. In an era of disinformation, censorship, and shrinking civic space, OPEN West Africa empowers journalists, and citizens with data, resources, and legal advocacy to strengthen truthful storytelling.
The platform serves as a regional observatory tracking press freedom violations, censorship, and democratic backsliding. It also serves as a space for driving legal and policy reforms to protect journalists and civic rights, and a community of practice connecting journalists, legal experts, and civil society across ECOWAS.
Through a live data dashboard and comprehensive reports, OPEN West Africa documents journalist arrests, media bans, digital surveillance, and civic restrictions, providing evidence-based insights and policy recommendations to safeguard media freedom and democratic resilience in the region.
- KNOW West Africa–https://knowwestafrica.org/about-us/Â
Know West Africa is West Africa civic education and political participation learning platform. Through digital classrooms, interactive tools, real-life stories, and live community forums, Know West Africa makes civic education practical, ongoing, and accessible to all.
The platform offers self-paced modules on voting, governance, elections, accountability, and human rights. It also amplifies real experiences from first-time voters, youths, and everyday citizens shaping democracy. Furthermore it is a platform countering misinformation with verified content while encouraging inclusive political participation, especially among women, youth, and marginalized groups.
By combining education, storytelling, and community dialogue, Know West Africa empowers citizens to make informed decisions, engage responsibly, and contribute to stronger democracies across West Africa.
Local Solutions: Regional Value, Global Relevance.
The three civic-tech solutions focus on three core areas of Elections, Media and Journalism, and Civic Education and Engagement. The interplay between these core issues have had far reaching impact and consequences on the freedoms and well being of citizens across West Africa. As widely observed, the democratic recession globally is particularly acute in West Africa, where coups and democratic backsliding have gained momentum. However, our region is also becoming a crucible for innovation.
We envision these solutions will incrementally improve democracy by enabling greater citizen participation in free, fair, and accountable elections. They will also protect media freedom, journalists’ rights and safety, and revive citizen participation in governance through expanded learning opportunities for all communities, reinforcing their grasp of civic democracy and their roles in countering democracy rollback.
By demonstrating how to successfully integrate these three pillars in a challenging environment, these clusters of initiatives offer more than just tools; it offers a holistic, scalable strategy for democratic renewal that has the potential to inspire and strengthen freedom-seeking people across the globe. West Africa, therefore, becomes not just a focal point of concern, but a beacon of innovation and hope for the future of democracy worldwide.
At CivicHive we are committed to ensuring that these solutions achieve their true potential and can become replicable across Africa. We look forward to reading the stories of effectiveness and impact of the solutions in coming months.
