Panelists Maggie McDonough (on monitor), Gigi Raffo (center), and Blair Glencorse (right) with moderator Maiko Nakagaki.
International development organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of engaging youth in efforts to improve governance around the world. Youth in most societies are consistently more adept at using technology and recognizing its impact. Harnessing their energy and creativity to improve government policies and service delivery, through incorporating youth ideas and feedback, is a focus for a number of programs developed by CIPE and other organizations.
This week’s podcast is a recording of an event CIPE co-hosted yesterday with OpenGovHub. The event was held in honor of International Youth Day, which took place on August 12. The event was a panel discussion on the topic Leveraging Youth and Technology for Governance Reform. The discussion was moderated by CIPE’s Program Officer for Global Programs Maiko Nakagaki.
The three panelists were:
Gigi Raffo – Fellow at Atlas Corps and social media manager at Venezuelan think tank, CEDICE. Gigi provides interesting and useful insight into engaging youth for reform initiatives, particularly in repressive societies where the space for civil society is limited. Gigi has been a guest on CIPE’s podcast before where she talked about what everyday life is like in Venezuela these days and opportunities for youth.
Blair Glencorse – Founder and Executive Director, Accountability Lab, an incubator for creative, youth-driven ideas for accountability and transparency around the world. Blair talks about how Accountability Lab engages youth through the intersection of popular culture and technology. The Lab’s Integrity Idol competition that is currently underway in Liberia, Pakistan, Mali, and Nepal is an innovative and impactful example of their work. You can also hear more from Blair in a previous CIPE podcast here.
Maggie McDonough – Director of Programs & Strategy, North America at SoukTel, a company that builds custom digital solutions for aid and development projects. Maggie joined us from Ramallah (via Skype) and provided helpful insights about when custom solutions are needed for projects, her experiences working on youth-focus projects, and what works best in terms of technology solutions for youth advocacy and engagement.
We hope you enjoy the conversation!
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on your Android device.
Listen to past episodes of our show here.
Like this podcast? Please review us on iTunes to help other listeners find the show.
*We apologize for any sound fluctuations due combining the Washington DC sound feed with the Skype feed in the podcast recording.
