Welcome to the “ICT Innovations for Development” Community, made up of the 22 participants to the second edition of the ONG2.0 long-term online training course dedicated to ICT4D. They have different stories, countries of origin and backgrounds but they are all united by a common goal: combine the tech skills with the passion for Development.
We are proud to introduce you our ICT4D Champions
Adelaide Strada
She has nine years of experience in the international cooperation sector working in Northern Albania, Kenya and Tanzania. She collaborated for Associazione Botteghe del Mondo (World Shop Association) coordinating the international Fair Trade work camps and for We World Onlus in the Global Citizenship Education area. She holds a Master Degree in International Cooperation and Development from the Institute of Advanced Studies – IUSS and University of Pavia. Currently, she is Cooperation & Development and Global Citizenship Education Desk Officer for the NGO Deafal.
Aklima Sharmin
Aklima has almost a decade of experience as an education professional-managing and implementing a broad range of activities, including teacher training, material and curriculum development, ICT in Education, instructional technology, and e-learning. Aklima began her career at BRAC Education Program in 2008 and later she has worked at Ankur ICT Development foundation, World Vision, and the British Council. She has a post graduate diploma in Information Technology, Development Planning, along with Masters of Education, and a Bachelor of Education from the Institute of Education & Research, University of Dhaka.
Alice Mantoani
Human rights practitioner, she holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a master’s in Human Rights Law. After her graduation in 2013, Alice undertook a career in the field of international cooperation. She spent the last year in Ecuador, collaborating with the Fundaciòn Alejandro Labaka for the advancement of the collective rights of the Kichwa, Shuar, and Waorani indigenous communities living in the Amazon region.
Boubacar Demba Coly
With several years of experience in the design and the integration of technology solutions, he is an engineer and an expert regarding information systems. Specialist of the technological needs for Africa, Boubacar D. Coly is the CEO of the start-up SUNULAB-TECHNOLOGY which aims mainly at bringing various solutions to the needs of the African populations through computing. Social entrepreneur, actor of development, blogger and cultural activist, here is a Geek and Nerd with a controversial philosophy. He spends most of his time boosting young people through training and workshops on the entrepreneurship but especially in the creation of new concepts such as www.pylafrique.org or www.teemeer.net or still sunuedu.xyz.
Christian Cedric Toé
He is an entrepreneur from the Polytechnic University of Bobo Dioulasso where he graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Maintenance. Christian is currently working with his team in the Incubator of the 2iE (International Institut for Water and Environmental Engineering) Technopole where he develops an equipment for the transport and the storage of vaccines and pharmaceuticals; they are in fact winners of the “Green Startup Challenge 2014”. Passionate about electronics, he dedicates his free time to the training of young people in the use of the digital tools to reduce the technological divide between North and South in the premises of the first space of Digital Manufacturing (FABLAB) of the ‘Ouest Francophone, the’ OUAGALAB ‘.
Collins Afeti Gadawusu
He is a young entrepreneur with a background in Information Studies (BA) and Mobile Computing (PGD). He is the founder of Ghantourist.com (an online tourism platform that seeks to showcase Ghanaian tourism and culture at its best). He worked as a laboratory Assistant at the University of Ghana Computing Systems (UGCS) where he assisted about 50 – 100 students on a daily basis with their research activities while maintaining the efficiency of the lab systems. Collins currently works as an entrepreneur undergoing an incubation training in agribusiness with Agri-Impact Consult (an agribusiness focused company). The incubation centre is located at the outskirt of the capital city in a town called Brekusu.
Dydimus Zengenene
He is an Advisor with the GIZ Southern Africa on Information Communication and Knowledge Management (ICKM) in a project of Climate Change Adaptation and Climate Smart Agriculture which is being implemented in southern Africa. The project is hosted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) through a newly established subsidiary organisation called The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA). His duties entail working with the project in reaching out to target audiences of the project with regard to Climate Smart Agriculture using several approaches and tools including Information Technology.
Enrico Marescotti
Graduated in Development Studies at the University of Padova and with a MS in Local Development at the University of Parma, Enrico has worked with several Italian NGOs in Brazil and Angola promoting cooperatives, micro-enterprises and family agriculture in suburban areas. He collaborated in Brussels with the European Commission, Directorate of Regional Policies, promoting Benefit-Cost Analysis of projects financed by the EU cohesion policies. Currently he is the Country Representative of the NGO IPSIA (Institute for Peace Development and Innovation) in Kenya, where he coordinates a project to enhance agrifood value chains and renewable energies, funded by the Italian Cooperation.
Ilaria Picilli
She is graduated in Architecture at the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy. After her graduation, Ilaria undertook a career in the field of international cooperation. She has seven years of experience working with NGOs in Morocco, Guatemala and El Salvador, in particularly in projects dealing with disaster risk management, habitat and urban planning, water and sanitation, cultural heritage and food sovereignty. Actually she is working for the University of Roma Tre in El Salvador, Central America, in a project to promote cultural heritage and civic participation, funded by the Italian Cooperation. She is passionate about architecture and history, civic design, art-therapy, technology, information and communication.
Innocent Chamisa
Innocent Chamisa-Zimbabwean did his B.Sc. & 1st M.Sc. Degrees in Algeria majoring in Agricultural Sciences. He recently joined the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome- Italy, from Sweden where he was taking a 2nd M.Sc. Degree in Rural Development and Natural Resource Management. Among many other tasks at FAO, Innocent moderated an online discussion of experts and practitioners on Sustainable intensification of crop production systems, available at https://dgroups.org/fao/scpi-h
James Kasindi
Graduate of computer science from the Institute of finance management. Currently, he is an IT Expert at the Economic and Social Research Foundation in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. He saves also as Research assistant and Data Manager on various researches conducted by the Foundation. He has a great passion for innovation and technology for poverty alleviation and human development.
Joseph Laker
He is an ICT Consummate with over 8 years of practical cumulative responsibilities and implementation in the Information Technology field, with abilities in various aspect of ICT Infrastructure management and Implementation. Currently, he is the IT Manager and Head of ICT Department at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor – the largest referral Private Not-for-Profit Catholic based Institution in Uganda, that has operated and survived the very difficult social and economic environment of Northern Uganda. Joseph is Passionate about achieving effectiveness and efficiency by proper application of ICT best practices to streamline business processes.
Keron Bascombe
I am Keron Bascombe creator and editor of the blog Tech4agri.com my small start functions as a social enterprise that seeks to assist young persons in accessing up to date info topics that related to Caribbean agriculture. We agriyouth are forgotten and lack little to no support in terms of motivation and technical or professional support. We aim to change this and in doing so change perceptions about agriculture. We produce a web series that features technology, innovation and successes in agriculture. To do so we are using mobile journalism which is the use of mobile devices, apps and accessories to gather edit and produce content.
Leopoldine Tossou
She is a young Ivoirian woman of 23 years old who has the passion in ICT, community development, women leadership and agriculture. She holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration. She works in Project department at the Foundation Life Builders. She is also President and Founder of SAWLP, an organisation which aims at empowering women in Africa through leadership, entrepreneurship and ICT training. She worked in a project of SAP called ‘Africa Code Week’ which aims at teaching the new language of the 21st century that is Coding. She believes that the inclusive development of Africa cannot be done without ICT and women empowerment.
Marco Rizzo
Interested in the political and economic issues related to International Cooperation, he studies Political Science and International Relations. He attends the International Master Program in Cooperation and Development (CD) at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IUSS), Pavia, with a final thesis on Child Protection and the Regional Response to the Syrian Crisis. Currently, he is in Tyre, South of Lebanon, working with an Italian NGO, INTERSOS, on a UNICEF funded project on child protection and gender-based violence. He writes articles for the University of Rome, LUISS Guido Carli, in a blog used also for academic purpose (http://croie.luiss.it ) on topics related to International Cooperation, Politics and Economics.
Mohamed Amine Chriyaa
Mohamed Amine Chriyaa, is a dData-scientist and GIS analyst (Geographical Information Systems), working as Market Intelligence & CRM Specialist, Syngenta in Morocco. He is iInterested by ICT4D mainly for agriculture and PPGIS for agriculture (Participatory GIS).
Rita Tuhairwe
Rita is an Information Technology Specialist. She has a diverse work history within humanitarian aspects which has exposed her to the diversity of humankind life challenges. Rita is enthusiastic about problem-solving and loves to take advantage of the rich capabilities of Information Systems in aggregating business processes for smarter and quicker responses to life problems and challenges. Currently working in a refugee setting in an organization (HIJRA – Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid) that strives to positively contribute towards improving the living standards of the disadvantaged both under emergency and development dynamics, Rita believes that everyone deserves to live a happy and fulfilling life and that it is everyone’s responsibility to care.
Sadman Sadek
Sadman works in ict4d and social innovation domain where he provides technical assistance to development organizations to design, develop & implement sustainable and scalable ICT interventions for social impact. Through his expertise in human centred design, digital development principles, product design and computer programming he has created eAgriculture, eHealth and eGovernence services that now reaches to millions. Currently, Sadman is working as Team Lead, Service Innovation in mPower and has five years of experience and providing support to three large eAgriculture projects in Bangladesh. He designed SMS, IVR and mobile app based solutions that includes remote ag consultations, agroTips, image based crop diagnostics tools for farmers and extension agent here in Bangladesh that has now adopted by Department of Ag Extension in Bangladesh for scaling up all across Bangladesh.
Sara Bonanni
She graduated from the University of Bologna, with an exchange programme at the University College in London. After the Master, she moved to Brussels for an internship and then to work for an ngo in the field of sustainable development. She then gained a Phd in International Relations from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence in 2013, with a thesis on regional and subregional integration in Sub Saharan Africa, which is soon to be published, and then she started working as communication officer for the Italian Agency for Development and Cooperation in Rome, where she currently live. She is passionate about technology, information and communication.
Stefano Battain
He put one foot, sometimes two, in most continents, first as a student, then as a volunteer and then as a development and humanitarian aid worker. Since March 2015 he is the co-founder with his wife Daniela of the initiative ALTERRRATIVE. The first steps in search of alternatives were in South America and then in India, Stefano has then directed his path towards the University of Birmingham to study an MSc in Poverty Reduction and Development Management at the International Development Department. Only one of the steps that have led him to touch the African ground: Sierra Leone, Tanzania and South Sudan. You can read some stories of his life in Africa on her blog “Notas de Viaje”. Since January 2016, based in Amman, Jordan working with local communities and refugees from Syria on food security and agriculture with the NGO ACTED.