CIPESA’s Fellowship Programme

In 2017, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) introduced its fellowship programme. The media fellows aims to raise media understanding of, and its effective and consistent reporting of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) -for-democracy issues in East Africa towards increased quality and regularity of reporting, as well as a greater diversity of voices, in coverage related to ICT, democracy and human rights.

The academia fellows aims to nurture university students’ and early career academics’ understanding of ICT for governance, human rights and development. By engaging members of the academic community, the programme benefits partners of the ICT4Democracy in East Africa network through placements of individuals with skills in fields such as ICT, mass communication, and informatics, within the partner organisations. Ultimately, the programme aims to grow links between the academic community and practitioners in the ICT field for mutual research, learning and knowledge exchange, so as to create the next generation of ICT for democracy and ICT for human rights champions and researchers.

Since its launch, numerous fellows representing east, central and western Africa, as well as Asia and the United States of America have participated in the programme, with a wide range of outputs including commentaries, broadcast content, multimedia content and journal articles. The learning and experiences of the fellows so far have informed CIPESA’s contributions to the to the curriculum review and development for a Masters in eGovernance programme at Makerere University. Furthermore, CIPESA’s engagements with the Makerere University Development Informatics Research Group on the role academics should play to contribute to the national and global development agenda, including through producing actionable knowledge, creating closer linkages with development practitioners and seeking ways to influence policy making.

CIPESA FELLOWS

CIPESA Fellow; Kampire Nadine Temba

Kampire Nadine Temba

Nadine is the Co-Founder and Associate Editor of Afia-Amani Gran-lacs, a community based online media outlet that serves communities in ...
Nelson Otieno

Nelson Otieno

Nelson Otieno Okeyo is a Kenyan litigation and compliance lawyer, academic and a legal researcher. He is passionate about human ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Afi-Edoh

Afi Edoh

Togolese technology enthusiast Afi will study digital transformation and the digital economy in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Togo during the ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Melissa-Zisengwe

Melissa Zisengwe

Melissa is a Program Project Officer with the Civic Tech Innovation Network at Wits Governance School, based in South Africa ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Dunia-Tegegn-2

Dunia Tegegn

Dunia is a legal consultant, who has previously worked as an Almami Cyllah Fellow with Amnesty International (United States) and ...
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Jean Paul Nkurunziza

Jean Paul, a psychology and education sciences graduate of the University of Burundi, has been involved in digital rights policy ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Jimmy-Kainja-2

Jimmy Kainja

Jimmy Kainja is a lecturer in media, communication, and cultural studies at University of Malawi, Chancellor College. His main areas ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Tusi-Fokane-2

Tusi Fokane

Tusi, the former Executive Director of the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), will study the availability and use of digital ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Mohamed-Farahat

Mohamed Farahat

Mohamed is an Egyptian human rights lawyer, specialised in refugees and migration. He is a member of the Steering Committee ...
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Hopeton S. Dunn, PhD

Hopeton is a Professor of Media and Communications at University of Botswana. He is also a non-resident Senior Research Associate ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Astou-Diouf

Astou Diouf

Astou is a lawyer with undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications from Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques (FSJP), l’Université Cheik Anta ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Thomas-Robertson-2

Thomas Robertson

Thomas Robertson is currently a senior at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, United States pursuing degrees in Diplomacy and ...

Tomiwa Ilori

Tomiwa was a Fellow at CIPESA during his Master's in Human Rights and Democratisation programme. The fellowship was as a ...
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Sotheavin Doch

Sotheavin Doch holds a bachelor degree in Environmental Science and a masters degree in Disaster Risk and Resilience. She was a ...
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Wanjiru Mburu

Wanjiru Mburu is an ICT4D researcher who is passionate about using ICT to bridge the healthcare digital divide in developing ...
CIPESA-Fellows-Marvin-Bwire

Marvin Bwire

Marvin Bwire, another fellow from Nairobi, Kenya worked to profile and raising awareness about female genital mutilation in Meru and ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Lilian-Kaivilu

Lilian Kaivilu

Media Fellow Lilian Kaivilu is a multimedia journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, with a keen focus on Innovations, Gender, Health, ...
CIPESA-Fellow-Emmanuel-Kajubu

Emmanuel Kajubu

Media Fellow Emmanuel Kajubu assessed the performance of elected leaders in Western Uganda, a year after they were voted into ...
CIPESA-Fellows-Simone-Toussi

Simone Toussi

Simone Toussi is CIPESA's Francophone/Central Africa Project Officer. a strategic communication’s specialist and consultant, with experience in international organizations, NGOs ...