UNFPA
The Ask
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been an issue affecting girls and women in many countries in the world. In a number of African countries, FGM is still widely practiced and continues to affect both the physical and mental health of the women who are forced to undertake the cut for cultural, religious, or any other reasons. UNFPA together with its partners came together to run an FGM hack lab where participants would present innovative ideas to educate, prevent, reduce, and in the long run eradicate FGM from their communities. These ideas would form part of a pitch event during ICASA where the best ideas would get grants to see the ideas to life.
For this to be effective, the participating innovators would have to go through a boot camp where HCD skills would be imparted and shape the ideas into scalable, sustainable, and investable concepts.
The Observation
FGM was a common challenge in all the participating countries and all participants were united in the fight against it. The ideas were of a wide range from mobile apps, web apps, films, community forums, books, and many other possible solutions based on the communities from which the participants came. Internet connectivity was a big challenge in having a remote HCD boot camp. Coupled with timezone differences, multilingual participants, and technological service it was a challenge that we were able to manage.
The Process
In collaboration with other HCD workshop facilitators from across the globe, MADE planned and implemented a 5-day remote boot camp for the participants across 8 African countries. This involved training participants on digital tools for remote workshops, fleshing out the ideas using the Theory of Change, and imparting HCD knowledge in preparation for the pitch event.
The Outcome
The participating innovators got fully immersed in the HCD principle that would shape their ideas and pitches. The ideas were transformed into implementable, scalable, and practical solutions for the fight against FGM. 2 of the participating groups won USD 50,000 grant to bring the ideas to life and were incubated in the UNFPA Innovation lab to help build the solutions.
