THE CHALLENGE

How do you put youth in the driving seat when you’re developing programmes and policies across Africa?

That’s the question the Mastercard Foundation asked us to answer. It was looking to generate meaningful exchanges between youth and it program teams through SMS.

WHAT WE DID
We designed a youth-centred pilot to test a two-way SMS-based feedback and engagement platform. The pilot leveraged a large youth event in Nairobi to gauge the platform’s viability. Young people across the city collaborated on the event’s development, using the SMS platform to provide feedback on their experience with the event and its outcomes. 

THE RESULT 
The pilot helped us glean youth perspectives so they could act as a a timely source of input for programme decision-makers at all levels. It also amplified the voices of Kenyan youth. The pilot laid the basis for large-scale deployment in Kenya and Ghana.

The pilot has showed that a dynamic open-ended platform that allows for instant feedback and two-way engagement can meaningfully include young people in the design and implementation of programmes that are aimed at them. 

WANT TO SEE MORE?

Check out the project Learning Report which outlines how we designed and tested a prototype of this channel, and shares some of what we learned.