Chiamaka Ajeamo
Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), in collaboration with British Council and Beetfreeks Collective have announced the launch of New Narratives Pilot, a co-creation lab pilot designed to prototype solutions that help stimulate more plural and diverse narratives to solve the problem of singular, outdated narratives between Africa and the United Kingdom (UK).
According to CcHUB, this partnership will bring 40 digitally-savvy young professionals from both places together to develop prototypes to address this challenge.
The pilot, a first of its kind is part of a 5-year programme sponsored by the British Council and delivered by both partners is projected to strengthen Africa – UK relationship and birth a more mutual cultural, social and economic benefits while supporting young people to generate and disseminate a new and refreshing narrative of both places in order to foster new and stronger collaborations that will achieve new, Africa/UK understanding that unlocks new connections and contribute to the mutual benefit of both locations.
Scheduled to take place between February and April 2020, the first stage of the programme will see 40 young people comprising 30 Africans and 10 Brits participate in two residential labs in Kigali and Birmingham to develop exciting, new ideas that contribute to new narratives between Africa and the UK.
Moses Anibaba, Regional Director, Sub Saharan Africa region of British Council speaking on this partnership said: “Africa’s rapidly growing youth population is the most significant factor for the future of the continent; their relationship with the UK has huge ramifications for our shared prosperity and security. New Narratives aims to contribute to ensuring that this future relationship is based on more up-to-date, correct and complete narratives generated through new connections and strong engagement between young people in both places.”
On his part, Co-founder and CEO, CcHUB’s Bosun Tijani, said: “The New Narrative Programme comes at an exciting time for the continent when young people across Africa are extremely intentional about the relationship between African countries and the rest of the world. With the immense opportunity that modern-day technological platforms bring, building these connections through a people-to- people approach provides not only a unique opportunity to co-create shared prosperity, but also take collective ownership for our stories.
“In a series of design-thinking, capacity-development sessions, the CcHUB Design Lab through its multi-disciplinary team of product designers and engineers will support the participants to explore the application of Human-centreed Design (HCD) to create fresh, diverse and innovative solutions for richer narratives,” he said.
Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) is an innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. CcHUB is Nigeria’s premier living lab designed as a space where work to catalyse creative tech ventures takes place. The yhub is Nigeria’s first open living lab for technologists, entrepreneurs, tech companies, investors and hackers in and around Lagos. Over the years, CcHUB has provided technological solutions to various sectors of the economy including education, public health and governance through the various projects the hub is actively engaging in.”