DataFest Africa is an event that seeks to celebrate data use in the East African region by bringing together various stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, such as government, civil society, donors, academics, students and private industry experts, under one roof and theme.
With each edition, DataFest Africa has continued to evolve and push the boundaries of what is possible in the field of data science. Pollicy, with support from partners has been organising the annual festival which has so far transformed from a Kampala edition (DataFest Kampala) to an African regional edition (DataFest Africa).
DataFest Africa has been held four times: In 2019, 2021,2022 and 2023. The first data festival was held in Kampala, Uganda on 6th and 7th March 2019, under the theme of; “the use of data in decision-making for both the public and private sectors.” The 2021 event was held on 29th and 30th April under the theme “Living with Data.” In 2022, the festival was held from 10th June to 7th July under the theme; “Big Data, Little Data and Everything Between” and in 2023 the main event was held on 12th July and 13th July under the theme; “Turning the Data Tables: No gender equality without data equality”. The theme this year is built around the idea of harnessing Data & Technology for Africa’s Transformation.
The Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) will be hosting the panel discussion "Leveraging data for advocacy: Research and policy recommendations in Africa" on >Wednesday 17 July from 15:00 -16:00 local time.
In this panel, FIRN will start a conversation around the meanings of leveraging data for advocacy. Invited guests for this session are - POLLICY, WOUGNET, CITAD, and Mozilla Foundation. Based on the research expertise and experience of these institutions, we hope to re-centre research as an entrance point to identifying geopolitical complexities, understanding intersecting realities of tech-related issues and on the importance of leveraging data for feminist advocacy and challenging the status quo.
Speakers:
- Phillip Ayazika, Director of Programs, Pollicy
- David Iribagiza, Programme Manager, Information Sharing and Networking, Women of Uganda Network
- Y.Z. Ya’u, Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD)
- Chenai Chair, Lead Africa Innovation Mradi and My Data Rights (Africa) founder
Host: Tigist Hussen, APC
Discussion points:
- How to challenge the working culture of civil society organisations in Africa, similar to elsewhere, and the tendency to devalue research and consider 'realities' are self-explanatory ? (Y.Z. Ya'u )
- How to leverage data with feminist empirical research standards that highlights the situatedness of the researcher, partiality of perspectives and the limitations that emerge from such knowledge. (Chenai Chair)
- How to rethink dissemination of research knowledge and data beyond the policy recommendations that primarily targets higher level stakeholders in the global north? how to make sure of the transferability of knowledge between different social groups and communications (David Iribagiza)
- How to strategise and work towards investing on knowledge building and research so that empirical research findings are accessible primarily for the African population and stakeholders in Africa (Philip Ayazika)
