This workshop focused on gathering ideas from participants on scaling the impact of young voters in countering the polarization and hate speech in Kenya, with the 2022 presidential elections coming up. Maskani is an on-going initiative that currently includes 60 trained university students who are now carrying out digital peacebuilding.Build Up provided an overview of the process the online peacebuilding process. After presenting the context and the process, facilitators asked the participants to help think about how the Maskani process could be scaled up to different contexts. The breakout rooms focused on three distinct areas of scaling: digital tools for scaling; social strategies for scaling; and facilitator incentives for scaling. Watch the recording above to learn more about the rise of online polarization and hate speech in Kenya, the Maskani project and its digital peacebuilders, and listen in on how the combination of online and offline peacebuilding efforts can a strategic avenue to significantly scale the process.
This session featured panelists: Michaela Ledesma (Director of Build Up), Fredrick Ogenga (Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Founding Director of the Center for Media, Democracy, Peace and Security-Rongo University) & Jerry McCann (Senior Advisor at Build Up).