Integrated youth engagement service module for government
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Helping Tanzanian government create greater youth engagement at local authority level. The goal was to enable and incentivize local government authorities (LGAs) to address adolescents girls’ needs through better youth engagement strategy.
My role: Design Researcher, Service Designer
The project aims to support the local policy implementation of the new National Act for adolescent health which is cross-sectoral effort for Government of Tanzania.
As the project outcome, we co-designed an integrated modular service that can serve as an overall feedback loop between adolescent girls needs and Local Government Authority policies and implementation. The proposed service module offers a pathway to address the six pillars of the new National Act by focusing on underlying socio-economic and cultural factors that limit ability of adolescents to take actions for their own health.
| Design research activities | Proof of concepts | Research download with local facilitators | Experiential prototyping: radio and SMS feedback |
With the guidance of Tanzania’s PO-RALG* office, the project was strategically conducted in three different locations for research, co-design, and prototype testing.
Throughout the entire process, we collaborate closely with officials to build up a relationship and map out the complexity of youth engagement ecosystem at the local government units. On the other hand, we interview with females at different ages either as peers group or inter-generational setting to understand Tanzanian girls’ needs.
*PO-RALG: President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government
In the meantime, every solution iteration was validated with Local Government Authority (LGA) to guarantee the new services are designed for their value proposition as well. There’s no clear strategic direction nor resources for local officials to do the job. Currently, LGAs are not incentivized to work with youth groups, it’s merely a top-down policy command.
As each LGA is differently enabled, the integrated service was designed to be modular so that it can be adapted for or integrated into existing programmes or individually implemented as stand-alone solutions.
Each service component was developed with exhaustive service blueprints and can be adapted to any district through small-scale testing and piloting activities.
On a high level, coming in as a foreign consultant working with Tanzanian government, it was extremely critical to first learn about the institution’s hierarchical structure in order to work with them.
On a project level, identifying key players who are in and/or behind the scene of engaging adolescents in Tanzanian governmental structure and involve them along the design process was crucial for the project’s success.
On a high level, coming in as a foreign consultant working with Tanzanian government, it was extremely critical to first learn about the institution’s hierarchical structure in order to work with them.
On a project level, identifying key players who are in and/or behind the scene of engaging adolescents in Tanzanian governmental structure and involve them along the design process was crucial for the project’s success.
Interested to know more?
Drop me a line. I’m always happy to meet new people and chat over coffee!
hello.fangyi@gmail.com