Collaborating for social change
Human-centred design at the Impact Hub Kigali
Cares Manzi is a design coach working for Impact Hub Kigali in Rwanda. He is driving positive and sustainable change by bringing together entrepreneurs, creatives and citizens.
As part of FutureGov’s work with GIZ, the German government-funded development agency, I worked alongside Cares. So I asked him a few questions about his work.
The two of us met last year as part of FutureGov’s collaboration with GIZ, the German Development Agency. Can you tell us more about the project and its objectives? What does the collaboration look like?
The project aims to strengthen business exchange between refugees in the Kigeme camp in Nyamagabe in the southwestern part of Rwanda, and their host communities.
The project is supporting three teams to run different businesses with a view for them to eventually be independently sustainable. Each team consists of six members: refugees and their host communities together and women and men working together.
One team is changing how goods are transported in Kigeme with a 3-wheel multipurpose motor vehicle called the Agrover. Another is producing and delivering biofertilizer and biogas for cooking to the people in Kigeme through their own biodigester system. The other one is locally manufacturing multipurpose soaps and detergent for the local community.
We worked hand in hand with FutureGov to deliver training and follow up with the teams on the ground. We are basically the ears and eyes on the ground — we gather insights first hand and together with FutureGov come up with ways forward on how to best support the teams.
Your ways of working are human-centred. What role does human-centred design have — or should it have — in international development collaborations?
Human-centred design should be at the heart of international collaborations. There’s no other way to ensure that what you are designing is really what people on the ground need. It allows us to be in touch with reality from the get-go, which also means that the solutions that are designed will have maximum impact.
There are always cultural challenges when organizations with a design focus like Impact Hub or FutureGov collaborate with large government organisations. In this case, the cultural differences don’t only arise from different mindsets, but also from different socio-cultural backgrounds. After your experience with this project, what are your tips for how to make this kind of collaboration a success?
It is important for projects like this to step a little bit away from the traditional way of providing aid to underprivileged societies. I think large government organizations can leverage the expertise in running projects with a human-centred approach provided by organizations like FutureGov and Impact Hub Kigali to maximize impact for the people. There’s really no one-size-fits-all type of solution when working with different communities of people. It is very crucial to understand the local context and come in with an open mind of what outcomes could look like. For instance, it would be easy for you and me to put work into a business and expect a profit in a month’s time. However, it may not be a straightforward endeavour for someone who is not used to making plans for the future, because all of their efforts are needed to get through today and tomorrow. Recognizing this, I think the emphasis should be placed more on process rather than outcomes.
I believe it is more important that a person walks away with skills and knowledge to be able to run their own business or even apply for a job. That business does not necessarily have to be what the project envisioned.
You are still in the middle of supporting the local refugee and host community teams in setting up their own businesses. What are you hoping to see at the end of the project? What are you hoping the participants will take away from it?
I hope for the participants to be able to apply all of the skills and knowledge they are learning to their businesses, daily lives, and future endeavours, as well as share those skills with their fellow friends and family in the community.
———
Cares Manzi is a community lead and design coach working at the @ImpactHubKigali in Rwanda. There, he runs a co-working space and events, and supports entrepreneurs.
