Not
less than hundred persons representing
civil society organizations, social
media activists, university students,
government officials and the private
sector in Sudan came together on
Tuesday 24th September to participate
in this year’s Social Good
Summit.
The main discussions and debate
focused on the role of social media
and technology in advancing the
development agenda in Sudan with
special emphasis on the active role
of youth groups in this process.
During the two hour meet up, Sudanese
youth presented their experience
in using technology to serve communities
in Sudan through the creation and
implementation of innovative ways
to help those in need. Khartoum
University students in collaboration
with UNICEF outlined their initiative
to monitor school kits distribution
using simple SMS systems in Mobile
phones to reach remote areas. In
addition, students from Afhad University
for Women presented their experience
in creating traditional stoves for
women that are both affordable and
climate friendly using solar energy.
The second part of the debate highlighted
how Sudanese youth have used social
media in recent times for development
purposes. An organization titled
“Education Without Borders”
relayed its experience in mobilizing
youth for the restoration of school
buildings and other educational
campaigns using their facebook and
twitter accounts.
A similar presentation was made
by Nafeer youth group who have used
Social Media heavily during the
recent flooding in Sudan to mobilize
support for flood victims. Nafeer
facebook page have managed to gather
and register 6000 volunteers to
help victims via the organization
of emergency and medical groups
to address different needs in different
locations.
The event presented an excellent
opportunity for all those present
to find out how technology and social
media were best used in Sudan to
serve development goals. Simultaneously,
a virtual summit on facebook was
organized to invite thousands of
Sudanese both in Sudan and the diaspora
to voice their thoughts on the world
they want to live in 2030.
One
of the main outcomes of the event
was to generate discussion on global
development issues and how these
groups could better coordinate amongst
themselves and further engage with
UNDP through their sharing of innovative
ideas on our social media channels
(twitter , facebook etc...) .
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View more photos on Flickr
