Ten years since Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) started operating in Rwanda in 2010, there is a lot to celebrate for the youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge, and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities.

The event dubbed "A Decade and Beyond: DOT Rwanda's Youth at the Centre of Inclusive Growth”, was held virtually on March 31, 2021 to celebrate the impact the organization has had on the Rwandan young community and take a look at future programming. 

The celebration was graced by the Honorable  Minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi; Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Founder and CEO, Janet Longmore;  Head of Mission - Office of High Commission of Canada to Rwanda, Francois QuenneVille Dumont; the Chief Executive Officer for Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), Dr Usta Kayitesi; Director-General of Imbuto Foundation, Sandrine Umutoni; Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Yves Iradukunda;  Country Director for Girl Effect, Samantha Diouf; DOT Rwanda and DOT Network staff members; DOTYouth Alumni and other DOT Rwanda’s implementing partners.

Over the last decade, DOT Rwanda has established a strong and innovative alumni network of 821 youth digital champions, community leaders, and social innovators, who have empowered their peers and community members.

Through the initiative, 109,000 (50% women) Rwandans in total have been empowered with digital, entrepreneurial and leadership skills, resilience, and networks to secure and create meaningful livelihoods and contribute to the development of their communities.

Honorable Minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi.

Speaking at the event, Honorable Minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi highlighted that since 2012, DOT Rwanda has been a key partner of the Ministry of Youth and Culture in the youth empowerment agenda, but most importantly in the Youth Connect programme. She hailed the organization’s contribution to the evolution of the programme.

‘’For us, ten years of your operations in Rwanda has been an added value and an additional hand to the government of Rwanda towards economic development and we are confident that, with ‘Daring to Shift’ you are going to have much more contribution and be on the frontline empowering young people in Rwanda,” Mbabazi said.

Africa Regional Advisor and DOT Rwanda Country Director Violette Uwamutara.

Africa Regional Advisor and DOT Rwanda Country Director Violette Uwamutara, said the past decade is worth celebrating amplified youth voices, meaningful and inclusive engagement by leaving no one behind through intentionally seeking equal participation of young women and people with disabilities as champions, role models, consumers and collaborators.

"What I have learnt over the last 10 years, is that, when youth are supported on their journey, to analyze issues in their communities, identify local challenges and start creating solutions that respond to those challenges, the change is transformative and we have thousands and thousands of inspiring examples of youth finding and creating real solutions,” Uwamutara said.

Uwamutara shared a few lessons that stood out across DOT Rwanda’s journey over the decade stressing that it’s very important to align initiatives with those for the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) as well as the sectoral policies and strategies.

"The lessons that we’ve learnt from working with young people is that youth voice matters,  youth must have a seat at the decision-making table; each youth’s journey is unique and there is need for flexible and needs based programming; peer-to-peer network is a powerful resource for fostering inspiration, creativity, and resilience; it is important to consider hybrid nature of social entrepreneurship model when facilitating access to finance; technology is an essential tool and an enabler to scale up impact.  Although technology is an equalizer, there is still a huge gender digital divide, that requires innovative models to bridge the gap”, she added.

According to the DOT Founder and CEO, Janet Longmore, it is important to take a moment to celebrate and reflect back on ten years because it's not easy to build an enterprise that has a track record and the impact that DOT Rwanda has had.

DOT Founder and CEO, Janet Longmore.

"From the ten years, the progress has been made and what stands out from me is that DOT Rwanda’s impact has been significant on Rwandan society. DOT Rwanda is well-positioned for the next ten years of impact, growth and agility,” Longmore said.

Looking forward to the next decade, Longmore launched a four-year project dubbed ‘Daring to Shift’, a major global project of DOT, which places young women at the centre of inclusive growth and enhances the economic inclusion and resilience among unemployed and underemployed youth and their communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East regions. The initiative is made possible with support from Global Affairs Canada

In partnership with the World Bank, EQUALS Access Coalition and GSMA, DOT Rwanda will implement the Digital Skills for Business (DS4B), another project, which was launched during the event. Through the project, DOT Rwanda will provide young women, owners of small, micro and informal businesses with the digital skills for business.

Francois Quenneville Dumont, Head of Office, High Commission of Canada in Rwanda congratulated DOT, and DOT Rwanda in particular for shaping innovation and for providing a much-needed space for youth-led creative learning experience. He spoke of women facing unique barriers to accessing digital tools, and leveraging equal access to digital entrepreneurship skills. "As technology plays a more important role in young people's livelihood, the digital divide remains a critical gap to fill”, he added. Canada welcomes initiatives such as DOT that aims to support designing technology for women with women and more importantly by women.  Acknowledging that DOT is contributing to a network of role models, and mentors that enable young girls to learn, share and grow in the digital economy ecosystem.”

Three DOTYouth Alumni, Anastase Ndagijimana, Founder of We Got Your Back (WGYB) Rwanda; Jeanne Bovine Ishemaryayo, Founder of Calm Geek Ltd and Papy Sibomana, Founder of Broiler Home Ltd attended the celebration and shared their testimonies.

Papy Sibomana, a young person with visual impairment was recently awarded a Chevening Scholarship by British government, and is currently completing a Master’s of Science in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at University of Portsmouth in the UK. Papy credits DOT Rwanda to have been a platform and a space for him to learn and grow, contributing to his current and future aspirations. He called for action to both his fellow youth living with disability to look past disabilities, and focus on their competencies. He also called institutions, public and private, to be deliberate in their inclusion for people with disabilities.