Advisory Board

The advisory Board is comprised of leaders from business, philanthropy, education, and civil society to provide expert advice and guidance to shape our work.

Executive Board

The executive board is charged with overseeing Decipher Initiative Africa’s work, ensuring it maintains its focus on outcomes and results for children and youth across the continent.

Co-founder and Board Member

John Jjumba M is a Co-founder and Board Member of Decipher Initiative Africa. He previously served in the Private Sector - Corporate environment as a Banking Officer and Enterprise Sales Executive with Crane Bank / DFCU and Roke Telkom respectively playing an instrumental role in business acquisition, growth & retention, Customer service & support, strategic prospecting – Cross and Up-selling products. He has previously held various non-profit volunteering and training posts, including as Counselor at Rakai Health Sciences Program HIV/AIDs & PEPFAR SMC Clinical Skills Project, a Volunteer at EQUITY 2012 - Orphans and Vulnerable Children Project, a Volunteer at St Joseph Kitovu Hospital – Community Security & ACT Programs. He graduated with a Honours BA from Kampala International University of Uganda in Conflict Resolution & Peace-building and holds a Certificate in Peace & Conflict Management. A native of Central region Uganda in the District of Masaka – Nyendo Ssenyange sub-county, he completed his Primary School at Bishop Ddungu P/S and High School at Masaka S.S.S. He has lived in Uganda.

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What We Do

#SharedProsperity Campaigns

Our Focus
Our programs and activities focus on harnessing the power of the International Community alongside other diverse Regional and National partners to ensure every Child & Youth including girls and women have the best start in life, a reorganized start, a safe place to learn & thrive, and skills for Future Work.

Our Key Areas: People - Skills - Prosperity

How We Do it

Unlocking development Opportunities.

Our current focus is to open meaningful development opportunities in Information Communication Technology & Digital Technology ICT/DT education financing, Hand/Technical and Core/Soft Youth Skills for Future work to more than half of all young people in schools with emphasis on rural areas and vulnerable children, girls and women by 2030.

To contribute to reaching Sustainable Development Goal 4 of inclusive and equitable quality education for all, and Agenda 2063 Goal 2 of Well-educated citizens and a skills revolution underpinned by Science, technology and innovation.

Forging powerful partnerships

Our programs and projects combine the power of local experiences and journeys with international experiences to harness resources and technical know-how of the business community, youth leaders, civil society, philanthropy, campaigners, academia and our #Shared Prosperity Youth Ambassador Network to unleash the potential of the next generation.

Campaigning and innovating

We identify potential international development & relief opportunities - mobilize our youth ambassadors, business networks and partners to be a voice for change, mobilize resources, and engage in On-the-Ground projects through the #SharedProsperity Campaign

Delivering impact

We identify needy communities, vulnerable groups including children, girls and women and deliver an impact in their lives through our development and Shoe Aid programs. We reach for the hard-to-reach and never let go until we ensure political will, financing, inclusion and innovation meet the needs of the next generation.

We also enable individuals and corporate organizations to engage in other on-the-ground development projects through the #SharedProsperity Action

People

Across the African Continent millions of poor young people go to school without shoes while others have to wear ill-fitting shoes which not only pose health related problems in later life but can also negatively affect their academic and sporting performance, leading to serious problems with self-esteem, which in turn can lead to bullying and feelings of isolation.

This is one of the many critical challenges affecting school going children today, and one key approach to overcoming this challenge is through;

Shoe Aid Initiative

Our shoe Aid initiative is dedicated to ensuring no child in Uganda has to go to school without shoes. As well as addressing poverty issues, the campaign also aims to help address issues of sustainability and recycling cross cutting into Hands-on-skills training to empower young people.

For Taking Action See Shoe Aid Project.

Skills

Although young people around the world are more and more likely to pursue formal education, upon graduation they often find that they are not adequately prepared for the world of work. Because skills relevant to key growth sectors of the modern economy – both technical and “soft” skills – are often not covered in traditional education systems, employers often find a “skills mismatch” between the competencies youth need to succeed in the workplace and those they actually possess.

To make matters worse, Climate change and environmental degradation reduce productivity, destroy jobs and the effects fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable.

This is a critical challenge for today’s youth, and one key approach to overcoming this challenge is through the provision of skills training.

Our campaigns

Youth Skills for Future work

The Youth Skills for future work initiative seeks to scale up efforts to empower and build capacity of young people including girls and women by setting up Hands-On-Skill Hubs with emphasis on Practical Hands-On-Skills training for rural communities, as well as establish an online/ e-learning hub on Core / soft skills for future work and Life skills for youth development.

On the other hand, the transition to a green economy has the potential – if handled correctly – to create tens of millions of sustainable jobs.

Skilling, reskilling and upskilling young people including girls and women with the right knowledge i.e. Core/Soft skills and Life skills; Technical / practical Hands-On-skills, will position them well as the next generation to take decisions, develop and maintain relevant technologies, green production processes and sustainable investment strategies.

Prosperity

ICT & Digital Technology hub growth across Africa has so far been seen as a nexus point for economic growth and ‘techprenuership’ development in Africa. These innovation spaces can be viewed as a catalyst for socio-economic development through creation of technology-led entrepreneurs and youth employment.

However, it is evident that majority of the ICT Hubs are concentrated in the capital cities especially hubs located in university and other government institutions. This is a key challenge affecting ICT advancement for rural areas, and one key approach to overcoming this challenge is through;

ICT / DT Financing Initiative
The ICT/DT financing Initiative aims at scaling up 1 – to – 1 Learning programs and installing Computer labs in rural schools with emphasis on those financially constrained.
It is clear that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to change old and new forms of economic activity. This can result in e-literate groups and unemployed youths having access to resources to develop solutions centered towards their community problems. Such groups would also be able to gain skills and knowledge through exchange of ideas, events and workshops.

Members

We build our members from among individuals and organizations including schools with the commitment to take full advantage of their potential, knowledge and resources to bring about change in form of skills readiness and wellbeing of young people.

Through the Youth Skills innovation network, DIA members have unparalleled access to experts, influencers, mobilisers, and policymakers as they work together to improve access to quality education including; ICT/DT, core/soft skills, life skills for young people to prepare the workforce of tomorrow.

DIA’s assets include the voices, expertise, resources, and innovations of our leaders and members.

Become a Member
__________
By joining us, organizations become part of a global movement to accelerate quality education and economic opportunity around the world for the next generation

Join DIA

Sponsors

Sponsors through the #SharedProsperity CSR network have the opportunity to play their Corporate Social Responsibility, co-create and shape the direction of our campaigns and projects. These companies receive prominent recognition in our materials and at our events.

Development Partners

We identify opportunities for our development partners to engage in on-the-ground projects through the SharedProsperity Action. DIA’s assets include the knowledge, voices, expertise, resources, and innovations of our development partners.

Shoe Aid Project

The Shoe Aid project serves as an avenue of action for businesses that are interested in making a difference in the lives of so many poor young people across the world as part of their business, corporate social responsibility practice, or philanthropy. Our aim is to contribute to the elimination of footwear poverty across the world.

Priorities

The main priorities of Shoe Aid initiative are:

1. To mobilize the global community to donate unused shoes as well as returns or over manufactured stock from footwear manufacturers which we distribute to schools and organizations with a focus on rural areas and vulnerable persons.
2. To mobilize the global community to provide financial support to our organization to help with the logistics and operations.

e-learning hub

The youth skills e-learning hub is a Learner friendly platform, an innovative and modern approach to learning and development. The platform creates a unique learner experience, and easy to use - library of content.

Our current focus is on soft and life skills including; Environmental awareness – sustainable agriculture Sales & Marketing – Communication - Customer Handling - Scheduling & Budgeting – Leadership – Negotiation – Entrepreneurship - Conflict management – Financial literacy – Business plan development etc.

Hands-On-skill hubs

These hubs serve as centers for practical action and safe training to build capacity of young people, including girls and women in product development and value addition in fruit processing, baking, soap making, sewing, tailoring, bead works, crocheting, knitting, tie & dye, shoe making, wood work, wine making as well as training in sustainable agriculture practice including; polyculture, no-till farming, and integrated pest management practices.

PC /Computer labs

Computer labs provide convenient access to reliable computing resources and common software applications. Labs provide an opportunity to children and youth to learn about applications they might otherwise never have a chance to try.

Computer labs come with a key features including; convenient locations, printing & scanning resources, and a variety of standard and specialized software.

1 – to – 1 learning

One-to-one refers to one computer for every student. It is a program that provides students in a school, district, or state with their own laptop, netbook, tablet computer, or other mobile computing devices.

The purpose of 1-to-1 learning is to create confident, flexible, self-directed, lifelong learners. It ensures that all pupils, students have equal access to technology-rich experiences and is also easy to manage and sustain.