Civic Innovators from Peshawar present technology solutions that improve the lives of KP citizens

Tech entrepreneurs and leaders from all over the world will gather in Peshawar on May 7-9 for the Digital Youth Summit 2015

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IT Board, Peshawar 2.0, Code for Pakistan and the World Bank have been working together to unleash the youth tech entrepreneurial potential of Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Thanks to the Civic Innovation Fellowship Program 2014, four teams of young innovators from the KPK province, were selected and worked together with government entities to deliver five solutions that can improve the life of citizens. The solutions implemented range from an app that allows users to report electricity theft (No Kunda), to a website (Rehnuma) that explains in a very simple way the requirements for a whole variety of government procedures (e.g. obtaining a driving license), to an app that can send messages in an emergency (Messiah), to another one that allows to locate the nearest government healthcare center (DocSeek), and more.

“We are delighted to support young talents from our province and leverage their disruptive creativity to improve how our public entities deliver their services to our citizens; our youth is an endless source for innovation and the public sector must take advantage of that”, said Farah Hamid Khan, IT Secretary and interim Head of the KP IT Board.

In an effort to further support youth engagement, the KP IT Board together with Code For Pakistan and the support of the World Bank has announced a 2nd edition of the Civic Innovation Fellowship Program aiming at selecting up to 20 young innovators from Pakistan expected to work hand in hand with the KP Government to impact the life of citizens and make the Government more efficient.

These initiatives are only part of what is happening in the Tech Scene of Peshawar, which is emerging as a leading Tech Hub in Pakistan.

Following the overwhelming success of the Digital Youth Summit 2014 – a tech conference and startup expo that brought to Peshawar tech entrepreneurs, e-lancers and experts from all over Pakistan and abroad – the coalition including the KP IT Board, Peshawar 2.0 and the World Bank have announced the Digital Youth Summit 2015, that will take place in Peshawar on May 7-9, 2015. The organizers will release in the coming weeks the name of the top experts and leaders who will be at the event.

The event, supported by prestigious sponsors such as Microsoft and Karandaaz Pakistan, among others, will focus not only on tech entrepreneurship and on-line work, but also on innovative topics such as open data and big data, government 2.0 and the opportunities in the creative industry.

“Microsoft is committed towards developing Skills among Developers & IT Professional across Pakistan and we think there is tremendous potential in KPK”, declared Tahir Masood, Developer Experience & Evangelism Lead of Microsoft Pakistan.

“Karandaaz Pakistan is a private company recently incorporated to promote the use of technology in mobile payments and to foster financial inclusion among other goals; technology is key for our business and it is for this reason that we are proud to be associated with the DYS 2015 . We believe youth is an endless source of tech-based innovations”, declared Steve Rasmussen CEO of Karandaaz Pakistan.

“The Digital Youth Summit is an event that has been disrupting the tech scene not only in KP but also in Pakistan; last year event turned out to be the biggest gathering of young entrepreneurs in Pakistan and this year we want to break new records. Our organization Peshawar 2.0 aims at making Peshawar the city of technology, design and arts and we are honored to be supported by the KP IT Board, the World Bank and other companies and entities that believe in our vision”, explained Dr. Faisal Khan, CEO of Peshawar 2.0.

• For more information about the innovations developed by the Fellows of the 2014 Civic Innovation Program visit: www.codeforpakistan.org/programs/fellowship
• For more information and to apply to the 2015 Civic Innovation Fellowship Program visit http://bit.ly/fellowship2015 – application deadline 28 February 2015.
• For more information about the Digital Youth Summit 2015 (May 7-9, 2015) visit www.digitalyouthsummit.pk – registrations will open on 1 March 2015.

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