Tech + Society Fellowship

Tech + Society Fellowship

Host Organizations

Fellows are required to identify at least one of the host organizations below that they wish to partner with over the course of the fellowship to deepen impact in their communities. Fellows will be expected to split their time working on an independent project as well as collaborating closely with an organization to support them from a technology perspective to increase the impact on the host organizations ’communities.

The fellows and host organizations will collaboratively build a plan for how to best approach the issues that both have identified as priorities to address over the course of the fellowship, taking into consideration pertinent dependencies and parameters.

The organizations that a fellow can choose to try and match with (as candidates will indicate in the application process) are below. Fellows and organizations will have an opportunity to interview one another before final decisions are made.

Middle East and North Africa

  • Arab Reform Initiative

    Arab Reform Initiative is an independent think tank working with expert partners in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond to articulate a home-grown agenda for democratic change as well as social and environmental justice in Arab countries. It conducts research, policy analysis, and advocacy, and provides a platform for inspirational voices based on the principles of diversity, impartiality, and gender equality.

    Arab Reform Initiative is interested in collaborating with a fellow on any of the following topics: AI regulation; women, peace, and cybersecurity; or youth political activism online and democratic participation. Exploring their own potential use of AI, assessing their digital risk, and strengthening cybersecurity practices have been identified as priorities for the organization.

    Location: remote, offices in Beirut, Paris and Tunis
    Languages: English required, Arabic would be a plus

  • Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights

    Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (in French Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux – FTDES) is a nongovernmental, non-partisan, and independent organization. It was founded in 2011 to fight for people’s economic and social rights at the national and international level. FTDES is working on the following themes: labor rights, women rights, environmental rights and migrant rights.

    FTDES has identified a priority around enhancing its presence in the digital space of social action. They are looking to better understand the technical challenges they’re encountering and how they could direct resources toward solutions. Other areas of focus for FTDES are tailoring the user experience to communities with limited digital literacy and implementing a new open data policy as well as a digital security program targeting key beneficiaries.

    Location preference for fellow: Hybrid, visits to the Tunis office encouraged
    Languages: English and French required; Arabic is a plus

  • L'Art Rue

    L'Art Rue is a space of creation, experimentation and research between practices and cultures. Its activities are organized in six programs: Artistic Residences, Art & Education, Dream City Festival, Debates & Thinking, Internships & training, and Grantmaking & mentorship. L’Art Rue also collaborates with many international partners and uses the digital medium in its programs.

    L’Art Rue is looking to collaborate with a fellow on any of the following topics: Arts + AI, digitizing festival experiences, and digital safety and security. Digital transformation to improve community impact is one of the key challenges L’Art Rue aims to address in 2024, both regarding its internal digital understanding and incorporating more digital elements into the festival, communications, and documentation. Designing programs addressing the opportunities/challenges of this transformation in the arts sector is a new area of exploration for the organization.

    Location preference for fellow: Tunis. Open to remote fellowship. Frequent visits to the Tunis office encouraged.
    Languages: English and French required

India

  • Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability

    Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) is an Indian think tank working for improved public policies and budgets in India through budget analysis and dissemination. Its efforts are mainly for building greater transparency, accountability, and people’s participation in budgets and governance processes. One of CBGA’s flagship initiatives is the Open Budgets India (OBI) portal, which is the largest open data repository of government budgets at different levels in India. By providing budget data through digital technology, OBI intends to enhance civic interactions with budgets, and building fiscal and governance transparency.

    Strengthening OBI’s digital systems to optimize access to and analysis of budget data by multiple stakeholders is a key priority for CBGA. They are also working to identify and deploy strategies for developing a cloud of actors with essential capacities, in order to grow and sustain such initiatives.

    Location preference for fellow: Delhi or hybrid with frequent visits to the Delhi office
    Languages: English required

  • Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management

    Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization working in the area of Natural Resource Management (NRM) primarily in the rural areas in Maharashtra.

    SOPPECOM is looking to collaborate with a fellow to address issues around digital inclusion and web literacy of women farmers. Two key priorities for SOPPECOM are improving communications between their teams and the communities they serve, and develop skills in technology to support their programming.

    Location preference for fellow: Remote with frequent visits to the office and field work in Maharashtra
    Languages: English and Hindi required, Marathi a plus

Brazil

  • Data_Labe Association

    data_labe is an organization that collects and disseminates data on Brazil's favelas and peripheries in a citizen-based and participatory way.

    data_labe is looking to collaborate with a fellow on issues around digital security in the work they do to support internet access in the favelas.

    Location preference for fellow: Latin America
    Languages: English and Portuguese or Portunhol required

  • Peregum Institute

    Peregum (Instituto de Referência Negra Peregum) is a non-profit organization created in 2019 by education activists. Its mission is to strengthen black and marginalized populations, with and through black movements, by bringing urgent demands to the center of debates and social practices, transforming public policies, and advancing an anti-racist society.

    Addressing the technological challenges in reaching the communities they support and increasing engagement beyond academia are key priorities for Peregum.

    Location preference for fellow: Remote
    Language: English and Portuguese required

Mexico

  • Documenta

    Documenta is a Mexican organization focused on honoring and amplifying the voices and experiences of people affected by injustice. They do this through different strategies including legal accompaniment, research, advocacy and artivism. The two-track approach they’ve developed directs their efforts to strengthening capacities of groups affected by the justice system; and providing technical assistance to justice institutions to promote structural changes from within.

    Documenta is interested in collaborating on the following topics: chatbots, data security and automations. They have also identified a need to assess their portfolio of tech related work and develop a digital strategy.

    Location preference for fellow: Hybrid with frequent visits to the office in Mexico City
    Languages: English and Spanish required

  • Information Group on Reproductive Choice

    Information Group on Reproductive Choice (Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida – GIRE) works on three priority issues from a feminist and human rights perspective: abortion, balancing work with reproductive life/care, and reproductive health (obstetric violence, maternal mortality, and assisted reproduction).

    GIRE is interested in collaborating with a fellow on projects related to any of its core priorities. They have also identified priorities around strengthening how they serve the community, aligning with technology developments, and best practices for managing sensitive data.

    Location preference for fellow: Hybrid with frequent visits to the office in Mexico City
    Languages: English and Spanish required

East Africa

  • Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders

    Coalition for Grassroots Human Rights Defenders works primarily for the community protection and support of human rights defenders in Kenya. They seek to streamline the voices of grassroots human rights defenders in Kenya fighting human rights violations and supporting women’s rights. The Coalition strengthens the capacities of human rights defenders to work more effectively, besides advocating for favorable legal, policy and institutional environments in order to reduce their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and or harm.

    Shifting the narrative around technology and developing best practices in regard to data collection and storage are priorities identified by the Coalition. Their goal is to empower communities with digital literacy and help the communities they serve to not be victimized by online spaces.

    Location preference for fellow: Remote in East Africa
    Languages: English required

  • Siasa Place

    Siasa Place is focused on civic education and public participation. They aim to empower citizens with information and tools to engage in the democratic processes.

    Siasa Place is looking to collaborate with a fellow on issues related to tech policy and workers’ rights. The organization works to educate people working in the tech industry around expectations and their rights. They have plans to engage global partners and are focused on platform workers and content moderation.

    Location preference for fellow: Nairobi, Kenya
    Languages: English required