By Alawi Masud & Khadijah Chang

Over the past six months, we have established the HackCorruption Alumni Network to connect people who leverage and create civic tech. Although we are beginning our network-building journey, reaching the six-month mark allows us to reflect on our progress and share our lessons.

Why an Alumni Network?

HackCorruption is a project dedicated to creating and supporting tools and ecosystems that counter corruption and make governance more accessible. Our experience implementing HackCorruption across Southern and East Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and most recently, Southeast Asia has shown us the passion and dedication of participants from diverse backgrounds, all united by a common goal—combating corruption through innovative solutions. However, each hackathon’s conclusion left us with a sense of untapped potential. We saw an opportunity to create a global community of like-minded individuals, fostering lasting connections and potential collaborations. An alumni network could provide continuous support, resources, and a platform for these innovators to share their achievements and challenges and to collaborate on new initiatives, thereby making a significant global impact in the fight against corruption.

The Launch: The Alumni Network Takes Shape

We officially launched the Alumni Network with a networking event late last year hosted by Eliud Luutsa, a former participant from Southern Africa. This event began our journey, introducing our initiative, plans, and goals for growing and enhancing this community. The overwhelming turnout and enthusiasm from the alums solidified our belief in the network’s potential. The highlight was the Speed Networking Sessions, where alums from different regions reconnected and met new people, discovering shared interests and everyday experiences despite their geographical differences.

Maintaining Momentum: Workshops and Meet-Ups

In the following quarter, we organized various workshops and in-person meet-ups to keep the momentum going and provide continuous value to our members:

• UX Design Course: We identified the need for better user experience (UX) design, as innovators in our network continuously integrate user feedback to improve their tools. We organized an interactive, expert-led course that equipped alums with practical skills and insights into UX design, enabling them to enhance the usability and effectiveness of their anti-corruption tools.
• Friendraiser Lunch in Kenya: This event brought together Kenyan alumni, Accountability Lab Accountapreneurs from our Accountability Incubator, and members of the Democracy Moves network. Held alongside the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Digital Governance workshop, the lunch provided a platform for attendees to network, share experiences, and explore potential collaborations.
• Panel Discussion in Korea: Co-hosted with an alum during the 3rd Summit for Democracy, this discussion highlighted innovative approaches to combating corruption and governance challenges. It also provided a platform for alums to share their experiences and insights with a broader audience.
• Welcoming Southeast Asia: We expanded our network to include a new region, Southeast Asia. This expansion involved outreach efforts, onboarding new members, and organizing introductory events to integrate them into the network.

Readjusting Our Approach: Embracing a Network Mindset

Building a thriving ecosystem would require a strategic approach and new skills. We underwent training with Kerstin Tebbe from Collective Mind, a social enterprise that helps networks be more effective and impactful. We brainstormed and developed a shared purpose, value proposition for this network, and an engagement strategy tailored to our members’ needs. Our shared purpose became clear: “The HackCorruption network creates and leverages civic technology to help citizens fight against corruption in their respective regions and transnationally.”

Initially, we managed the network from a temporary project management perspective. This approach focused on problem statements, solutions, and deliverables. However, we realized the need for a program perspective that continuously improves and provides value to our alums. Our refreshed framework now centers on vision statements, value propositions, and engagement activities. This shift in mindset led us to rigorously evaluate our activities, ensuring they maximized the network’s value to the alums and integrated continuous feedback to adapt to our members’ evolving needs. We improved how we ran our network by switching from a project management perspective to a program management perspective.
In just six months, we have witnessed numerous success stories and significant impacts from our alum network, each one a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation:

• Collaborative Projects: Alumni from different regions have collaborated on collaborative projects, leveraging their diverse expertise and experiences to develop innovative solutions to common challenges. For instance, a team of alumni from Africa and South Asia collaborated on a project to create a mobile app that enables citizens to report and track incidents of corruption in real-time.
• Resource Sharing: The network has facilitated the sharing of resources, such as research findings, tools, and best practices, among its members. This knowledge exchange has empowered alums to implement more effective anti-corruption strategies in their regions.
• Advocacy and Awareness: Alumni have used the network to amplify their advocacy efforts and raise awareness about corruption issues. They have reached a wider audience through coordinated campaigns and events and influenced public opinion and policy changes.

The Horizon

Reflecting on the past six months of building the HackCorruption Alumni Network, it’s clear that our journey has been one of growth, learning, and adaptation. We’ve navigated challenges, refined our approach, and reimagined our purpose. With over 270 members, the Alumni Network has excellent potential to become a thriving community, fostering connections and showcasing the efforts of anti-corruption advocates worldwide.

Building on what we have learned, we are undergoing a feedback process to understand our alums’ needs and aspirations better. Based on the insights gathered, we plan to expand our activities with more asynchronous, low-barrier-to-entry options and increase regional engagement through collaborations with Accountability Labs in other regions. Additionally, we aim to amplify our alums’s impact by sharing their stories and achievements with a broader audience.

The Alumni Network is not the culmination but the foundation upon which we build an ecosystem for Anti-Corruption Civic Tech. We are thrilled to have reached this milestone in our first six months and remain deeply grateful for the opportunities to learn and grow, which have been made possible by your support and participation. As we move forward, our commitment to providing sustainable value to our alums remains at the forefront, and we anticipate the transformative impact of this.

Accountability Lab