PROGRAMME → PRACTICE
Civic Tech Fellowship, cohort 2: prepare a delivery portfolio
The closed 2023 fellowship shows how technical skills can support a civic organisation. Use it to build evidence of what you can deliver.
- Define the partner’s gap
- Show relevant evidence
- Test with intended users
- Document the handover
The historical offer
Code for Africa’s second cohort followed its 2022 pilot. The call described placements lasting four to six months for experienced digital, data, design and technology practitioners. It is marked closed, with a 19 February 2023 deadline. Its full-time stipend was USD 1,550 a month; that figure is a historical term, not a current salary offer.
A placement needs a defined task
An organisation may need a service prototype, clearer information architecture or a reproducible data workflow. Write down the user, the existing difficulty and the delivery boundary before selecting a technology. A portfolio should explain the applicant’s contribution, decisions and evidence. A screenshot alone does not show whether a service worked for the people it was meant to serve.
Show how you work with others
The call emphasised multidisciplinary work, human-centred design, open knowledge and reliable tools. Prepare a short case study with a problem statement, your responsibility, a test and the changes that followed. Identify who maintains the work after handover. Share only material you are authorised to publish, and remove personal information from demonstration datasets.
Turn skills into a placement plan
Match one delivery gap to one skill. Agree a test with the partner, record the available time and name an acceptance decision. Keep a weekly decision log rather than listing activity alone. At handover, provide operating instructions, known limits and the next owner. This planning exercise does not reopen the 2023 recruitment process.
Try the method
Example portfolio entry: “I prepared a reproducible public-data import, documented the source and licence, and tested missing-value handling.” Add your actual evidence and contribution; do not invent a partner, user test or outcome.
- Partner delivery gap
- Evidence of your contribution
- Acceptance test
- Maintenance owner