Speakers

Invited Leaders, Innovators and Researchers from the I4C Network

Innovation for Change (I4C) is a global network of people and organisations who want to connect, partner and learn together, using innovations to defend and strengthen civic space and overcome restrictions to our basic freedoms of assembly, association and speech.

From the seven connected hubs across the global south, I4C's social and civic innovation approaches are designed to develop local, focused and inclusive approaches, knowledge and tools to solve civic space challenges in seven regions – Africa, Central Asia, East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, the Blue Pacific, South Asia. You can access the public gallery of innovations to address civic space challenges here: https://innovationforchange.net/en/innovation-gallery/ .

Jennifer Orochi Aciko

A Human Rights Defender. Currently a Senior Grants Specialist with Innovation for Change- Africa Hub managing grants and donor relations. Served as an Interim Board Member for Africa Hub. Also serving as a Steward for the Innovation for Change Global governance Circle. Areas of expertise in Organizational Development and Management. Served as Senior Program Officer at different organisations including DefendDefenders, Save the Children(US), Regional Centre for quality Health care and CDC Makerere University SPH programs.

Mariam Afrasiabi

Senior Civil Society Advisor in the Civil Society and Media Division at USAID's Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.

Kara Andrade

Kara Andrade is a Senior Innovation Specialist for Counterpart International's Innovation for Change Initiative which supports and starts-up regional innovation hubs in 6 regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia and Pacific. Kara Andrade is also a PhD candidate at American University’s School of Communication. She is a researcher, journalist and entrepreneur who focuses on Latin America, media, technology and society. During her work as an Ashoka fellow and co-founder of HablaCentro Informatics NFP and LLC, she created a network of citizen journalism and information sharing hubs in Latin America that shared reliable and timely updates from the ground during crisis. Her work through her social venture, her research and at Counterpart focuses on the adoption and implementation of innovations to solve common democracy problems.

Jamila Asanova

Executive Director of the Civil Society Development Association (ARGO). Jamila has more than 20 years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector. Since 1996 she served for the local and an international nongovernmental organizations. From 2004 till present, she has been an Executive Director, ARGO. Over the whole period, she has been actively involved in the formation and development of democratic civil society in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

She is a specialist in the area of organizational development, project development and management, and is an expert in project and program evaluation. Jamila Asanova developed and conducted more than 500 training workshops and sessions for civil society and international organizations, corporate clients, as well as more than 500 conferences, seminars and round tables, and performed more than 50 program evaluations.

Rajae Boujnah

Regional Hub Manager for Innovation for Change Middle East and North Africa hub. Experienced program manager and civil society actor with comprehensive work experience in NGO management, fundraising, advocacy, diplomacy and community outreach. Has written and spoken about issues related to social accountability, parliamentary openness, countering violent extremism and online citizen engagement in the MENA region.

Derek Caelin

Derek is an Innovation and Data Senior Specialist at Counterpart International. He is a techie and data guy looking to make the world a better place with things that go "beep". (Or, depending on the day, defending people from things that go "beep".) He has helped nonprofits, activists, and journalists in around the world to apply tools to communicate, to organize, to capture data and extend their impact. For the past two years, Derek has worked on the Innovation for Change project, building the team's data collection infrastructure and helping network members learn about and explore new technologies.

Guillermo Correa

Guillermo Correa - political scientist and Master in International Relations - is cofounder and Executive Director of the Argentine Network for International Cooperation- RACI, the argentine national platform of NGOs.

Working in the civil society sector for the past 18 years, he worked for 5 years for the Argentine Chapter of Transparency International. In 2006 he became fellow at the Kettering Foundation and since then he´s been collaborating with it. From 2013 to march 2016 he was also the Executive Director of HelpArgentina- a US based nonprofit organization promoting philanthropy in Latin America.

In 2016 he became part of the Board of Directors of CIVICUS. In 2018 he was elected as Co-Chair of the Civil 20 during Argentina´s presidency of the G20. He teaches in various universities in Argentina and around the world.

Noel Dickover

Noel Dickover is the Chief of Party for the Innovation for Change project at Counterpart International. He has convened technologists and civil society leaders in over 30 countries around the world for learning engagements. Noel is an expert at leading and innovating in complex, distributed networks. He has supported 5 different Federal agencies in writing policy, designing, leading and implementing innovative technology development projects, organizational change, knowledge management and data sharing efforts. Noel has developed award-winning innovative workshop formats, including CrisisCamp for CrisisCommons (was awarded "Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of 2012" by Government Technology Magazine) and TechCamp (received a 2012 Fed 100 Award) for the US State Department.

Ann Hudock

Ann Hudock is President and CEO of Counterpart International Bringing more than 25 years of international development experience, Dr. Hudock leads Counterpart’s global program portfolio, building on the organization’s body of work with new approaches to promote civic participation and government accountability.

Corinna Lopa

Consuelo Katrina Lopa, also known as Corinna, is the East Asia Hub Programme Director for Innovation for Change (I4C), and coordinates the Hub’s mission of providing virtual and real spaces for civil society to co-design and innovate ideas and projects, services and activities towards defending, expanding and creating civic space in East Asia. Prior to joining Innovation for Change, Corinna was the Regional Coordinator of the South East Asian Committee for Advocacy (SEACA), which focused on civil society capacity building for advocacy and engagement with the ASEAN. During her stint with SEACA, she served as Co-Convenor of the Solidarity for ASEAN Peoples’ Advocacies (SAPA) from 2005-2014, and as Steering Committee Member of the Asia Democracy Network (A D N) from 2014-2016. Her civil society work in the Philippines, spanning almost two decades from 1983-2003, was with the Legacies of Authoritarianism project of the Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute, 2000-2002; with the Philippine Development NGOs for International Concerns (PHILINK), 1991-2000; and, with the Ateneo de Manila University's Center for Social Policy & Public Affairs, 1986-1991. Corinna is a democracy activist, a feminist, and maintains her political links with the Philippine democratic socialist movement.

Juan Carlos Lozano

Juan is the current CEO of Innpactia, and a Civil Society and Project Management lecturer at Externado University (Bogota). Having worked in CSOs, government entities and donor agencies, Juan founded Azai —a social enterprise to strengthen social impact organizations— and Innpactia, a desktop app that multiplies connections between social impact projects and future donors in Latin America. In 4 years, Innpactia has tracked $10Bn USD and has 20K users in 20+ countries. He holds a degree in Government and International Relations and a MSc. in Development Studies.

Shurouq Qawariq

Shurouq Qawariq is the CEO & co-founder of Rumman, a personalized micro-savings and investment app that rounds up daily spending to the nearest dollar (or local equivalent), offering seamless saving solutions. Rumman aims to open the world of saving and investment to those traditionally unable to afford it.

Shurouq has recently completed a mapping research with Innovation for Change network on the topic of financial technology and digital currencies in relation to civic space development in the MENA region. Additionally, she conducted a research on individual philanthropy and crowdfunding in the Arts and Culture sector in the MENA region with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. Shurouq is also the co-founder of Indiepush.com, an online music platform that empowers independent artists from the MENA region in terms of distribution, discovery and income generation, founded in 2014. In 2013, she was one of the first employees of PinchPoint Inc., Palestine’s first gaming studio.

Shurouq holds a Bachelor’s in Human Development and Social Relations from Earlham College, Indiana, USA, an MBA, and an MSc. in Finance from Queen Mary University of London, where she wrote a research in the field of behavioral finance specifically about the nature of price bubbles in the Middle Eastern stock markets.

Philipp Reichmuth

Innovation and change management consultant from the Central Asia Hub. He also serves as the Governance Circle Steward for the Central Asia Hub.

Ehsan Shayegan

Ehsan Shayegan is the founder of the Porsesh Research and Studies Organization (PRSO), also a board member of innovation for change- Central Asia Hub. He is an Afghan researcher with expertise in social research in the areas of Afghanistan civil society, culture and identity. Ehsan has worked in various research positions with different institutions including the Afghanistan Institute for Civil Society (AICS), University of York, Durham University and Creative Associates International (CAI). Recently, Ehsan and his team completed the Civil Society Innovation Index (CSII) project, funded by Counterpart International.

Shawn Shieh

Shawn has 15 years of experience working to strengthen civil society and social movements in China and the Asia-Pacific. His current interest is in exploring strategies and models for sustaining civil society and movements in closed spaces such as China, and helping civil society respond to China’s growing global influence. In 2018, he founded Social Innovations Advisory, Ltd., a consultancy helping NGOs build a resilient civil society in China and Asia. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong, and founded and directed the English-language operations for China Development Brief, China’s only bilingual NGO platform covering civil society and philanthropy. He has been a long-time consultant for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law monitoring the legal environment for philanthropy and civil society in China, is a member of the Governance Circle of Innovation for Change-East Asia, and a Rights CoLab Contributor. Shawn received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and was a professor of political science at Marist College from 1995-2009. He has written and published extensively on China’s political economy, corruption and civil society and since 2009 has maintained a blog on NGOs in China.

Blog: www.ngochina.blogspot.hk

Batsugar Tsedendamba

Batsugar started his career as a researcher, senior researcher, international project manager at IRIM in 2011 and had worked as Operations director since 2015 and has been the CEO since 2018. He has obtained sociologist and lawyer major. He holds a Master in Sociology from the National University of Mongolia as well as Bachelors in Law and Sociology. Previous to his current role he worked as the international project manager at IRIM where he was responsible for preparing proposals for research projects as well as planning and implementing projects. His research interests are globalization, international development issues, policy analysis, governance. Batsugar is a native speaker of Mongolian and is fluent in Russian and English.

Charles Vandyck

Charles is a social justice activist with expertise in the development and implementation of civil society sustainability and leadership programs. Charles was the Founding Board Chair of Innovation for Change-Africa. He was also a Founding Member of the International Consortium on Closing Civic Space (iCon), an initiative of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC. He currently serves as a member of the Coordination Collective (Governing Board) of Africans Rising, a Pan-African movement of people and organisations, working for justice, peace and dignity. Charles also serves as the Head, Capacity Development Unit at the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI).

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