Code for All held its first public summit in New York this year. Code for All has partners working in over a dozen countries around the world, each of which has unique needs and problems. At the summit, there was much discussion around how the basic Code-for model has been adopted in different political and cultural settings and how each local body has innovated on the original model to fit the needs of the country they operate in.
At this year’s summit, four members from the Code for Pakistan team including the Founder at CfP – Sheba Najmi, Ashar Rizqi, Nabeha Khan and Ali Raza, attended the summit. The event agenda was split across three main panel discussions including:
- Defining and Measuring Impact
- Diverse Communities – Diverse Programs
- Making Structural Change in Government
The third session, in which Sheba Najmi participated as a panelist among others from Australia and Poland, focused on building trust and strong relationships with public sector institutions.
Nabeha Khan, Director at Code for Pakistan, in an exclusive interview with IDG, shares, “the summit served as a wonderful platform for civic hackers from the international community to connect and share knowledge, best practices and strategies for improving public services. This served as a great experience for the Code for Pakistan team, to connect with the global civic hacking community and to share ideas on best practices that could apply to Pakistan and collaborative projects for the future.”
‘It was extremely informative for the CfP team to meet our peers from countries like the Caribbean, Japan, South Africa and Germany to name a few, and hear from them on their organization structure and current projects.’
It was great seeing Jennifer Pahlka (Founder of Code for America) and Catherine Bracy (Code for All) and others from the Code for All Community enjoying their Pakhols (traditional Pashtun caps), a gift from Code for Pakistan team member, Ali Raza!
What’s Up Ahead for Code for Pakistan?
Code for Pakistan just kicked off its 2 round of Fellowship in Peshawar, which is running in Partnership with the KP-IT Board and World Bank. This year the Fellowship has grown to 20 Fellows as compared to last year’s 12. Code for Pakistan also has a number of ongoing projects in our Islamabad and Lahore Civic Innovation Labs.
For more information on current and future projects and volunteer opportunities, please visit the website: http://codeforpakistan.org/ or email info@codeforpakistan.org.
