Platform Co-ops is an emergency online course that was created to support the rising ecosystem of cooperative digital labour platforms in response to the mass unemployment as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This ad hoc entrepreneurship online course was created to help create platform cooperatives by introducing, incubating, and accelerating platform cooperatives.

One of the major goals of the course is to prepare learners to become cooperative platform entrepreneurs in the fast-growing gig economy. The course gives learners the opportunity to analyze and get involved with a generation of young leaders that is experimenting with innovative power-building strategies that are rooted in cooperative ownership of digital platforms.

As the local partners, Zuhura incubates the students guided by an established syllabus. Partners have full discretion to adapt the material in accordance with their capacity, also taking into consideration local specificities (co-op laws, needs, etc.).

The first edition of Platform Co-ops was held from 1st June to 24th July 24, 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 health pandemic. 418 participants from 50 countries around the world participated and 110 new platform co-op projects were formed.

The programme had 47 global partner organisations, with Zuhura Innovations Africa being the East and southern Africa facilitator.

With the extent of the pandemic, and the success of the course with the first cohort, the second edition was deemed necessary. It started on October 26, 2020, with over 300 participants from around the world and ended on March 15, 2021.

The course was an in-person cost at the New School in New York being provided at $4,000 that is (about Kshs 400,000). The emergency online version was provided at a significantly subsidized cost for some countries including Kenya. This enabled cooperatives all over the world to shift from a “shared economy” to a more participatory, democratically owned economy.

The course is designed for people who:

• Are unemployed and are determined to find decent work, especially in the service sector.
• Want to work in a dignified digital work environment where they co-own and co-govern the digital platform through which they are connected to clients.
• Are in cooperatives and want to transition them into platform cooperatives.

Plans for a third edition are underway.

UPSHIFT by UNICEF, is a youth social innovation and entrepreneurship program, designed to build skills and opportunities for disadvantaged youth.

It was held in 3 regions in Somalia: Somaliland, Puntland and Benadir Region. The program aims to identify, nurture and coach to scale innovative solutions by the youth.

It was partnership between Zuhura Innovations Africa consultants and DOT (Spain) and we facilitated the program. There were a total of:

• 10 boot camps
• 400 young people
• 81 starts-ups formed, in health, education and hospitality sectors

Phone: +254 (0)752 808808

ZUHURA AFRICA
PO Box 25375-00603
NAIROBI
KENYA