Helping to bring civic innovation to the core of governance.

Program Description

In it’s first year Code for the Caribbean has teamed up with the Rural Area Development Agency (RADA), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Agriculture, to launch a pilot Fellowship Program. The first cohort of CftC Fellows will comprise of passionate developers, designers and entrepreneurs who will work alongside government partners to improve public services.

A Caribbean first, the pilot CftC Fellowship offers 3 part-time positions for a 6 month period. Fellows will work alongside RADA to explore inventive solutions for combating praedial larceny, one of the leading problems plaguing the Jamaican agricultural industry. By collaborating with stakeholders within and outside the Ministry, Fellows will build at least one application designed to address this problem area.

This pilot is fully-funded, and chosen Fellows will receive a stipend for their work.

Founding Story

In December 2012, SlashRoots started conversations with Reboot, a social impact firm dedicated to inclusive development and accountable governance, and the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM) at the University of the West Indies about starting a Fellowship program. After initial expressions of support, Matthew McNaughton, Executive Director at SlashRoots Foundation, began working with Jeremy Canfield, a 2011 Code for America Fellow who was a Service Designer at Reboot at that time. Together, they began to draft the CftC G uide for Launching Innovation Fellowships. This Guide was intended to direct the design and implementation of the CftC fellowship pilot, and to assist others interested in starting their own Fellowship programs.

People

Matthew McNaughton

Matthew is an Open Innovation & development Specialist at the World Bank and co-founder of SlashRoots. In these roles he develops strategies and programs for democratizing innovation and access to information utilizing user-centered design approaches and beneficiary feedback loops to improve public service design and delivery. His work focuses on enabling data-driven decision-making and building local capacity building and tech ecosystem development.

Varun Baker

Varun has been involved with the SlashRoots Developer Community from its very inception. He is excited to see SlashRoots continue to grow and become an innovative driving force for social change. Though holding a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Engineering, Varun is actually a blend of both the right and left side of the brain. When not programming, Varun spends most of his time immersed in his photography and videography. Varun believes that one reason SlashRoots is so exciting is because as the Caribbean we are starting to explore more indigenous solutions to problems we face.