Shujaaz Inc is a network of social ventures based in Kenya and Tanzania that aims to connect young people with the information, skills and resources they need to take control of their own lives and create transformational change. The organisation emerged in Nairobi in 2010 with a commitment to shifting the prevailing narrative of young people as troublemakers and instigators of violence by offering an alternative narrative about the role of young people as changemakers and creating new opportunities for young people to realise this role. The organisation works to “inspire, entertain and mobilise” 15-24-year-olds across East Africa by connecting them with useful and engaging content that addresses the issues that matter most to them. There are currently three social ventures within the Shujaaz Network: Shujaaz, a multimedia youth platform; Shujaaz Biz, a digital learning community; and Mesh, an online community for skills sharing amongst young entrepreneurs in the informal economy. More recently, the organisation has also launched a new programme called WaCurious that is focused on training young people to conduct research.
The organisation focuses on three major issues: financial fitness, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and governance and community. They refer to these top three issues as: money, sex, and fun. Other emerging topics (for example, climate change) are linked to these core themes, ensuring they stay focused on the needs and priorities of young people. Shujaaz runs national campaigns on these emergent issues, using social media analytics to measure and track their reach.
While not a traditional research organisation, Shujaaz is committed to producing new forms of knowledge about the lived experiences of young people in East Africa. Every campaign starts with what they refer to as a “ground truth,” an insight drawn from qualitative research with young people to understand their experiences and struggles. Through this research, they work to identify barriers that young people face and then find a way to turn them around into opportunities by linking them back to something they care about (sex, money, fun). This data is used to inform programming and to determine the organisation’s focus.
The organisation’s work aims to find ways to meaningfully work with young people at scale to transform their lives and future possibilities.They are strongly committed to shifting how knowledge is produced and how it circulates to ensure more nuanced understandings of the diverse experiences of young people – and to help them craft their futures.
Before they get involved in a collaborative project with another organisation or funder, the team explained, they first must ensure that there is alignment on the project themes and core messages, which must directly benefit young people. The organisation is also quite intentional about what is said to young people, ensuring careful representation of young people’s voices, drawing on the data they collect to sense-check their ideas and assumptions. Similarly, they explained that they don’t collaborate with major influencers because they want their brand to be shaped by and grown through ‘normal’ young people, rather than creating disillusionment. Instead, they work through networks of “super fans,” young people who are micro-influencers in their own communities because of the roles they play. These include young people who run their own small businesses or who have roles that give them a platform and a voice to influence other young people in their community – and also create models for other young people to aspire to.
Despite being centred on the perspectives and experiences of young people, the organisational structure and governance is not youth representative, with a board composed of older people with more traditional forms of knowledge and social capital. Nonetheless, they are careful to ensure the board does not have control over their messaging. The staff team, which is more representative of the population they serve, retains decision-making power on the content and themes of campaigns, ensuring they stay youth-centred. They also hire a large number of young people across their staff roles, many of whom are consumers of their products.
Impact measurement is a priority for the organisation, and they track the reach and impact of their campaigns carefully. Academic partners at North Carolina University, Tulane University and the University of California lead long-term panel and experimental studies to evaluate the impact of the social ventures.
Shujaaz also conducts an annual nationally-representative survey of 2000 young Kenyans annually, analysing and presenting their data in compelling ways (see, for instance, the synthesis report on youth trends). In addition, every quarter their in-house research team holds a series of interactive sessions with fans, to ‘deep-dive’ into a priority topic or theme.These sessions act as a ‘temperature check’, ensuring they understand how the perspectives of fans are evolving over time.
They also work with strategic partners to ensure they have effective and efficient referral systems in place to help the organisation meet the needs of young people that emerge during their interactions. While not a service delivery organisation, their approach to creating referral pathways for emergent issues facing the communities they serve helps ensure they stay youth-responsive and builds trust.
As the research component of their work is aimed primarily at shaping their campaigns, the founder is careful to point out that they are “a media organisation that does research, not a research organisation that does media.” Despite this, the organisation has started to build a significant research track record. For the last four years, the organisation has been actively publishing insights they have collected through their work. They generally partner with academic researchers to ensure sufficient academic rigour in their research projects. Shujaaz's work isn't centred on health per se, as their express focus is on exploring the pressing issues that matter most to young people, but they partner with other organisations and researchers who focus more specifically on health. During the COVID pandemic, for instance, the organisation was able to deploy their existing networks of young people to learn about the lived experiences of diverse communities, share this information in real time with the Kenyan government and other stakeholders, and then rapidly share knowledge back to young people to help them protect themselves. More recently, following the priorities of the young people they engage, Shujaaz is focusing more programmatic attention on mental health and climate change.
Combining a range of interactive gamified activities, their ‘GroundTruth’ sessions help them to understand the beliefs, behaviours and motivations of young people. They also conduct interviews with a nationally representative group of 2,000 young people per year. In addition, their team leads conversations on key issues across their social media platforms (they receive over 14,500 SMS messages alone from young people every week), giving them live insights into the ideas, priorities and perspectives of our fans. They are actively working with young people as researchers, and exchange knowledge with and through networks of young people. As part of their activities, for instance, networks of ‘super fans’ hold ‘watch parties’ where they engage and discuss Shujaaz content and play educational games with groups of young people, enabling an open exchange of knowledge.
Shujaaz has been extremely successful in growing a fan base – currently more than 9.5 million strong. To share their stories with broader networks of young people, Shujaaz has around 2500 young volunteers. Through this network of ‘superfans,’ Shujaaz is able to mobilise and reach a significant and diverse network of young people. Working with young people to share their messages reinforces trust with both young people and the communities they serve. Their ability to be responsive to emergent issues has also gained them trust with young people and a strong reputation as a thought leader and partner.
Through their existing networks, they are able to tap into a deep well of trusting young people to produce exactly the kind of lived experience insights and perspectives that many researchers struggle to access. With support from this funding opportunity, they could work to strengthen their new research programme and consolidate their learning about how to produce knowledge that matters for young people and their communities.