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. In response to a prevailing narrative of young people as troublemakers and instigators of violence (as a result of wide-spread post-election violence in Kenya), the organisation emerged in 2010 with a commitment to offering an alternative narrative about the role of young people as changemakers – and creating opportunities for young people to realise this role. Shujaaz Inc works to “inspire, entertain and mobilise” 15-24-year-olds across East Africa by connecting them with inspiring, useful and engaging content that addresses the issues that matter most to them. There are currently three social ventures within the Shujaaz Inc network: Shujaaz, a multimedia youth platform; Mesh, an online community for young entrepreneurs in the informal economy (now spun-out as a sister company); and a new research venture offering hyper-local information and insights from their network of young people across Kenya. The organisation focuses on three major issues that matter for young people: financial fitness, sexual and reproductive health, and governance and community. These issues, which they refer to simply as “sex, money, fun,” are those that they have found matter most to the young people they aim to serve. Other emerging topics (for example, mental health, gender equality, and climate change) are linked to these core themes, ensuring they stay focused on the needs and priorities of young people. Through Shujaaz, the team runs national media for social change campaigns on these emergent issues, using social media analytics to measure and track their reach.
Shujaaz Inc’s work is grounded in the priorities and concerns of young people from the design of their ventures and campaigns to their implementation and learning. Every Shujaaz media campaign starts with what they refer to as a “GroundTruth,” a research methodology that engages young people to understand their experiences and structures. 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, or fun). These insights are used to create Shujaaz media,and to continuously inform the organisation’s focus.
Beyond their media platform, Shujaaz Inc 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. As the organisation’s founder explained:
“The fundamental question we started with was ‘how do we convene millions of people around a social issue?’ We do that with a brand, first getting their attention for a few minutes. We then focus that attention on the really important knowledge that enables them to actually make change, to shift things.”
Before they get involved in a collaborative project with another organisation or funder, project staff 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 (who they see as ‘everyday heroes’), rather than presenting unattainable ideas of what success looks like and creating disillusionment. Instead, they work through networks of “SuperFans,” 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. These SuperFans create and distribute Shujaaz media, convene young people to take part in Shujaaz events, conduct research, and amplify Shujaaz content online.
While not a research organisation, Shujaaz Inc is committed to producing new forms of knowledge about the lived experiences of young people in East Africa. As one staff member described:
“Research was not part of our initial remit when we started. But we very quickly realised that we needed to understand our audience backwards and forwards. We realised our whole team needed to speak with this audience before launching any campaign.”
Combining a range of interactive gamified activities, their ‘GroundTruth’ sessions help them to understand the beliefs, behaviours and motivations of young people. Shujaaz Inc also conducts a 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, the Shujaaz media 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 media content and play educational games with groups of young people, enabling an open exchange of knowledge.
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 media campaigns, their founder was 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. 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.
While the organisation works deeply with young people, working with networks of “SuperFans” to assist them in reaching millions of young people, and ensures that young people are represented in the organisational staff, there is an acknowledged gap in youth leadership in the organisation. Organisational leadership readily pointed out that the organisational structure and governance is not yet sufficiently youth representative, with a board composed of older people with more traditional forms of knowledge and social capital. However, they ensure that the staff team, which is more representative of the population they serve, retains decision-making power on the content and themes of media 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.
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. As the organisation’s founder explained, they are committed to shifting the kinds of knowledge that are centred and valued:
“There is a fundamental problem with the dominance of the RCT [randomised controlled trial] in research. Everything boils down to a number in the bottom corner of a spreadsheet. In a risk averse world, it’s too easy to let decision-making be governed by such forms of knowledge. It has led us to be overly dependent on simplistic yes-no answers, where grey is where the truth usually lies… RCT’s have squashed the space for more effective forms of research, especially with those in positions of power within funding organisations. But better, more nuanced, more community-centred research can deliver more valuable insights. The challenge is the willingness and ability of the people at the top to accept nuance.”
Responding to the need for different forms of knowledge in health and development research, the organisation is working to strengthen their new research programme and consolidate their learning about how to produce knowledge that matters for young people and their communities.