Every program has its story.

Our story started once upon a March, in 2014 when 12 young and innovative software developers, designers and community organizers came together to help digitize the processes of their government. And so the KP Fellowship Program took root.

38 more Fellows joined the prestigious first batch in two consequent batches. The program grew and continued to catalyze change in public services.

Below are the highlights of some of the achievements from the KP Fellowship Program:

3rd Round of Fellowship

This year the team successfully launched and executed its 3rd cycle of the Fellowship program in partnership with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB) and the World Bank. An enthusiastic team of 20 Fellows worked with different government departments including Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP), Peshawar Traffic Police, Tourism Corporation KP, Directorate of Industries & Firms and the KP IT Board itself. Based on user research, the Fellows incorporated their learnings and experiences into the services they were developing. At the end all the hard work paid off and the program left a huge impact on the government sector of KP making public services more feasible and useable.

Deputy IT Director Peshawar Traffic Police Mr. Ashfaq Khan says:

“Code for Pakistan has a close coordination with Traffic Warden Peshawar in respect with digitization of official processes such as website, android application and visitor management system.The systems have been designed in a very professional manner. The team provides prompt feedback in any issue with full zeal and zeast. We expect the same type of cooperation in the future”

Peshawar Civic Innovation Lab (PCIL)

The Alumni from the previous and 2017 batch of the Fellowship came together to initiate a volunteer based effort to make their city safer and smarter. The volunteers of the lab, which has been launched in partnership of Peshawar 2.0, have been working on various projects including revamping the website of the Peshawar Traffic Police department and digitizing their visitor data to enhance security, crowd management and accountability. The team is also digitizing the census data and creating an open API for masses to consume.

KP Fellowship Alumni Network

The Fellowship Management team did a great job in bringing together the Alumni on various occasions during and after the Fellowship Program. The Alumni helped the Fellows a great deal in guiding them and sharing their experiences with the new batch. After the Fellowship program concluded, Nazim-ud-Din, one of the Fellows from the third batch was hired by Code for Pakistan as an M&E and Alumni lead. After his hiring, Nazim has not only been organizing regular Alumni meetups and helping them connect with the stakeholders from the KP technology ecosystem but is also helping them grow further to avail good career opportunities. Here is more from the success our Alumni have achieved.

The Alumni are also contributing actively in PCIL and mentoring the new Fellows. They are also the force behind the success of the third batch of the Fellowship Program. Currently two of the Alumni, Ebtihaj (Program Manager) and Sohail (Associate Program Manager) are also leading the Fellowship program in KP.

TICTeC Taiwan

Our team also participated in Asia’s first information technology conference held in Taipei, Taiwan. Code for Pakistan’s founder Sheba Najmi along with Asim Ghaffar (President), Ali Altaf and Ebtihaj attended the event. One of the main events in this conference was the Code for All meetup in which all of the partners came together and brainstormed on how to make this collaboration stronger. Read more on why you should attend the TICTeC.

KP Fellowship 2018

The Fellowship team has started planning the 4th batch of the Fellowship Program and will be hiring another 20 Fellows. If you are interested to help your government and ultimately yourself, keep following our social media channels and apply as soon as the applications open.

Written by: Sohail Khan, Product Manager & Associate Program Manager at Code for Pakistan