CHALLENGE 4a4b: What role does the Maker community play in transforming marginalized communities of South Africa?

TYPE

Local with global implications

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BACKGROUND

South Africa is a country of great contrast. While having modern infrastructure like any other first world country, it is also strapped with the world’s worst inequality (as measured by a GINI index of 65…higher than any country on the globe) and half the population living under the poverty line (Stats SA, 2014). Government and business intervention does not appear to scale quickly enough to handle the problem. Is there another solution?

CHALLENGE

Activity: Global brainstorm session and begin initial design

The maker community has an open, can-do ethos. This community is growing in South Africa, as it is in other parts of the world. The question we ask here is this: Can makers across South Africa play a critical role in the upliftment of half the South African poplulation that lives under the poverty line (Stats SA, 2014)? If organized with a common vision, the power for change within the South African maker community is enormous. Can the Maker community of South Africa for a collective strategy that can tap into their strengths to drive a fundamentally new approach to transformation of marginalized communities across the country? What would such a strategy look like? Could it be aligned to other progressive strategies?

SKILLSET

  • makers