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From YouTube: Improving the Impact of Diversity Initiatives in Africa - Abubakar Siddiq Ango, GitLab
Description
Don’t miss out! Join us at our upcoming event: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021 in Los Angeles, CA from October 12-15. Learn more at https://kubecon.io The conference features presentations from developers and end users of Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy, and all of the other CNCF-hosted projects.
Improving the Impact of Diversity Initiatives in Africa - Abubakar Siddiq Ango, GitLab
Africa as a whole is making giant strides in terms of technology adoption but job and educational opportunities remain scarce. Not everyone has the chance to be in the right place at the right time to access these opportunities.. Thankfully, alot of organizations have been creating new initiatives and programs to help Africans better access these opportunities. Despite these new intiatives, the impact has been limited. It will take more time and continued investment for them to generate a meaningful impact. . Some of these programs also struggle from a lack of experienced leadership, an inability to target the right audience, and unreasonable expectations. In this talk, Abubakar will be sharing how we can improve the success of outreach in Africa by approaching Africa as a continent and not as a single entity, how to reach the right audience, and how to get traction for your diversity programs.
A
Hi,
I'm
albert
siddique,
ango,
developer,
evangelism
program
manager
at
gitlab
and
in
this
session
I'll
be
sharing
with
you.
How
you
can
improve
the
impact
of
your
diversity
initiatives
in
africa
a
little
bit
about
myself,
I'm
in
indian-based
community
in
the
netherlands,
and
my
interests
include
kubernetes,
cicd,
githubs
and
devsecops.
You
can
find
me
on
twitter
at
circuit247,
I'm
also
a
community
organizer.
One
of
my
recent
activities
include
leading
the
organization
of
the
kubernetes
community,
this
africa.
A
Continental
africa
is
composed
of
54
sovereign
nations,
countries
that
speak
very
vast
languages,
and
I
think
because
of
the
lack
of
data
that
most
people
lack
of
knowledge
about
the
continent,
it's
often
assumed
that
it's
one
place
that
that
they
can
just
visit
or
if
they
visit
kenya
or
africa,
it's
more
like
they
know
about
the
whole
of
africa.
Oftentimes
I've
been
asked.
A
If
I
say,
oh
I'm
from
nigeria-
oh
that's
africa
and
I'll
be
asked
to
references
about
things
that
when
I
digest
I
was
okay,
you
you're
probably
referring
to
kenya
or
you're
referring
to
south
africa,
and
you
sense
the
ignorance
in
the
person
because
he
thought
it's
all
the
same
thing.
But
africa
is
very
diverse.
Now,
let's
see
the
different
parts
of
africa
one
north
africa
like
this
is
mostly
composed
of
arabian-speaking
countries
like
egypt,
algeria,
libya,
morocco,
western
sahara.
A
They
are
often
classified
together
with
middle
east
and
called
men,
and
that
is
middle
east
are
not
not
africa
and
most
of
the
countries
belong
to
the
arab
league.
Now
the
next
one
is
sub-saharan
africa.
Sub-Saharan
africa
are
countries
that
are
south
that
are
to
the
south
of
north
africa
and
composed,
like
the
composed
of
most
of
the
countries
within
africa.
Now
within
sub-saharan
africa,
we
have
west
africa
which
includes
nigeria.
We
are
from
ghana,
cote
d'ivoire,
nigeria,
republic,
mali,
mauritania
and
a
host
of
other
countries.
A
Now
out
of
the
400
million
people
in
west
africa
and
india
is
composed
of
like
40
to
50
of
that,
and
there
are
loads
of
languages
that
are
spoken
within
west
africa.
I
personally
speak
outside
english
and
a
bit
of
arabic.
Now
then,
we
have
central
africa.
A
lot
of
people
hear
quite
a
lot
about
the
drc
democratic
republic
of
congo
or
south
sudan.
There
are
lots
of
other
countries
within
central
africa.
Then
we
have
east
africa,
kenya,
mozambique,
madagascar,
somalia,
ethiopia
and
so
on.
A
Then
we
have
southern
africa
with
south
africa
being
the
most
prominent
among
the
countries
in
southern
africa.
Now
these
are
the
countries
in
africa.
Africa
is
not
wakanda,
it's
not
just
one
country.
It's
a
huge
continent
with
lots
of
countries.
You
can
literally,
I
think,
the
last
time
I
traveled
from
nigeria
to
south
africa,
cape
town.
I
flew
six
hours
to
get
to
south
africa,
so
it's
a
very
large
continent
now
to
the
main
part
of
my
talk,
which
is
how
do
you
improve
your
diversity
initiatives
in
africa?
A
We've
seen
that
africa
is
a
huge
continent
more
than
a
billion
people,
but
how
do
you
now
craft
or
create
these
diverse
initiatives
to
have
impact
on
the
continent?
The
first
things
are:
what
are
your
objectives
from
the
first
place?
What
are
you
trying
to
achieve?
Is
it
just
a
publicity
substance
so
that
the
media
will
say?
Oh
this
company
is
doing
something
in
africa
or
doing
some
diversity
initiatives.
A
What
you
are
trying
to
achieve
goes
a
long
way
in
defining
the
kind
of
results
you
will
have
from
your
phone
from
your
diversity
initiatives.
It
is
very
important
for
you
to
clearly
research
and
define
your
objective
then
set
the
right
kpis
that
you
want
to
achieve.
If
it's
just
numbers,
you
can
get
numbers,
you
can
I've
seen
events
or
programs
that
are
organized
mainly
for
numbers,
a
ton
of
people
sure,
but
at
the
end
of
the
day
you
don't
see
the
impact,
you
don't
see.
A
A
What
is
the
key
result?
You
are
looking
for
at
the
end
of
the
day,
and
how
do
you
identify
that
you've
achieved
these
queues
or
what
is
the
key
performance
indicator
that
you
want
to
see
from
the
initiatives
you're
trying
to
create
now?
The
next
thing
is
the
diversity
you
need
to
understand
how
diverse
the
continent
is.
We've
seen
language
most
of
us
are
most
of
the
continents
that
are
used
by
projects
and
initiatives
is
english.
English
is
just
a
small
part
of
the
language
spoken
on
the
continent.
A
I
think
it's
around
13
or
something
so
it
is
important
to
understand
that
if
your
content
is
meaning
in
english,
you
are
only
reaching
a
subset
of
the
continent,
then
gender
right
from
the
beginning.
Your
initiative
should
take
into
consideration
how
gender
is
perceived,
how
gender
is
handled
and
how
you
can
reach
more,
taking
into
consideration
that
there
is
a
lot
of
cultural
differences
even
within
a
particular
country,
then
region.
A
You
stand
the
risk
of
it
just
being
in
that
country,
instead
of
being
a
continent-wide
event,
one
country
against
53
other
nations.
So
it
is
important
for
you
to
understand.
Okay,
who
are
your
audience?
How
do
you
intend
to
reach
them?
How
can
you
effectively
reach
as
many
people
as
possible
within
the
continent?
You
can
probably
make
it
in
more
regional
events
within
africa
like
west
africa
or
east
africa,
or
north
africa
or
southern
africa,
because
some
of
the
countries
within
this
region
are
kind
of
closely
meet
closed
needs
and
they
tend
to
context.
A
Students
tend
to
circulate
more
within
those
regions
than
you
just
pick
in
a
specific
region
and
expect
the
impact
to
radiate
to
the
rest
of
the
continent.
It
won't
just
work
now,
then,
to
drill
more
into
the
language
diversity
like
I
was
sharing
earlier.
Seventeen
percent
of
the
continent
speaks
arabic
and
mostly
in
the
northern
part
of
africa,
which
is
like
the
top
of
the
the
top
region.
The
northern
region
of
africa
13
speak
english,
and
these
english
are
mostly
official
languages,
not
local
languages.
A
A
The
top
five
of
the
languages
that
are
spoken
on
the
continent
there
are
thousands
of
other
languages
across
different
regions,
but
more
if
you
want
to
reach
more
people,
these
are
the
languages.
You
need
to
focus
on,
not
just
english,
so
it
is
important
that,
for
example,
if
you
take
cameroon,
cameroon
has
the
anglophone
part
and
the
francophone
part.
So
if
your
content
is
mainly
in
english,
you
stand
the
risk
of
not
reaching
a
whole
lot
of
other
people
that
might
benefit
from
your
content
and
anytime.
You
are
creating
initiatives.
A
It
is
important
to
also
take
note
the
different
language
barriers.
Someone
who
speaks
english
might
not
be
good
at
the
english,
because
it's
probably
a
second
or
a
third
language.
So
it
is
important
to
take
into
consideration
how
people
the
type
of
language
people
speak
and
how
you
can
easily
reach
them
now.
The
next
thing
is
traveling.
Traveling
is
hard
within
africa
and
when
you
want
to
travel
out
of
africa,
so
a
lot
of
sponsorship,
I've
seen
a
lot
of
sports
everywhere.
A
Hey
we
want
students
to
attend
kubecon,
we
are
giving
out
free
tickets
sponsorship
tickets,
but
this
ticket
you
are
giving
free
is
nothing
compared
to
the
amount
of
stress
the
amount
of
money
and
so
on
that
will
be
required
for
people
to
travel
out
of
africa
in
europe.
It's
easy
to
travel
because
it's
it's
cheaper.
I
have
traveled
less
than
a
hundred
euro
from
one
country
to
another
within
europe
within
africa.
Getting
visa
is
a
problem.
A
A
Got
a
bit
easier,
but
it's
not
everyone
that
can
move
to
europe.
It's
very
expensive!
Travelling
out
of
africa,
for
example,
there
was
there
was
a
time
I
I
did
a
bit
of
research
and
noticed
it
is
because
I'm
based
in
nigeria.
It
is
cheaper
for
me
to
travel,
amsterdam,
abuja,
amsterdam
than
to
travel,
abuja,
amsterdam,
abuja,
probably
due
to
taxes
due
to
fuel
and
a
lot
of
other
things.
A
I
I
know
of
someone
who
wanted
to
attend
a
conference
and
had
to
travel
to
europe
before
getting
to
africa.
It's
nigeria
is
very
close
to
nigeria,
but
most
times
when
I'm
checking
for
flights
that
can
travel
to
new
york.
If
I
don't
want
to
take
the
more
than
a
day-long
trip
which
can
be
really
dangerous,
it's
only
air
france
that
flies
to
nigeria
most
times.
So
it's
very,
very
difficult.
A
What
how
do
you
intend
to
move
this
initiative
along
the
way
when
you
start?
Okay,
probably
you
are
trying
to
get
visibility
for
a
technology
or
for
a
project?
Where
do
new
people
start
from
then?
What's
the
next
thing,
how
do
they
pipeline?
How
did
they
move
along
to
learn
different
stages
of
this
technology
to
and
evolve
and
grow
within
it?
A
A
What's
the
next
thing,
what
is
idea
mentorship
for
them
idea
ways
they
can
get
into
projects?
How
do
they
get
into
projects?
You
want
people
to
contribute
to
the
to?
Let's
say,
for
example,
the
communities
project:
where
do
they
start
from?
Where
do
they
evolve?
Where
do
they
get
mentorship?
Where
do
they
access
resources?
A
Having
remote
or
hybrid
one
thing,
I've
seen
or
I've
learned
from
the
recent
lockdowns
and
pandemic
is
it
is
easier
to
reach
more
richard
content
to
get
speakers
to
get
quality
speakers
to
get
diverse
speakers
to
get
lots
of
participants.
If
we
look
at
from
the
last
physical
events
that
was
held
for
cube
kubecon
to
the
kubecon
eu
of
2020,
to
this
that's
happening,
you
will
notice
the
surge
in
participants
and
speakers
that
are
able
to
attend,
because
the
travel
barrier
is
no
longer
there
and
a
whole
lot
of
the
visa
issues.
A
A
They
end
up
painting
your
initiatives
in
a
bad
light
or
creating
a
scenario
where
you
have
to
now
initiate
some
disaster
control
initiative,
so
be
careful
how
you
use
influencers
now.
The
next
thing
is
partner
with
existing
communities.
There
are
communities
who
have
built
networks
who
have
built
structures
within
the
continent,
for
example
at
the
google
developers
they
have
organizers
in
a
lot
of
countries,
especially
in
sub-saharan
africa,
where
the
the
developer
students
club
have
organizers
in
schools
all
over
africa.
A
A
If
you
are
working
with
people
who
are
struggling
with
internet
or
enable
them
to
be
able
to
take
advantage
of
hubs
or
communities
by
engaging
with
those
communities
engaging
with
those
hubs
to
enable
your
target
audience,
not
just
expecting
that
hey
your
audience
will
have
the
resources
to
to
deploy
kubernetes
or
to
build
stalker
images
out
of
the
blue
or
to
download
your
one
gigabit
resources.
One
gigabyte
resources
that
you've
provided
power
is
a
problem,
a
huge
problem,
for
example
some
parts
of
africa,
for
example
like
in
nigeria,
where
electricity
is
a
huge
problem.
A
You
can
stay
for
days
without
power,
so
be
mindful
of
when
you
are
setting
your
expectation
around
the
results
to
know
that
there
can
be
power
problems,
people
can
face
power
issues.
Security
can
be
a
challenge,
while
you
should
be
mindful
of
what
you
see
in
media
and
what
you
read
in
the
media,
because
one
thing
is
a
lot
of
western
media
are
are
based
in
their
country,
so
they
have
a
lot
of
news
to
focus
on
in
their
country
and
a
small
fraction
of
time
to
focus
on
news
international
news
from
other
regions.
A
So
they
tend
to
highlight
the
negative
or
the
those
news
that
are
important
for
their
ratings.
Instead
of
reporting,
some
of
the
awesome
and
great
things
that
are
happening,
so
you
tend
to
see
a
lot,
but
a
lot
of
bad
and
less
good
from
the
continent.
Yes,
a
lot
of
awesome
activities
and
programs
that
are
happening
within
the
continent,
but
if
you
are
not
looking,
you
will
see
them.
These
are
just
to
name
a
few
of
the
challenges.
A
Do
your
research
work
with
the
communities
to
understand
what
issues
they
are
having
before
you
set
your
expectation.
The
next
thing
is
prioritize
mentorship
over
events,
a
lot
of
communities.
If
you
want
to
focus
on
events,
let's
hold
this,
let's
hold
that
instead
focus
on
mentorship,
for
example,
like
most
of
the
cncf
projects,
have
different
mentorship
at
different
levels,
for
people,
people
who
have
been
learning
but
want
to
actively
engage
with
the
community
or
contribute
can
start
by
learning
from
those
who
are
already
established
within
the
community
and
grow.
A
The
next
thing
is
showcasing
a
thought:
leadership
on
the
continent.
There
are
lots
of
people
doing
awesome
things,
but
we
tend
to
focus
on
those
who
are
still
trying
to
learn
or
those
who
don't
have
the
knowledge
yet,
instead
of
also
highlighting
and
showcasing
those
who
have
already
done
great
an
awesome
work
for
the
community.
A
The
last
thing
is
I
want
to
talk
about.
Is
there
is
a
thin
line
between
helping
and
unconscious
severe
mentality,
which
is
a
very
huge
problem
we
deal
with
in
africa
most
times,
people
come
with
good
intentions
and
they
want
to
really
create
and
support,
but
the
way
it
is
being
presented
or
the
way
it
is
being
offered
it's
more
about
hey.
Let's
have
these
poor
people
who
don't
have
anything
they
who
are
suffering
who
are
doing
this
and
that-
and
it
usually
comes
from
not
really
studying
and
understanding
the
reality
of
situations
on
ground.
A
So
you
end
up
wasting
your
resources,
because
you
have
the
wrong
information.
You
don't
have
data
the
right
data
to
understand
the
situation
of
things
on
ground.
You
are
not
engaging
with
partners
on
ground.
You
think
the
same
solutions
that
have
worked
with
american
countries
or
the
european
countries
are
still
the
same
solutions
that
work
in
africa.
A
At
the
end
of
the
day,
the
whole
initiative
goes
down
to
drain,
so
it
is
important
for
you
to
engage
with
partners
to
understand
what
is
the
situation
on
ground
instead
of
just
blindly
creating
an
initiative
and
expects
to
get
results?
Listen
understand
the
audience.
Don't
just
show
things
down
your
truth,
set
realistic
goals
and
expectations,
it's
not
like
in
the
eu
or
the
americas,
where
everything
they
have
there's
this
type
of.
How
do
I
put
it?
Enabling
environment
that's
already
been
created
and
makes
it
easy
for
other
things
to
grow
and
start.
A
So
when
you
are
not
bringing
your
own
initiative,
they
already
have
a
good
foundation
to
start
on
in
africa
in
some
places
in
africa,
you
really
you
have
to
set
the
foundations
yourself
or
build
on
certain
foundations
that
have
been
created
by
some
organizations.
If
only
you
asked
then
maintain
a
pipeline.
What
happens
next
from
your
initiative
when
you
introduce
that
first?
What's
the
next
thing?
Is
it
just
hold
the
event
and
that's
all
it's
gone?
What's
the
next?
Are
you
building
some
form
of
partnership?
A
A
So
these
are
the
important
things
you
need
to
really
really
look
into
before
pushing
your
initiative
down
understand
the
continent
know
more
about
the
continent,
engage
with
reliable,
reliable
partners,
not
just
anyone
who
has
a
good
profile
on
twitter
verify
their
successes.
Work
with
other
people
to
who
have
demonstratable
results.
Don't
just
go
for
online
personas
people
who
really
really
really
want
to
push
things
down
to
the
continent.
Understand
it.
Diversity
of
the
continent
is
extremely
important.