Diwala

1.8 Billion people worldwide are living without an identity that’s capable of proving their education and work-history. This leads to an extremely time-consuming and costly verification process for employers and recruiters. Because of this, people are losing job opportunities and are in some cases having to re-take years of education.

Diwala is a digital solution to issue and verify education and employment data, using skill identities to identify and verify talent.

A skill identity is the new digital way of showcasing a person's achievements and work experience, enabling people with ownership of their information.

Diwala’s skill identities will provide a secure and flexible way for people to apply for work. Even if someone loses their physical documentation or phone, information can always be retrieved from their SkillID.

The Diwala ecosystem generates data of relevant and future skills needed for employment, guiding people and educators to learn and teach relevant skills.

1.8 Billion youth in developing countries and displaced communities worldwide are living without an identity capable of proving their education and work-history. Lack of trust in information, is causing people to lose job opportunities. When information is lost due to displacement, people have had to retake years of education.

Lack of trust in information, leads to time-consuming and costly verification processes for people, employers and recruiters. On the African continent, it costs on average from $5-15 to verify a document, and can take 3-6 months. Organisations are spending hundreds of hours yearly on administration of documents, losing time and money. 

Educators experience corruption, and need a safe and efficient way to issue certificates, and people need a secure and easy way to prove their skills.

Educators also need to know what skills are needed in the market, to align their education thereafter. In a survey from Udemy, 40% reported that knowledge from schools helped them succeed in their current job and 72% reported that they needed to learn new skills for their job.

Lack of verified information about current skills and skills needed are causing a growing skill gap worldwide, and enhances problems like nepotism and bad career guidance.

Diwala is a digital solution for issuance and verification of education and employment data. 

The Diwala platform allows organisations to safely issue and verify certificates and skill identities to their students. Employers can verify these digitally and directly with school in seconds.

By issuing skill identities to African talent, we are building an ecosystem of trust. A skill identity contains a person's verified skills, education & work history. That means that the information within the Skill Identity, always are authentic and traceable back to its authentic source. This is possible by the use of digital identities and blockchain technology.

Diwala´s digital Skill ID mobile application will enable graduates and job seekers direct contact with interested employers, as well as showcasing job suggestions and skill training based on their career choices. 

Not only does the platform make issuance and verification of academic documents more effective, but also reduces cost for employers and recruiters, when screening for job positions. The Diwala platform allows employers direct contact with verified talent and can be utilised to mobilise students and professionals regionally in Uganda, and the African continent. 

The diwala ecosystem contains educators (schools, universities, skill-trainers or online programs), youth (Students, graduates and job-seekers) and employers looking to hire African talent.

Diwala has been working and developing the platform and application in collaboration with schools and employers in Uganda over the last 2 years. We develop our services from user insight and needs, with regular user testing and getting to know our users in the market. Read more about our user testing processes here: https://medium.com/diwala/the-importance-of-user-testing-8942258c524f

Educators need to issue secure and verifiable certificates in a more time-efficient way. Youth from all sectors need verified skills and confirmed experience to share with potential employers. Employers need a simple way to verify candidates, and to be sure the information comes directly from the school or former employer.

We are targeting the African continent, where 300 million people are trying to enter the workforce yearly, starting with the 10 million youth in Uganda.

Diwala's skill identities gives people more control and flexibility in terms of sharing their own information, making it easier for recruiters, government bodies and employers to receive and verify their documentation. Verified and seamless data-flow gives all stakeholders better understanding of improvement possibilities. 

Uganda is one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, but is challenged by lack of relevant skills, people and access to finances to grow businesses. Diwala can save small to medium sized businesses verification costs by getting access to the right talent. We can match them with relevant training on how to grow their business and connect youth with relevant skill-trainers to reach their ambitions. 

The platform will also link African talent to international opportunities.
In the near future we can generate data analytics on growth enablers for both the education and financial sector de-risk the market for investment.

Our competitors when it comes to recruitment databases in Uganda are Fuzu and Brighter Monday, both portals established in East and South-Africa. They are some of the most known portals in Uganda for finding jobs and talent, yet none of them have talent that is digitally verified.

By building our database with verified information directly from institutes and employers, the platform enables easy access to verified talent. For the government or education sector, the platform can supply dynamic labour market analytics of future skills by analyzing talent data to drive decisions.

Credly, Learning Machine and Accredible are other competitor credentialing systems in the USA, not focused on Self Sovereign Identities yet, but on issuing badges as credentials. Diwala has the first mover advantage on the African continent. The platform is built locally and in collaboration with the unique concept of a Skill Identity. Our solution is also the first to enable employers and recruiters direct contact to people with verified information.

Our core value is building inclusive technology, which is why we have developed functionalities that gives all students in a class a digitally verifiable certificate, even for those who do not own a smartphone.

Our platform enables transparency on both individual and organisational level on issuing and signing of data. We argue that this functionality can combat invalid credentialing processes and hold institutions more accountable for their training, as well as the people managing this data.

We are building on the concept of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) which can be seen as the next stage of evolution in identity management, first mentioned digitally in Christopher Allen’s post from 2016. SSI is a permanent identity owned and controlled by the person or entity to whom it belongs without the need to rely on any external administrative authority and without the possibility that this identity can be taken away. This can be enabled by an ecosystem that facilitates the acquisition and recording of attributes, and the propagation of trust among entities leveraging such identities.

Blockchain technology provides a good foundation to build an SSI system, and we are leveraging Ethereum to anchor our SSI trust. With SSI as a foundation for the Diwala ecosystem, we can build a better digital trust for the Ugandan and African market, where we specialise on skill identities. Meaning all attributes and data related to you and you being able to verify what you know.

This is a ground breaking technology which is being evaluated and tested around the world, but very few companies focus and assist the African market to get to the next level of digital infrastructure.

The technology is getting traction around the world, as it is a whole new way of thinking about digital identity and also bases itself on top of blockchain.

We are just seeing standards, 1.0 version being landed and there are many interesting use and test cases happening where there are positive results. The big ecosystem play is still to be showcased, but the vision is clear. We will add some links and explain their content and value. 

https://identity.foundation/ - this is one of the biggest drivers for this new technology. They are a non profit organisation that is trying to gather thoughts, development, pave the way for interoperability, because we all want an open internet without walled gardens like Google and Facebook seeping the benefits of knowing everything on the internet.

https://sovrin.org/category/use-cases/ - This organisation is driving on of the networks(blockchain networks) which companies can anchor their identity on. They have been writing a lot of good posts on particular use cases and explanations on the usage and value of the technology.

The European union is also looking to fix their cross border organisation of countries and citizens through SSI. Which a German company and Spanish company is working closely with

 https://www.eesc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/files/1._panel_-_daniel_du_seuil.pdf
 https://stories.jolocom.com/tagged/ssi-use-cases https://www.validatedid.com/self-sovereign-identity-validated-id/
 http://www.lifewithalacrity.co...

In short, there are many verifications and test cases for this technology.

• By incentivising education towards 21st century skill training we drive a data driven approach to peoples access to the right skill training that is needed in the market. 
  
• By connecting students to the right post graduate skill programs we make them more attractive for employment
  

• By enabling employers access to talent we shorten the time and costs to hire talent and open up talent to global job opportunities.

• Enabling government transparency on education and skills between students employers and educators we can enable improved analytics on governmental policies towards skilling and job creation 

• By enabling data analysis from employers recruitment we can give transparency on how diverse a company hires compared to access.

• By giving each user a decentralised identity we enable a young person to a greater access to technological services.

• By using decentralised identity technology we lay down a foundation for leapfrogging to a better digital infrastructure.

Current users: 270 
In 1 year: 49 000 - 100 000
In 5 years: 3 000 000 - 5 000 000

Goals for the next 12 months:
1.) Generate a revenue for certification verification by issuing 100 000 certificates.
2.) Build database of top talent on the African continent focused on 21st century skills sets, starting with students in Uganda
3.) Enable access to dynamic labour market analytics of future skills by analysing talent data
4.) Expand the value of a Skill identity, by building employment verification functionalities and integration with National ID 

Our 5 year vision is to implement the Diwala platform and issue Skill identities to east and west African countries, starting with Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana and Nigeria. We plan to do this through;
1.) Heavily promote and market our free digital platform that enables universities and skill providers to issue certificates and skill identities to their students.
2.) Build the Diwala platform into a valuable tool for documentation and verification that optimises assessment effectiveness for identification and recruitment
3. ) Use the Ministry of Labour, Education and Health`s policies on the need for advanced transparency and efficiency to incentivize Universities with written consent letters.
4.) Connecting youth to job and new skill opportunities, building a brand of trustworthy and quality data
5.) Redefine the narrative for African youth by showcasing the success stories across the continent
6.) Heavily increase our partners with schools, employers and students to increase the word-of-mouth spread
7) Enable a new kind of KYC for the financial sector to empower financial access to youth.

1. Financial stability towards sustainability
2. Cultural challenges with nepotism with hiring and corruption
3. Bureaucratic public systems in place, can steal time and effort
4. Identifying the right sectors without a lot of data to benchmark from and customer acquisition costs.
5. Building new technology in a market that in many areas have low phone literacy and internet access in certain areas.

1. Our company is still dependent on investment while we are adapting to the growing development needs and scaling of the company's growth. We have successfully fundraised enough capital to date and matched it with governmental grants. 

2. We are building a database that bases itself on skills and verified information, and through our app we will link people with job opportunities or training through the app based on their skills. We let our employment partners guide us to which universities we should work with and the top recognised universities in the market.

3. Due to COVID19 outbreak there is extreme efforts to enable both private and public sector in Uganda with digital tools. The president has publicly expressed the need to adapt to digital. We think this is an excellent go to market opportunity by having a platform that already can enable the sector, but to also build trust to the Diwala brand.
   The barrier to the market consists of many bureaucratic, legal and political guidelines. But our dialogue with the NRC, UNICEF, UNCHR and UN women is important for moving forward. 

4. We have and will perform extensive research into all sectors for Business Administration; Technology, Health, Agriculture and Construction, to see which sector is the most fruitful. From that we identity and find the right distribution partners so we have a network effect of growth from their experience and sales.

5. We will focus on building inclusive technology by on the ground design sprints that allows everyone to get digitally verifiable information

4 people working full time
2 contractors
2 Interns working part time

Our dedicated team has international experience in education, technology-development, business, marketing, product design and blockchain technology.

CEO Thea, is a holistic problem solver with the grit and energy to drive action. Globally recognised speaker and panellist in humanitarian innovation, blockchain and entrepreneurship in engagements specifically from the UN & Innovation Norway, Norad and Mastercard. Been active in social impact globally for 10 years.

Snorre is our structured and driven problem solver and CTO, also one of Norway's top blockchain and decentralised identity experts, and active driver of the international Decentralised identity community. Snorre built his career as a consultant at Norway's top TechConsultancy Bekk, developing cloud platforms & apps for the Norwegian government and other private organisations. 

Curious and Adaptable CCO Marina, is a dedicated and friendly team player. She has International branding and art direction expertise from top agencies in Melbourne, Australia. Winner of strategy award from RMIT, Marina is also an art director, graphic designer, 3D artist and a published photographer. 

Process-driven, system-obsessed, adaptable and problem solver Julie, our CPO, gained her product development expertise working as a consultant for Netlight, one of Norway’s top consultancies. In addition to Julie’s User Experience Design skills, she is a dedicated operations and project manager.

The rest of the tech team consists of full stack + front and back end developers, laser-focused on delivering secure, inclusive and sustainable technological solutions. Our interns from Berkeley, BI, and Makerere University, assists in marketing research and customer relations.

We are a remote family.

Education Sector: 
Clarke International University is a private non-residential university in Uganda that has been a development partner to Diwala since January 2019. Clarke also supplies skill training, students and certificates through their “Refactory” initiative, using the Diwala platform to certify their students. Most importantly, they are part of our work on redefining what data a digital certificate should have and identify how a university can shorten recruitment assessment processes. 

Fontes Foundation is a youth Development Centre focusing on teaching practical and relevant skills to challenged youth. As a development partner to Diwala, we have conducted workshops, interviews and user testing with Fontes to especially cater for user groups with lower levels of digital literacy and phone capacities.  

netLabs!UG is the most recent development partner to Diwala, a research centre in telecommunications and technology, from College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) at Makerere University. We are currently user testing new functionalities with them remotely. 

Private Sector:
Diwala also has 12 employer development partners, KPMG, Umeme, Kazi Group, Jumia, People Performance Group, Public Service Commission, Lato, NITA, Q-Sourcing Service and Translink to mention a few, which we are conducting research and user testing with. These partnerships will enable us to test and develop the database of verified talent and employment platforms by top class industry recruitment standards.

Diwala offers a SaaS verification platform for employers to verify education and employment data. The Cloud based platform is currently free for schools, universities, NGO´s and training institutions. The Android and IOS Application is free for students. Employers/ Recruiters pay from 20000 UGX / $ 5 per verification of certificates, 149000 UGX / $39 monthly subscription, premium 6900000 UGX/ $ 1800 - 10 000 USD dollars yearly. Specific premium features can be developed from signing up for a custom plan and is price negotiable.

All our employment development partners have verified willingness to pay for our product.

We are providing schools with a fast and secure way to issue proof of their education. Students and Graduates get portable, secure certificates that are easy to share and verify for employers. Employers get a database of verified talent with direct access to applicants.

The skill market in Africa is a great business opportunity. It represents a massive $ 30 billion market from the US$ 215.68 billion recruitment market worldwide. Assuming half of the population entering or in the workforce will be switching jobs more than once, we estimate our reach TAM to 450 million USD in Uganda alone, out of an 30 billion USD market in Africa.

All credentialing platforms such as Diwala are in a worldwide competition of a digital badges market that is anticipated to be worth $205.6 million by 2023. Diwala is currently to our knowledge, the only solution of it’s kind in the East & West African market.

1. We will start building our revenue through verifications per certificate

2. Subscription Model for access to our database, when it is released. 

3. We will take a commission on students linked to Skill-training institutions and educators that are marketed through our application

4. Innovation and Impact Grants, focused on education and innovative technology

5. Transaction fee on data verification for KYC

6. Data Analytics

We believe MIT SOLVE has a network of great expertise when it comes to building social impact ventures. We think it would greatly benefit us to acquire expertise to grow the company successfully and also be matched with relevant distribution partners and organisations.

We have learned throughout our journey that finding like-minded, driven enthusiastic people is always a potential opportunity down the road, and we don't want to miss out on any opportunities for Diwala. We are always looking for actors that we can collaborate with that is operating in the East and West African market, especially in sectors of tech, health, business, agriculture and construction. We are focused on East and West Africa now, but we are building a solution that is applicable worldwide as there is a consistent challenge with lack of trust to data. We think having access to transparent data is essential to build in years to come.

We are creating a network for practical and skill-providers, innovative and relevant training institutions called the iamemployable-union. We are therefore reaching out to all such organisations to get in touch at hello@diwala.io. We would love the MIT SOLVE network to join and participate in this mission.

We will start linking students with these opportunities through our app, and any relevant online resources that help people become more employable are more than welcome. We are also doing extensive research of skill- mapping for various sectors, and we would be grateful to connect with like minded organisations.

c.) We have been building and testing vigorously over the last years to make sure we build technology that includes everyone, not creating any divide among students. In a new market for us, it has been a learning experience and left us little time for building massive traction and user numbers. But now we are ready, and we will start putting a heavy focus on distribution.
( f. Which is why we need marketing, media and exposure)

d.) We are constantly iterating on our business model, and would love to speak to people with similar solutions or experiences.

e.) We wan’t to connect with talent recruiters all over the world, as we are building a network with our iamemployable-union, to direct relevant skill providers to users through the app based on their skill preferences. 

f&g.) Looking for advisors and board members with experience in marketing, sales, business and legal.

We would like to partner with schools and employers that want to be part of developing a revolutionary new ecosystem of trusted information. We think there is great potential in linking African Talent and educators with MIT`s edX and issue digital certificates with the use of our platform. 

Foundations that as a unique approach to skills for the 21st century that could benefit the East African market while technology advances.

For schools, we welcome all universities, skill trainers, vocational trainers, online programs that are providing valuable and relevant education.

For employers, we welcome those who are interested in creating a new efficient recruitment system and a better verification process of people’s work experience.

Diwala has since its inception, been focused on creating opportunities for people in displaced communities, which is why we have created Skill identities.

Take Ischa Najjar’s story, who was a doctor in Syria until war turned her into a refugee. She found safety in the United States, but amid the chaos of her flight, her medical academic records vanished. She had little choice but to repeat medical school. Millions of displaced people and people in emerging markets face similar problems each year. Without proof of training, organisations are reluctant to give people a chance for employment. Tedious and outdated verification processes also prevent people from proving their skills and education, resulting in them missing out on jobs or repeating years of schooling.

If Ischa Najjar, or any other displaced person had their certificates and documents in their Diwala Skill ID, the records would be safe and retrievable - no matter if Ischa lost her phone or the school disappeared because of war.

We in Diwala are working to change the misperception of refugees. A refugee is as skilled and valuable as any other person - and should not be judged down because of his or her unfortunate situation. Should we be so humble to receive the The Andan Prize, we will invest heavy efforts to expand our platform in displaced communities and rural areas - and keep building the Diwala platform and Skill ID mobile app, to be a valuable tool to combat the invalid perceptions of refugees. 

Diwala is working to enable ownership of personal information by giving each user a digital skill identity. By giving people skill identities, we give people more control and flexibility in terms of sharing their own information, making it easier for recruiters, government bodies and employers to receive and verify their documentation. A skill identity focuses only on verified skills and achievements, not gender or nationality.

We want to help women and girls in urban and rural areas, linking them up with more opportunities for further education and work opportunities. Our career Guidance and Skill trainer suggestions through our app will focus on just that - so women and girls all over the world can enhance their learning abilities and opportunities for work. 

The Diwala platform has been developed with collaboration partners on the ground in Uganda where we have learned that gender equality in both the educational and employment sector are a big challenge.

If we are honoured to be selected for the Innovation for Women Prize, we will use the opportunity to inceltivize special opportunities for women and bring transparency and accountability to the people providing training and employment. We also aim to build better reporting and feedback mechanisms in our platform and application making sure there is full transparency on hiring mechanisms. 

As 60% of our founding team are female, we are aware of the challenges for women to build businesses and exceed in jobs. We would especially provide resources and help on these issues through our app.

The Diwala platform will feed data on relevant skills needed in various sectors to people based on their career goals and verified skills. It will give suggestions on where these skills can be obtained, and how they can be obtained.

Having the right skills and qualifications are vital to get employed, promoted or accepted to various programs all across the world. It is vital to make businesses grow. We argue that the Diwala platform will help people build and acquire the skills needed for employment. With the Diwala app, applying for work will be more seamless and efficient, giving people more time to develop their skills and preparing to win that job interview.

If we win the The GM Prize on Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship, we would use this funding to build a market researcher team specifically to focus on a skill and career guide chatbot functionality in our app, allowing us to link people with opportunities faster and in a larger scale. 

In addition to issuing skill identities to people worldwide, and providing them with a more secure and flexible way to handle skill documentation, Diwala wants to enable youth with the right career guidance and mentorship. Our research has given awareness to the problem that there is limited human resources to equip and foster talent forward, and not enough long-term thinking for youth to build their careers.

If we won the he Future Planet Capital Prize, we would have resources to build and expand our app with "An Intelligent Career counselling and mentorship" chatbot. We argue that it's needed to build this product from the ground up in the African market, instead of trying to implement existing solutions, to properly understand and cater to the challenges that people face and experience.