Do you want to take an active role in helping build Open Source Civic data?
Through its Open Data Initiative, Code for Africa (CfA) is offering ten part-time Civic Graph Fellowships. The selected fellows will support partners in building advanced open-source civic data projects, using standardised Open Civic data formats to ensure interoperability, transparency, and scalability.
The two-month, part-time fellowships are part of a joint initiative between CfA and the UN Office of the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa (OSE-Horn) to strengthen information integrity by mapping Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and Politically Influential Persons (PIPs) in Ethiopia during the election period.
The fellows will support the collection and verification of data points and social media identifiers linked to Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and Politically Influential Persons (PIPs) in Ethiopia, with particular focus on the country’s presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections scheduled for June 2026.
The primary source for identifying PEPs/PIPs will be official records, including electoral body datasets, government gazettes, and other verified public registries.
As part of the Civic Graph Fellowship, fellows will work closely with the iLAB team to manually gather and validate social media identifiers and populate structured civic data fields within the broader civic data collection project. The goal is to build comprehensive, standardised profiles of politically exposed individuals across the continent.
The fellows will use publicly available information and open-source intelligence techniques to collect relevant data points, including gender, official Facebook pages, X accounts, Instagram profiles, personal or campaign websites, and Wikipedia entries, among others.
While collecting social media identifiers, the fellow must apply quality control checks. This includes verifying that: the URL belongs to an official or authentic channel; the account has a verification badge (where applicable); the profile contains clear identity markers that are consistent with the individual’s known biography and other public records. These checks are essential to ensure accuracy and prevent misidentification.
The Troll Tracker platform will be used to integrate verified PEP and PIP profiles alongside their associated social media accounts. By linking structured civic data with platform monitoring. Powered by machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), Troll Tracker will flag post deletions and harmful content from monitored PEP/PIP accounts, and track shifts in messaging over time.
Fellowship Package
- Stipend: Fellows will receive a competitive monthly stipend
- Duration: 2-month contract
- Mentorship: Fellows will receive guidance from CfA’s iLab.
Check if you are eligible:
- Proficiency and strong working knowledge of Google Sheets and formulas.
- Language proficiency: Amharic, English, and Arabic.
- Familiarity with collecting data from social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube, and Telegram.
- Preferably, applicants should be university students, but applications are not limited to university students.
- Ability to adhere to open-source data collection standards.
- Ability to maintain timely and open communication with the programme management team.
The deadline for applications is 17 April 2026.
To apply, complete this form.
Questions? Reach out to john.n@codeforafrica.org or jacktone.momanyi@codeforafrica.org.
About the partner:
Code for Africa is Africa’s largest civic technology and open data incubator. The organisation supports digital democracy and investigative data journalism initiatives to give citizens access to actionable information and amplify citizen voices to make society more responsive and accountable. CfA’s mission is to leverage technology and data to foster digital democracies and empower citizens by providing actionable information.
To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
Please note: Due to high volumes of applications, we are unable to respond to each one individually. If you are selected for an interview, we will contact you.
—————————————————————————————————————————