The Wehubit team organised the Wehubit Week in December. Almost 50 people from 12 partner countries attended the Brussels event to represent the 27 digital social innovation projects. Meanwhile, 2023 is well underway. What are the Wehubit Week takeaways that provide guidance to the programme and its partners in the new year?
From networking to new partnerships
In addition to financial and technical support, Wehubit has developed a sizeable learning component. Indeed, the programme has its own Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN). The Wehubit Week marked the first ever face-to-face meeting with most network members attending. This has borne fruit: a new working group on innovation will soon be launched. Some of the network meetings led to further meetings being scheduled in partner countries.
Building bridges between Enabel’s expertise and that of Wehubit’s partner projects
Between sessions on Principles for Digital Development, Gender and Digitisation and Scaling up Social Innovation, the Wehubit Week was a real learning event. Several Enabel experts joined forces with the Wehubit team to make this week a success. In addition to capacity building, the collaborative workshops show that there are links made or to be made between Enabel and Wehubit projects. The participants, who share similar values and goals, could learn from each other. Strengthening these links is a priority for Wehubit and will be even more so for the second Wehubit programme.
Consolidating the Wehubit Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN)
In just one and a half year, the KEN has become a dynamic and proactive network. This network has three objectives: capacity building (webinars, theoretical and practical training), partnership building and knowledge building. The Wehubit Week has significantly contributed to each of these three. But more importantly, it has opened up the network to new perspectives. The 50 partner organisations in the network have now taken ownership of the KEN. What binds these partners? The answer is multi-faceted: Digital for Development (D4D), social innovation and scaling up, the Human Rights-based Approach, etc. But the most fundamental common interest, the keystone of KEN, is learning. “Showing successes as well as failures leads to learning, opening up the field of possibilities,” explains one of Wehubit’s KEN members. Wehubit Week was at the heart of learning and vice versa.
Do you also want to learn more?
Learn from the best practices and lessons learned from Wehubit’s partner projects by browsing the e-library.