In a bid to further tackle the challenges of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, 93 students and young professionals took part in the #NIGERIAVSCOVID19 Virtual Design Thinking Challenge. The challenge held from May 29 to May 31, 2020 and was organized by Impact Week, an the award-winning German program, in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser on Education, Lagos State Government; the Science Ambassadors Foundation (SAF Africa); MURAL, a digital workspace for virtual collaboration; and the Lufthansa Group, one of the world’s leading aviation companies.
Before coming to Nigeria, the first and second edition of the #COUNTRYVSCOVID19 Virtual Design Thinking Challenge were held in Nepal and Kenya respectively. The Nigerian edition focused on solving challenges in the areas of public health, business, education, and community. Nigerian participants formed teams to ideate how they would approach the challenges in each focus area while receiving mentorship from international innovation experts and Design Thinking coaches. The Virtual Design Thinking Challenge creates unique opportunities for young creative minds to tackle pressing challenges using Design Thinking and user-centric design tool kits.
Speaking with the media via Zoom, General Manager, Sales, Nigeria & Equatorial Guinea, Lufthansa Group, Adenike Macaulay, explained that the Lufthansa Group is committed socially to the society during this crisis. She said “While we continue to hope that our current reality gets better, it is very important to also bear in mind that we all have a part to play. We at the Lufthansa Group feel elated to be part of this initiative enabling young Nigerians to ideate, learn and connect with global experts to develop long lasting user-centric solutions.”
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Aman Bhattarai, Senior Consultant at zeroG (a Lufthansa Group company) and Lead Organizer of #NIGERIAVSCOVID19, added that “We were amazed by the creativity, passion and enthusiasm of the Nigerian youths, contributing to their society despite digital bottlenecks. They went beyond their limits to virtually create a global benchmark not only with challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, but any other unforeseen pandemic or catastrophe.”
The challenge took place over a period of 60 hours spanning across 3 days. Participants were brought together as teams comprising of five to six members, using digital tools such as Zoom for talking to each other and collaborative tools such as MURAL, Slack and the Google Suite. The teams were coached through the entire iterative process of Design Thinking by understanding, observing, synthesizing, ideating, prototyping and testing in a virtual environment.
Victor Osuya, a student participant from Ilorin expressed his gratitude saying that “This program has given me so much insights and It will help me think more user-centric in my entrepreneurial endeavors in the future.”
The winning solution – ‘Corona Battle Angels’ – focused on providing information and evidence about Covid-19 to traders in Nigeria, using trusted people in various communities to convey these messages. The solution involves engaging young members of the communities to go to markets and sensitize the traders, combined with a social media movement under the hashtag #CoronaBattleAngels, as traders often work in crowded markets where they are at high risk of contracting the virus, however, due to lack of evidence or misinformation, they do not believe that the virus is real or as severe the way its being portrayed by the media.
The ‘Corona Battle Angels’, alongside two other solutions, received 500 Euros in funding to help implement their ideas as quickly as possible and also create immediate positive impact in Nigeria. Furthermore, employees of the Lufthansa Group, also part of the #AviationStandsTogether community, will continue to support teams wishing to implement solutions with their skills and fundraising.
