Africa DAO

[Frances]

So the governors decided, effected the change of name & mandate as of 20th of February, 2022 being yesterday only to inform the community members today 21st of February. Totally disrespectful to the community whom you believe have no say. Sad

[Alhassan_Yaminu]

@ep2338 Thanks for the information

[MPunkiller]

You guys brainwashed the Harmony Community to believe that you guys were working for the benefit of Africans, not knowing y’all had your own agendas.

Leave AfricaDao to be AfricaDao, and go create your Impact+Dao elsewhere.

Fvck😐

[Lady_Dev]

To correct this and to show willingness of Transparency let there be a vote. The community at large should vote for new Governors and the name change. If this doesn’t happen then it beats the logic of Transparency and Blockchain. Very sad to see Dictatorship and Autocracy. Hoodwinking Harmony and Deceiving the African Community.Absolutely no faith in the current Governor leadership.

[TrickLuhDaKidz]

Absolutely not!

The COMMUNITY votes on these changes. NOT the governors

This is antithetical to the entire ethos of what a DAO is

You all need to resign in shame

[TrickLuhDaKidz]

Is this action acceptable for a Harmony funded DAO? @lij @nickv

[adamlawalbkr1]

Will this be a final resolve, I will honestly state that, is beta you remove the word DAO from the new name, because this is an attempt to give a corrupted legacy to the DAO ideal and mandates, it may open also a door for emulation and replica of similar governance mechanism I think this should be quickly looked into and fundamental laws should be imposed further on consequences of similar attempt not even rising a concern.

Don’t confuse What DAO is All about ma

I hope it will create room for input from the community
@ep2338

[ep2338]

We would like to thank everyone in the Harmony community for the lively discussion held over the past few days in our Telegram group. To reiterate, we’re grateful for your patience, and please accept our apologies for not having responded earlier as some of us are sick and/or traveling home from Denver.

Lively discussions, when done respectfully, can only reinforce us as a community. We would like to express our respect for everyone who has contributed to the conversation and our interest in the opinions you’ve shared. Having taken some time to reflect, we would like to share our thoughts on the discussion thus far.

Name change
We acknowledge that the decision to change the name of the DAO should have been put to a community vote (rather than only voting on the part of the governors). Despite our best intentions, the process by which we made the change was hasty, even though it should be emphasized that the name change has no implications for our mandate. Our activities and mission are clearly defined in the approved roadmap, which has not changed.

We would like to reiterate that the objective of the name change was to disambiguate our DAO among the variety of DAOs that are now arising within the broader Harmony Africa community. Just as important, one of our original goals, apart from increasing the adoption of Harmony across the African continent and unique to our DAO, is to focus on "blockchain for good” activities (as defined in the proposal). That is, we aim to achieve a positive social impact in everything we do. This is why the activities have a social component at their core (gaming for good, gender in blockchain, etc.). This is not necessarily the case with other Africa-focused DAOs in the Harmony community, which might have different noble objectives (validation, technical improvements, community growth, etc).

We agree with your suggestion that a community vote should resolve this misunderstanding. We propose that a vote (everyone with a non-zero $ONE balance gets to vote) take place next week after we have held a community discussion on the topic. We welcome name suggestions from the community from today until March 1 (end of day). Potential names that have already been put forth include:

1. Africa DAO (original name)

2. Impact +

3. Impact + for Africa

4. (Your proposal here. The above list is just an initial list of suggestions. Community input is critical.)

The active discussion in our Telegram group has also led us to reflect on the essential importance of communication and accountability in community governance, as we evolve as a DAO and as a community. We commit to doing a better job of communicating clearly and proactively about the decision-making process, and to involving the community more directly in decision-making going forward, and we’re grateful for your constructive feedback along these lines.

Governance
Good governance is a central pillar of any DAO. During the last few months, we have developed internal guidelines and tools (travel, financial, and marketing/events policies). Guidelines ensure we work in a coordinated, systematic, professional manner. While some of these guidelines have already been posted on the Harmony forum (see above), others will be posted as soon as they are completed. We will continue to keep the community informed of all job postings, details of the activities, etc. via our Telegram, Harmony page and Twitter account.

However, we also acknowledge that we must continuously improve our governance mechanisms and that we can always do better. To this end, we are designing tools and have planned actions that will increase engagement with the community. Specific short-term tools and actions include the following:

• We recently created a Discord server where we have a channel specific to DAO governance: Africa DAO. We encourage you to join, share your thoughts and opinions, and contribute to the conversation.
• We have created a Snapshot instance that will allow us to have transparent community voting.
• We have an upcoming vote to select which upcoming community-led meet-ups the DAO should support (thank you very much to all those who have participated!).
• The community will continue to be invited to apply for new, compensated, non-governor positions (as we did for the Hackathon-lead position, dev trainer position, etc.). As Harmony clearly stated in Denver, there is so much to do that to have maximum impact the DAO needs the support of all community members, not just the governors. For example, @Symphony.One (the Nigeria DAO) is doing great work engaging with its community. We would love to pick your brain and learn from all of you!
• We will publish all of our expenses next month. All expenses have been professionally documented and accounted for, as we are fortunate to count among the governors a senior finance manager with 15+ years of experience.

We are sure that more can be achieved. For example, we are currently analyzing DAO tools such as Aragon, Mirror, etc. Please keep in mind that this is the first time that the majority of our governors have participated in a DAO. Consequently, any constructive feedback is welcome. Please contact us directly or on the DAO Governance Discord channel (see link above) if you have any suggestions.

Next steps on programming
While acknowledging our shortcomings and that there is still much to achieve, it is also important to celebrate the DAO’s achievements to date as we are under the impression that some members of the community who have participated in the discussion are not aware of them (for future reference, our work has been published systematically on talk.harmony.one as well as on our Telegram channel). In less than three months, we have met with the Kenyan government and have been able to conduct five meet-ups in Nairobi and Mombasa that have engaged 436 people including:

• On December 21, we held our first showcase of African projects for the global community. The showcase included 8 innovative projects on how to apply blockchain and Web3 platforms across Africa;

• On January 14, the first “Gender Meet-up” in Nairobi took place live from Usiku Games and provided a blockchain sneak-peek to the incredibly talented women of Kenya. The Meetup was geared towards developers interested in potentially transitioning to Web3, talented artists thinking about minting NFTs, those who want to understand how blockchain can create social impact, and other curious community members;

• On January 25, we co-hosted an interactive workshop on gaming development and its contribution to positive social impact. Web2 gaming developers along with curious potential creators attended live and online exploring together the new Web3 environment; and

• On February 19, the DAO was part of a high-profile panel at ETHDenver with key speakers such as Kweku Mandela and Princess Sara from Sierra Leone. It is safe to say that Harmony considers our DAO as a success model, in spite of the improvements we need to make.

• Supporting other DAO proposals such as Harmony’s Nigeria DAO, led by Cheta.

• On March 3rd the DAO will be part of a Blockchain training for journalists taking place in Nairobi, which will include an introduction to Harmony and a step-by-step workshop on how to onboard.

We are just as excited about our upcoming activities in the next few weeks which include many more events, trainings, and hackathons, such as:

• The DAO is collaborating with Microsoft, Polygon, and Harmony to design an intensive course to support talented Web2 developers in transitioning into Web3. The training will be supported by top developers and will coordinate discussions with key industry players.
• On April 8-10, we will conduct our first Web3 “gender hackathon” in Nairobi. The hackathon will introduce the Web3 and experiment with building real solutions on the network. Teams of developers, visionaries and technical experts will design and build digital products, tools and apps that can be used to improve gender equality in Africa. This will occur in collaboration with gender organizations.
• Community-led meet-ups will take place after they are selected by the community (as described above).

Please reach out to us on our Discord if you think you can support our activities in any way, particularly if you are based in Nairobi. As a reminder, the mandate for our trial period covers Kenya. Activities will be extended to other countries if Harmony approves a second phase.

The Governors and open governor positions
This first cohort of the DAO governors, with expertise in Social Impact, include a combination of men and women who are convinced of the benefits that Harmony’s technology could play in achieving social change in Africa. The team is made up of international development experts, creative directors, finance managers, blockchain experts, and political scientists. (Full profiles of the governors available above).

The governors have worked together very well during the past few months. Unfortunately, our Kenyan governor had to resign for personal reasons (he also resigned from all other Harmony-related DAOs and projects, not only this DAO). Another governor has decided to resign in order to offer his position to someone who has more time to commit to the DAO, a gesture that we understand and appreciate.

We thus have two upcoming votes for two open governor positions. We encourage members of the community to apply, particularly if you have experience in governance or community engagement. We would be particularly pleased if the selected new governors are African (and potentially women, so that we may achieve gender parity, as we currently have two women as governors). Cultural diversity will enrich us as a group.

The election period will start on March 1 and the vote will take place until March 7 (end of day).

We are still working out the details of exactly how and when the governor elections will be carried out. We are still in a trial period and as such have been primarily focused upon organizing the best possible events, and have thus not yet determined a specific plan. Your feedback on the fairest, most open, and most transparent way to carry out these elections is essential.

Final comments
We would like to thank you all for your time, your constructive input, and for making this such a great community, where positive criticism is and always will be welcome and appreciated. Thank you also to those who have enquired about our health. We are all now on the path of recovery. Please also remember that we are still in a trial period and that we are learning together as we go. While we may not always get things right, we promise to always work hard to learn and improve. As mentioned, the DAO concept is new to many of us, and we recognize that we still have a great deal to understand about decentralized organizations. We look forward to your support, to achieve our goals together in Africa. Thanks for your time and patience.

[TrickLuhDaKidz]

Thirdly … the name change will eventually allow us to serve communities in other parts of the world.

You say you didn’t change the mission and activities of Africa DAO, but just the other day you posted a document containing the above excerpt

It’s another change that was made without community governance. I would like you to address why you/the governors thought it was acceptable to make these changes without a community vote. From my viewpoint, these actions are the antithesis of what a DAO is supposed to be

[Frances]

“Election period starts 1st of March and vote ends 7th”

Right now, it seems telegram is the means of community communication hence you deliberate with the community both on the need for election and other issues before coming here to post the final decisions agreed upon not the governor’s suggestion which you have done here. This page is supposed to be for update to harmony on the DAOs happenings.

︎When did the first term governorship start & when will it come to an end?
︎What of a charter for this DAO?.
︎ Has the governors reinstated all the social media handle of the DAO to what it was prior to these issues , asked the community if they are interested in change of name afterwards before coming here to solicit for more options on names?
︎If the mandate for the trial period is Kenya, why the talk on name change & mandate to accommodate other parts of the world now or is the trial period over?
︎I believe the well experienced financial expert will also include the hash for transactions made from the multisig of the DAO in his report as well.
︎Against the metrics of success for the DAO, were these met for Harmony to deem it as a success model or do they collude judging from their silence all the while which rakes of complicity?
︎Well i think elections need to be delayed while community members are properly onboarded, informed & carried along as points raised are sorted out.
︎Is there any African among the current governors?

︎Everything seem like a charade to me right now. No faith in Harmony anymore. If those at the top kept mute & when heard from was to chide community member. It all seems like a script or a cartel where vested interest & people are protected. Could this be why George left Harmony entirely? Just thinking out loud though.

[MPunkiller]

Sighs…*

You should have made this a different thread and maybe used this very one you posted on as a reference, so that people or newbies wont have it all mixed up.

To tell you the truth, you guys don’t rate Africans at all. Y’all are still reapeating the same thing and seem not to give ear to our concerns. The audacity for you to make us choose between Impact + and AFRICA DAO and still gave us a timeline, which is shorter like 3days (No preparation nothing)

Whats my opinion here?

THIS IS AN HARMONY AFRICAN DAO (They shouldn’t be a debate about it)

THE VISION IS FOR HARMONY IN AFRICA & FOR AFRICANS.

I hate the fact that non of the Harmony core members like @lij are saying anything about this.

Except you guys want to tell us that there’s no more AfricanDao then i’ll rest and as well, give up on harmony. Because i’ll prefer theres no community at all, than there is one and we been treated like we don’t matter.

[Jofre]

Yesterday, the Harmony Africa DAO participated in a Blockchain workshop for journalists from the Kenya Media Council. The half-day session exposed Kenyan reporters to the advantages and potential use cases of Blockchain in journalism while trying to clear up myths and make technical concepts understandable.

The event was sponsored by Harmony and Polygon and hosted by Usiku Games, at the Game Development Center in Nairobi.

The speakers, including representatives from the Harmony Africa DAO, spearheaded discussions leaning towards understanding how Blockchain applications ‘provide the bases of a technological solution to challenges that affect all of Africa’.

[Sianoi]

Sigh, I was back home in Nairobi at the time and was looking for tech events but didn’t come across this. Next time though. Although I’m back in the US. I hope it was fab! Waupu all the way!

[Jofre]

Hello everyone! As you might already know if you are following the DAO on Telegram, Twitter or Discord, we have been really busy the last few weeks organizing five different activities! Below you can find a recap of all of them so that you keep up with the DAO’s progress. And remember that the Gender Blockchain Hackathon is coming up this week! We are posting some updates below.

[Jofre]

Web 3 course

Between the 22nd and 26th of March, the iHub in Nairobi hosted the Web 3 Course “learn tools to impact positively to your community”. Students attended two hours of lectures per day and had to complete a series of demanding exercises that covered a wide scope of Web 3 concepts and applied processes. From a basic understanding of Tokenomics to the programming of smart contracts in practice. In total, 43 students completed the course and some moved on to apply their new knowledge to the Harmony Hackathon starting this Friday 8th March!

[Jofre]

Ghana Community meetup

The Harmony Africa DAO wants to spread Harmony throughout the continent! Our main focus of operations remains Kenya for this funding phase of the DAO, but we also aim to outreach to other countries. This is why we decided to support independently organized meetups. During February members of the community applied to organize a Harmony event.

The first such meetup to be organized was held in Kumasi, Ghana, on April 2nd.

Here is part of what the team wrote about it:

We began the event by welcoming our guests with Laila Alhassan, our Lady coordinator. Mr. Alhassan then introduced himself as well and quickly explained the rationale for such an event as a way to get the Harmony community established in Ghana, and the need for developers to also join and explore the possibilities of building scalable programs and projects on the harmony network.

Del Titus Bawuah of Ghana Unity DAO joined the meetup via zoom. He spoke about the Harmony DAO concept, how web3 development could be harnessed on the Harmony network, and the need for Ghanaians to take advantage and join the ecosystem.

Our second speaker was Mr. Nawaf Abd, a blockchain and crypto consultant, he began his talk by way of interactive engagement, as people were telling him their area of specialty, and he related to them how web3 is important in their field of endeavor. The potential for web3 and prospects was explored and participants did like his approach and sat to extent of insisting not to go for a break for lunch not until he finally finished. We wrapped up the day’s meetup, with questions to our speaker, on a possible career path to web3 development, and the potential job market is bright from local and international.

Nairobi community meetup

The second community-led meetup was held in Nairobi the very next day, on April 3rd. The event served to consolidate Harmony’s presence amongst students organizing to create blockchain learning clubs in their universities. More reporting about this event coming soon!

upcoming ladies meet up in Lagos

On Sunday this week, April 10th, we will see the third community-led meetup take place in Lagos, Nigeria. In this case, the organizers are Web 3 Ladies, a wonderful group of female tech enthusiasts that spread technology knowledge to empower women. If you are in Lagos and would like to attend here are the details! Web3Ladies have planned the event at WorkBox Limited |10 Ojora Close, off Idowu Martins, Victoria Island, Lagos 10th April

Stakeholders/regulators meeting

One of the objectives of the Africa DAO is to facilitate the creation of blockchain-based solutions. And to enable creators to implement their ideas, it is important to have a regulatory framework that allows them to do so. One that is stable and does not restrict the economic opportunities created by blockchain. This is why the Africa DAO established a cooperation with the Blockchain Association of Kenya, represented by lawyers Muthoni Njogu and Dennis Maorwe. We jointly organized a discussion session on the 31st of March for regulators and stakeholders at the Strathmore University Business School in Nairobi.

The New asset classes create opportunities for new solutions: The case of the Kenyan digital assets’ legal conundrum, walking the rope. The growing interest in digital assets in Kenya was demonstrated by active participation from members of the Blockchain industry and regulators in Kenya. The panel session in particular: “How should the industry position itself in a bid to drive regulation forward?” was engaging, insightful, and elicited various reactions from the audience with mutually beneficial points of further exploration.

Over 30 attendees participated in the event. 10 of the attendees who graced the event were from the regulators: Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). The event attracted an audience that is highly keen to see progress in the regulatory environment in Kenya and one that requires continuous engagement between trusted organizations and regulators.

[GeorgeofEmmaInterest]

Seems like the Africa DAO and the nation-specific Africa DAOs are doing very well!

[brodaGreen]

“To bet on DAO is to bet on the… collective capacity of the crowd to work together.” - Noah Feldman

The Africa DAO Twitter Spaces has, since its inception three weeks ago, been net positive in such a short time. As the community grew bigger, the need to create an open forum for discourse became imminent. The Twitter Spaces was initiated at a timely point in the DAO’s growth trajectory. It has since become an avenue for widespread and inclusive participation, and aims to improve community growth, increase member participation, and achieve scale. through a more rich set of cultural experiences for people to get involved. It’s generally been an open point where community members learn, engage and get involved in the DAO.

Proper and consistent communication is one way the DAO can achieve its objectives, scale, and build trust within the community. We have had people contribute on the call from Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, the United States, and even the Africans in the Western Diaspora. This is a great sign for the future of Africa DAO, and Africans in the Harmony ecosystem.

The weekly twitter space is hosted every Thursday at 8PM EAT by Hellen Musyoka, @Elle, and @brodaGreen . (you can give a shout out on Twitter at hellenstans & brodaGreen)

The last Twitter Spaces, dated 14th of April, 2022, featured winners from the just concluded Blockchain Gender Hackathon organised by the Harmony Africa DAO in Nairobi, Kenya. Team FemCent, who emerged winners of this novel competition, were on the call, along with Team Nabo, SamakiZetu, and SupaLipa, which made the top five. They shared their project ideas, roadmaps, and plans for the future. The future of Blockchain technology in solving Africa’s problems is huge, and Harmony has taken the lead in giving Africans the opportunity to explore this space and build for social impact. You can listen to the recording of the Twitter Spaces here.

In the coming weeks, we are looking to engage the Community more via this platform, bring in key Blockchain professionals, Harmony Team Members, collaborate with other DAOs and properly educate the community. The possibilities are endless, and Harmony Africa DAO is opening this new, limitless world to Africans.

Join the conversation and be part of us on Telegram & Twitter.

[pallavi]

this looks great. all the best

[mousebelt]

we would be interested to support this project if possible through our university program! can contact us, hello@mousebelt.com! keep up the good work!