A 25-month community-led innovation initiative bringing together KOICA, Samsung, MIT D-Lab, Twende, and Kulika Uganda to equip 150 refugee youth with ICT, photography, and videography skills — and apply the CCB methodology to develop practical innovations from within the community.
Innovation does not only happen in well-funded labs or urban technology hubs. It happens wherever people face problems they need to solve with the resources available to them. Refugee communities like Rhino Camp are full of that kind of innovation — informal, practical, and deeply rooted in lived experience. The challenge is creating the conditions for that innovation to be recognised, developed, and sustained so that it generates real and lasting economic and social value for the communities where it emerges.
The KOICA Design for Second Life Innovations project was built on that insight. A 25-month initiative funded by KOICA and implemented in partnership with Samsung, MIT D-Lab, Twende, and Kulika Uganda, the project applied the Community Centred Business (CCB) methodology to unlock innovation from within Rhino Camp. 150 refugee youth were trained in ICT, photography, and videography — skills that build both digital literacy and income-generation capacity while enabling participants to document, communicate, and share the innovations emerging from their communities.
The CCB methodology used throughout the project focuses on identifying community challenges and co-designing practical, locally-appropriate solutions — rather than importing solutions developed elsewhere. This approach respects the knowledge and agency of community members, builds the capacity to sustain and adapt innovations over time, and produces outcomes that are genuinely owned by the people they are meant to serve. YSAT's role as the community-embedded partner was central to the project's credibility and effectiveness on the ground.
150 refugee youth were trained in ICT as part of a structured digital skills curriculum designed for the Rhino Camp context. Training covered computer literacy, digital communication, and practical applications relevant to livelihoods and community documentation. ICT skills open pathways to income generation, improve access to information, and build the foundational digital competency needed for participants to benefit from the growing range of digital economic opportunities available even in displacement contexts.
Photography training equipped participants with the skills to document community life, innovation activities, and programme outcomes — creating a visual record of Rhino Camp that is authored by community members rather than external observers. Beyond documentation, photography skills provide an income-generating capability: trained photographers can offer services to NGOs, community events, and local businesses, turning a creative skill into a sustainable livelihood.
Alongside photography, participants were trained in videography — covering filming techniques, editing, and storytelling through video. These skills enable community members to produce compelling documentation of their own innovations and experiences, and to create content for NGOs, advocacy campaigns, and awareness-raising activities. Videography builds on the photography curriculum to give participants a broader and more versatile digital creative toolkit.
The Community Centred Business (CCB) methodology developed by MIT D-Lab and applied by Twende and Kulika Uganda guided the innovation process throughout the project. CCB centres community members as the designers and owners of solutions to their own challenges — rather than as recipients of externally designed products. Participants were supported to identify problems, generate ideas, prototype solutions, and develop business models for scaling community innovations in ways that are self-sustaining and locally relevant.
Innovations developed through the CCB process were showcased to partners, donors, and the wider community — creating visibility for community-led solutions and building the confidence and credibility of the innovators behind them. Knowledge sharing across the consortium, including with MIT D-Lab and Samsung, connected local innovation in Rhino Camp to global networks of practice, creating opportunities for learning, collaboration, and further development of the most promising solutions to emerge from the community.
Refugee youth trained in ICT, photography, and videography
Months of community-centred innovation programming in Rhino Camp
Consortium partners: KOICA, Samsung, MIT D-Lab, Twende, Kulika Uganda
Skills tracks — ICT, photography, and videography