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The East Africa Program

The Ashoka East Africa Visionary Program kicked off in December 2020 with a diverse group of leaders drawn from private and public sectors, NGOs, Foundations, and leading Social Entrepreneurs. The program draws its participants from the East Africa Countries of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania with strong interest from applicants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sudan (North and South), and West Africa. 

  • We bring leaders of change together and spark conversations. Participants stand in pairs on the meadow of the event location hosting the opening of the Ashoka Visionary Program in East Africa.
  • The program is about collaborating on ideas and celebrating wins. Image depicts the women of the Ashoka East Africa Program, bumping fists in the conference room.
  • The program offers creative techniques like visualisig one's changemaker story. Image depicts the hands of a participant of the Ashoka Visionary Program, drawing a village ecosystem on a white flipchart paper.

In anticipation of the program, we launched a series of virtual meet-ups within Ashoka East Africa’s “Changemaker Baraza” and “pre-module engagement” series. These provide an opportunity for participants and potential participants to connect, get a sense of Ashoka, the Visionary Program in East Africa, and an introduction to Ashoka’s Everyone a Changemaker movement. On some occasions, participants met future faculty (international and local) members and identified guest speakers for the various modules.

Modules Dates of the 7 modules
(January – July 2025)
1 Social entrepreneurship and Innovation | 24-25 January 2025 (Nairobi)
2 Impact and Social Business Modelling | 28 February-1 March 2025 (Online)
3 Funding and Scaling Social Innovation | 28-29 March 2025 (Online)
4 Partnership and Co-creation | 25-26 April 2025 (Nairobi)
5 New leadership | 30 May-31 2025 (Online)
6 Systems change | 27-28 June 2025 (Online)
7 The Art of Story telling | 25-26  July (Nairobi)
About the Program
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What our alumni say

"Before I joined the program, there were many ideas that we wanted to implement, but we needed to refresh my thinking on how we approach our work, enhance our vision and build new communities that allow us to build beyond what we thought was possible. After working locally in Uganda, I was suddenly part of a global network of alumni, amazing visionaries who helped me to look at my work differently. Also, the ideas of system change and co-creation have been key, putting others on the changemaker journey that we are on ourselves."
Abubaker Musuuza
Ashoka Fellow
"I joined the Visionary Program because I believe in impact in all fields and expect to amplify my work around reading to the Visionary Program network."
Joan Mwachi
Regional Director East Africa at World Reader
"I joined the Visionary Program to get leadership skills to deal with social challenges in my sector."
Walter Odhiambo
National Director, SoS Children's Villages Kenya
"I joined the Visionary Program to learn how to bridge the gap in social impact between the government and the non-governmental sector."
Caroline Chege
Municipality Director, Kajiado County Kenya
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This Visionary Program in East Africa is designed to equip participants with Ashoka tools, resources, and knowledge on how to identify and solve societal problems in an entrepreneurial way. Previous participants have left the program with practical how-to’s, and ideas of how they and their organizations can make an important contribution to the much-needed change in our society.

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Meet the Team

Vincent Otieno Odhiambo
Vincent Otieno OdhiamboRegional Director, Ashoka East Africa
Vincent Otieno Odhiambo is East Africa’s Regional Director at Ashoka overseeing Ashoka’s strategy to grow the network of leading social entrepreneurs, young changemakers, and like-minded institutions towards an ‘Everyone a Changemaker’ World. He has worked with the private sector to create and champion development models that combine positive social impact with market-facing enterprise with a bias on education. He is one of the strategic advisors to INASP (International Network for Advancing Science and Policy). With a remarkable career spanning diverse sectors, Vincent has assumed leadership positions at local, regional, and continental levels. He has also worked with Ashoka’s global partnerships team. His skills and passion for forging transformative partnerships and fostering collaborative impact have become the driving force in his career. Vincent believes that by connecting individuals and organizations in a joint pursuit of tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, we can accelerate the movement toward a brighter, more inclusive future where solutions outmatch challenges. Through his leadership, Ashoka’s impact in the field of social entrepreneurship and changemaking continues to grow across the East Africa region.
Ruth Soi
Ruth Soi East Africa Coordinator, Ashoka Visionary Program and Fellow Engagement Lead
Ruth Soi, currently serving as the Ashoka East Africa Fellowship Manager and Visionary Program Lead, is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Ruth is also the Project Manager for the “Improving Livelihood for Farmers” project, a collaborative initiative in partnership with the Mott Foundation.

In her current role, Ruth’s primary focus is working closely with social innovators and entrepreneurs across East Africa, fostering collaboration and ensuring seamless engagement with Ashoka. Her strategic alignment efforts involves building strong connections with entrepreneurs, changemakers, and key ecosystem stakeholders, all in pursuit of the overarching goal of creating an ‘Everyone a Changemaker’ World. Additionally, Ruth oversees the Visionary Program, a part-time leadership program enabling leaders from the business, public, and not-for-profit sectors to transform into entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs who accelerate social initiatives and address grassroots-level societal challenges.

The international Team
  • Group picture of participants and organisers of the Ashoka Visionary Program in East Africa. Sitting inside the event location, logos of the supporting organisations in the background.