SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT WORKER WITH LONG EXPERIENCE IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE AND POLICY ANALYSIS

Policy specialist, Foresight UNICEF

Richard is the founder of Open Data Durban, a civic technology lab with a focus on the development of open data for application to urban challenges within the city of Durban, South Africa. He is also the CEO and co-founder of Tenji, a data science startup with a focus on building data products and tools that aid socio-economic development and planning. Open Data Durban is a non-profit civic technology lab that promotes open data in the city. It implements and advocates for active citizenship, open data, open government and civic technology through our projects, events, workshops and dataquests, working with civic technology partners such as Code for South Africa, Code for Africa, and local partners and stakeholders such as eThekwini Municipality. Prior to founding Open Data Durban, Richard worked as an economist, based in Durban, South Africa, for eight years where he interacted with both private clients and all tiers of South African government on a range of projects in various sectors. He is an entrepreneur with a dedication to the advancement of African communities through dynamic solutions and tools, hoping to empower socio-economic development and to affect social change. He has a deep interest in openness and transparency in society. When he finds spare time he grows his beard, brews beer, appreciates good coffee and likes to tell people he listens to vinyl.

Working for the National Treasury in South Africa