Tayarisha

Preparing governments for the digital age Tayarisha is one of Wits' Centenary campaign priorities to drive digital transformation by assisting countries across Africa to develop policy and regulatory frameworks to govern rapidly expanding digital economies.
Preparing governments for the digital age Tayarisha is one of Wits' Centenary campaign priorities to drive digital transformation by assisting countries across Africa to develop policy and regulatory frameworks to govern rapidly expanding digital economies.
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Latest Updates

  • CTIN Digital Dialogues

     

    Digital Dialogues is a monthly series of panel discussions in collaboration with the International Civil Society Centre, bringing together civil society to discuss different perspectives in the civic tech space, looking at the ongoing digital transformation of our societies from a civil society perspective. Learn More...

  • ICEGOV 2025

     

    The 18th edition of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) takes place in NIGERIA, the host country, with the city of ABUJA setting itself up to be the hotspot of Digital Governance between 4 - 7 November 2025. This year's theme focuses on Shaping the Future of Digital Governance through Cooperation, Innovation, and Inclusion, highlighting the need for an inclusive and collaborative approach to digital governance in a transforming world. Learn More...

  • Book Release: Digitalisation and Public Policy in Africa: GovTech and CivicTech Innovations

     

    This volume concentrates on the digital innovations - CivicTechs and GovTechs - that shape the relationship between citizens and governments in Africa. Despite the growing investment in these areas, there are few resources explaining their application in the African context. This volume seeks to fill that gap by identifying areas for further research and practical engagement in African public policy. This chapter introduces the volume's aim and outlines the various chapters.

Tayarisha - OMT Leadership Programme

Tayarisha, in partnership with the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust (OMT), developed an innovative leadership development programme to strengthen South Africa’s basic education system. Building on OMT’s vision to enhance foundation phase teaching through new teachers and technology, the initiative focused on inspiring and equipping university leaders of Basic Education (BELs) to drive transformative change in teacher education. Grounded in established frameworks of anticipatory governance, foresight, and innovation, Tayarisha designed a journey-based programme to cultivate the capabilities, confidence, and imaginative capacity of BELs.

Catch up on Tayarisha Seminars
Postdoctoral Opportunities
Catch up on Lunch box series

What we do

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash person working on laptop
Research The Centre conducts academically rigorous, cutting-edge research on the challenges and opportunities presented by digitalisation, particularly in the public sector.
Attendees at the first civic tech innovation short course
Teaching and Learning Tayarisha has adopted a research-informed teaching approach that ties the research undertaken by the Centre to inform all teaching programmes. This is to provide cutting-edge and policy-relevant programmes that remain focused on the current digital context of the African continent.
Outreach Podcast conversations with leading thinkers and practitioners exploring digitisation and governance, and Lunch Box series convening of Tayarisha’s students, associates and partners with the aim to create a community of intellectuals to discuss innovative ideas on digital governance and related fields.

Programmes

Hanns Seidel Foundation The Tayarisha Centre and the Hans Seidel Foundation have partnered on a research project that aims to deepen our understanding of the effects of digitalisation on state-society relations in Africa.
SA/EU Policy Dialogues The SA/EU International Dialogue on Strengthening Digital Governance in South Africa provides the opportunity for the partners to engage in mutual learning through policy and practice dialogues.
Civic Tech Innovation Network The Civic Tech Innovation Network (CTIN) is a grant-funded programme focused on digital innovations in civil society.
Gov-Tech Incubator The Tayarisha Gov-Tech Incubator (GTI) is seed-funded with generous support from The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, and the national Centre for Public Service Innovation.