Technology Innovation Advancing Education and Entrepreneurship

Our Vision

Our Mission

Technology innovation advancing education and entrepreneurship.

RisingRoad empowers innovators to strengthen education systems and catalyze small business development through the creatation of digital solutions and services.

About Us

We engage with innovators to connect, create and empower as a member network, implementing partner consortium and also as an incubator and accelerator of innovations.

RisingRoad promotes and creates innovative technologies, tools, courses and curricula, partnering with organizations and networks that advance entrepreneurship and education systems, fostering the local digital ecosystem.

RisingRoad Empowers
Entrepreneurs and Strengthens Education Systems

RisingRoad advances education and entrepreneurship by engaging with tech entrepreneurs to connect, create and empower as a member network, designer of digital solutions but also as an accelerator of promising tech innovators and innovations.

RisingRoad offers expertise in four focus areas:

Entrepreneur training and productivity tools

Micro, small and medium enterprises have been impacted by COVID, slowing economic growth and causing a general inability to conduct business.

We develop digital solutions that support the learning pathway and growth trajectory of entrepreneurs through the Lumo marketplace application and Baobab content distribution platform, increasing entrepreneur productivity.

Development of educational multimedia learning materials that complement classroom learning

Education systems are traditionally confronted with multiple challenges in developing country contexts. In recent years, many schools have been negatively impacted due to COVID.

We work to develop and provide multimedia-based educational learning materials through the RisingRoad Baobab content distribution platform to complement in classroom learning.

Last mile distribution of multimedia learning and training content

Our goal is to sustainably reach the last mile, connecting the unconnected in developing countries with a sustainable model that addresses digital access, cost and connectivity issues in developing countries.

RisingRoad offers the Mobile Mentor Program and the RisingRoad Baobab content distribution platform (offline content distribution on pre-produced storage media and by direct data transfer with local distribution agents).

Empowering tech entrepreneurs to advance education and entrepreneurship

The ecosystem is fragmented for tech entrepreneurs in developing country contexts. There is limited long-term support for coaching, mentoring, training, seed funding, digital solution co-creation and marketing for digital products and services.

We offer training, coaching, 1:1 tech entrepreneurship mentoring, convening events that connect local networks, seed grants, and RR member consortium activities.

Educational learning materials

Education systems are traditionally confronted with multiple challenges in developing country contexts. In recent years, many schools have been negatively impacted due to COVID.

We work to develop and provide multimedia-based educational learning materials through the RR Baobab content distribution platform to complement in classroom learning.

Last mile distribution of digital learning and training content

Our goal is to sustainably reach the last mile, connecting the unconnected in developing countries with a sustainable business model that addresses digital access, cost and connectivity issues in developing countries.

We offer the Mobile Mentor Program and the RR Baobab mobile content distribution platform (offline content distribution on pre-produced storage media (microSD cards)).

RisingRoad offers expertise in four areas:

Empowering innovators to advance education and entrepreneurship

The ecosystem is fragmented for education and entrepreneurship innovators in developing country contexts. There is limited long-term support for coaching, mentoring, training, education and entrepreneurship solution co-creation and marketing for digital products and services.

RisingRoad offers training, coaching, mentoring, and convening events that connect local networks, seed grants, and RisingRoad member activities.

About Us

Our Vision

Technology innovation advancing education and entrepreneurship.

Our Mission

RisingRoad empowers innovators to strengthen education systems and catalyze small business development through the creatation of digital solutions and services.

We engage with innovators to connect, create and empower as a member network, implementing partner consortium and also as an incubator and accelerator of innovations.

RisingRoad Empowers
Entrepreneurs and Strengthens Education Systems

RisingRoad offers expertise in four areas:

People

Winnie Auma, Chief Program Officer, Village Enterprise

RisingRoad Board Co-Chair

Adiaratou Touré, Director and Co-Founder, Association pour l'innovation et le développement de l'éducation (AIDE)

RisingRoad Board Co-Chair

Dr. Kingsley Arkorful, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Bureau For Community Action and Development (BUCAD)

RisingRoad Board Treasurer

Meshack Mbinda, Director of Technology Solutions, Village Enterprise

RisingRoad Board Clerk

Winnie Auma is a champion for economic inclusion and poverty alleviation in rural populations. Having grown out of extreme poverty herself, Winnie knows first-hand what it means to implement sustainable development programs. She thrives on providing opportunities and resources for those who need them most. Since joining Village Enterprise as a volunteer business mentor in 2010, Winnie has served as a Field Coordinator, Assistant Country Director, Country Director, Vice President of Programs, and currently holds the role of Chief Program Officer. Winnie has spoken at over 40 companies and organizations, including Facebook, Google, Intuit, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She was also a panelist at the Skoll World Forum. Winnie previously worked as a high school teacher and administrator. She holds a BA in Education from Makerere University, a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Management, and was a 2019 Harvard Kennedy School Emerging Leader in Executive Education.

Adiaratou Touré was Mobile Learning Coordinator at USAID PAJE-Nieta (the Support to Youth Entrepreneurs Program). She has had the opportunity to work on several projects focused on primary grade learners, youth empowerment as well as the in-service training for teachers in Mali. She has been responsible for multimedia design and development for mobile learning modules as well as has led in the production of educational content creation, including design, development and distribution.

Dr. Kingsley Arkorful brings vast experience working in education and integrated social development in Ghana. He has worked and consulted for a number of NGOs and government departments in Ghana. Dr. Arkorful is a national of Ghana with extensive experience as a Social/ Community Development Specialist, Senior Education Program Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Management Trainer and Facilitator. He has management experience in both formal and non-formal social development sectors. He also has extensive experience in socio economic research, participatory research skills, participatory monitoring and evaluation, participatory project planning and management, decentralized governance, community mobilization/development work, management training/capacity building, adult training, gender equity issues, and HIV/AIDS advocacy. He provides training in change management, organization development, project planning and management, people management, integrated community/social development and gender and development. He has worked and traveled in most regions of Africa and has an in-depth appreciation and working knowledge of development work in Africa. He has worked as a resource person for a number of NGOs internationally related to Education and Social Development. Dr. Arkorful has also developed and evaluated sectoral and national programming for a range of NGOs and international actors.

Meshack Mbinda is a champion for technology solutions for social impact. Over the past 12 years, Meshack has worked directly with disadvantaged populations, service providers, and partners to influence the adoption of technology towards achieving promotion and awareness of, and access to, essential services including health care, financial inclusion, empowerment of youth and women. During this time, he has moved through the ranks from technical assistant roles to senior management, all while keeping pace with developing technologies and designing solutions that work directly at the community level to catalyze improvement of services and well-being.

Meshack has worked actively with partners, governments, and other stakeholders to develop and deploy innovations that create an impact in the management of service delivery as well as in revenue generation. One of his career highlights was his work on the Mobile Jamii Afya Link (M-Jali). This application revolutionized the management of community health information across areas such as health demographics, disease surveillance, control of non-communicable diseases, and attainment of health insurance coverage in Kenya.

Scott Isbrandt, Founder, RisingRoad

Scott Isbrandt is a tech entrepreneur and advocate for innovation with technology to promote education, entrepreneurship and economic empowerment with over 20 years of experience in tech and international development. Scott is also the founder of RisingRoad, a platform that empowers edtech innovators who create solutions and services that strengthen education systems and catalyze small business development.

Over the past two decades, Scott has worked extensively with local experts and local organizations in emerging economies to enhance digital ecosystems, designing and developing tech solutions to bring affordable educational multimedia to developing communities across rural Africa, focusing on those with limited access. Scott previously led Project ABC (Alphabétisation de Base par Cellulaire) in Niger, delivering basic education services to rural learners via mobile phones and improving the livelihoods of agricultural producers by creating systems to access agricultural market data. Scott also created an edtech learning platform called Stepping Stone, a content creation tool and delivery system for low-cost mobile phones, delivering learning and training content to hundreds of thousands across Africa.

Scott also designed, prototyped, and produced interactive multimedia, building the initial architecture for the Pearson Education Interactive Textbook digital platform in partnership with Macromedia and the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media.