18th Jun 2024 Gemini 1.5 Pro
Yoseph Ayele, born in Ethiopia during a time of crisis, credits his mother and family for instilling in him a spirit of imagination and inquiry. This upbringing, coupled with access to the internet, fueled his desire to seek solutions to the problems he saw around him. Yoseph viewed education as a means to effect change, leading him to pursue higher education in the United States. Despite facing systemic barriers, he secured a scholarship to Harvard.
After graduating, Yoseph joined Inflection, a tech company in Silicon Valley, believing it to be the heart of impactful innovation. However, his journey took an unexpected turn when he was denied an H-1B visa. This experience highlighted for Yoseph the broken nature of the immigration system, even as he acknowledged the privilege that had afforded him opportunities others lacked. This eventually led him to New Zealand, a country he saw as potentially having an outsized role in driving global systemic change.
The initial thesis was go to the heart of action, go where it's all happening. It's actually no because those are just so big, so convoluted, so it's not like you can make a big difference archaic in their ways and they can continue to exist to keep existing as opposed to actually creating something new. You can create new things in smaller places was the thesis that made me move to New Zealand.
In New Zealand, Yoseph found himself drawn to Inspiral, a community of entrepreneurs and changemakers. There, he began researching the parallels between startup ecosystems and natural ecosystems, realizing that diversity, interdependence, and natural cycles of birth and death were essential for sustained growth and resilience. Inspired by Inspiral's approach, Yoseph began exploring how these principles could be applied to fostering innovation within New Zealand's technology and social impact sectors.
He connected with a leader within New Zealand Immigration who was open to innovative ideas for attracting talent. This serendipitous encounter led to Yoseph's involvement in organizing New Frontiers Festival, an event that brought together changemakers to explore new pathways for global impact. It was during this time that Yoseph's concept of New Zealand as an "Incubation Nation" began to take shape.
Yoseph's work with New Frontiers and his growing relationship with New Zealand Immigration culminated in the development of the Global Impact Visa (GIVS) program and the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF). Recognizing the limitations of traditional immigration systems, Yoseph and his collaborators proposed a public-private partnership where the EHF would focus on attracting and selecting high-potential individuals, while the government would maintain control over risk management and final visa approvals.
The EHF, a community-oriented fellowship program, employed a cohort model to foster deeper connections among fellows and provide a support system for navigating the challenges of immigration. With an emphasis on attracting individuals with a long-term vision for contributing to New Zealand, the EHF sought to address the country's need for skilled individuals who could contribute to its growing economy and global impact.
Don't just do it to attract money. Don't just do it to bring in based on balance sheets and bank accounts. How do you embed purpose and impact into the root of these new policies and systems all the way back to the name? We are here for global impact, global impact visa.
Recognizing the historical context of immigration as colonization, Yoseph and his team prioritized establishing a respectful and collaborative relationship with Māori communities. Understanding that building trust and acknowledging past harms were essential, they worked closely with local iwi (tribes) to develop a welcome experience that would introduce fellows to New Zealand's indigenous culture, history, and values. This culturally sensitive approach, rooted in the Māori concept of welcoming guests through the front door, became a cornerstone of the EHF program.
And I think what we try to do is get EHF on a path to partnering and embedding some of those values and opening the channel for our fellows as they land in New Zealand to experience that beautiful generosity and to experience the reality of the history and the reality of the dreams and the possibilities of the Maori communities here.
The EHF, a bold experiment in immigration policy, yielded valuable lessons. The initial reliance on private funding proved unsustainable, highlighting the need for a more diversified funding model. Additionally, the inherent tension between the EHF's focus on fostering a thriving fellowship community and the government's objective of maximizing immediate economic impact presented ongoing challenges.
Despite these obstacles, the EHF demonstrated the viability of a more human-centered approach to immigration, one that prioritizes long-term potential and community building over short-term economic metrics. Yoseph believes that this model, with its emphasis on subjective evaluation of talent, community-led processes, and culturally sensitive onboarding experiences, holds valuable lessons for countries seeking to attract and retain global talent.
Yoseph's current focus lies at the intersection of Web3 and Africa, a continent he believes holds immense untapped potential. He sees Web3 technologies as a catalyst for empowering individuals, fostering economic growth, and addressing systemic inequalities that have historically disadvantaged the region.
One of the things that got me into EHF was the idea that talent is borderless. But the more people I connect with across Africa and the countries where I come from is that there's an incredible number of talented people coming in technology native, learning everything online even way better than the infrastructure that I had access to. And people are discovering the crypto space, Web3 space on their own and finding an outlet of expression, finding an outlet of coordination.
Yoseph highlights the open-source nature of Web3 technologies as a key driver of innovation and accessibility in Africa. He believes that by removing gatekeepers and fostering collaboration, Web3 enables individuals to participate in the global economy on their own terms, regardless of their location or background. He envisions a future where African entrepreneurs and developers leverage these technologies to create solutions tailored to the continent's unique needs, ultimately leapfrogging existing systems and establishing themselves as leaders in the Web3 space.
People can build on-chain credentials, reputation profiles there and build track record and add real value and you can have an economy that works where it's much more permissionless and it's much more meritocratic than what we've had before. So I think that that's a game changer in my view.
Yoseph acknowledges the potential pitfalls of replicating existing power structures within the Web3 space, particularly in the context of global inequality. However, he remains optimistic that by empowering local communities and supporting entrepreneurs who are building solutions from the ground up, Web3 can contribute to a more equitable and just future for Africa.
He emphasizes the importance of moving away from extractive models of engagement and towards fostering genuine partnerships that prioritize the long-term well-being of African communities. Yoseph believes that by embracing a mindset of abundance and recognizing the immense talent and potential that exists within the continent, Web3 can play a transformative role in shaping a more equitable and prosperous future for all.
Africa needs Web3, but Web3 needs Africa. The space needs what's happening in Africa to reach a billion users. to not just the billion users of Ethereum projects that people have built elsewhere, is for us to build on these infrastructures the application that makes more sense for us.
Airtable