The Alphabet Institute now has a physical facility to host our Effective Altruism and 80,000hrs workshops in Zambia.

Cavendish University has generously allowed us to use its residential property, which is located near several universities and high schools in Lusaka. Starting 4 July, we will begin hosting weekly workshops for students, graduates and young professionals who are trying to make better decisions about their education, careers and contribution to society.

This is a big milestone for us.

About two years ago, I began my journey as an effective altruist. I was excited, ready to learn, and ready to get to work. I applied for free career guidance, EA-related opportunities and did not get through. I also applied for the charity entrepreneurship charity incubation which did not work out either, and all that was just a humbling experience. I really recommend reading @Experience of a 'generalist' transitioning into AI safety in 2026 because this article needs to be pinned on some "Beginner's Guide to EA Work" board. 

The lessons from Effective Altruism and 80,000 Hours made it difficult for me to simply stay quiet and do nothing in my own country so here is update #3 from  @I have started a local community in Zambia for students, graduates, and professionals based on the principles outlined in the 80,000 Hours book. In this thread, I will keep you updated on its progress.

One unexpected outcome of talking to fellow Zambians about Effective Altruism is that it eventually led me to work with the Presidential Delivery Unit, where I work closely with the Tony Blair Institute and Delivery Associates to support the Zambian President, Hakainde Hichilema’s digital inclusion priority of connecting 80% of  citizens to affordable internet and enabling 20% participation in the digital economy by 2031. Only 33% are currently connected.

This was not work I had planned for. I was unemployed, post graduate student, anxious about AI, and trying to figure out what skills I need to build to afford rent.

To my surprise, it's been exciting.

At the PDU, I work on issues such as mass adoption of government e-services, change management for civil servants, delivery coordination among private sector partners, efficient and effective value chains especially crops, livestock and mines, tax-related advocacy, and monitoring, evaluation, communications for impact reporting. I also found myself using my master’s degree in behavioural research methods in very practical ways.

The work i am doing is voluntary, so my income suffered. But I am fortunate to have a supportive family and community. I also learned that I enjoy work that sits at the intersection of human behaviour, systems, technology and public impact whether in public service or for profit.

My time at the PDU also taught me something important: if you want to change systems, it is very difficult to do it entirely from the outside or entirely form the inside.

The PDU itself was created to accelerate high-impact Government priorities, improve coordination, unblock implementation challenges and support delivery of results for citizens. Its work is built around prioritisation, performance tracking, problem-solving and accountability. That experience gave me new energy for the Alphabet Institute.

When I quit my previous job, before the PDU, I believed that EA principles and the Alphabet Institute would be easily welcomed. I used all my savings to pay the exorbitant registration and affiliation fees. I believed that formalizing the work would help the government move our work faster. But things did not move the way I hoped.

Government processes are soo slow. Promises made to me as a young Zambian trying to contribute to youth development were never  fulfilled. So I started with what I had. I hosted different versions of the workshop for different audiences. The response was positive, but traction has slow because the challenges are bigger than my resources.

You can read the case studies in these slides.

One major issue with the students we interacted with was iliteracy, and this was also reported by the school management. Another was access to resources because there are alot of free resources on the internet, duhh, but few people find and utilise them. Another was that students and young people needed content that felt relevant to Zambia, not just imported from elsewhere. So I began localising the ideas from 80,000 Hours to the Zambian context.

Over time, I learned that the strongest multiplier may be the school teacher.

If we want young people to make better decisions about their future, we need to support the people who are already in classrooms, guiding learners every day. This became even more important with Zambia’s policy shift to the Competence-Based Curriculum (from the outcome-based) in 2025, which focuses more on practical skills, learner-centred education and real-world application starting from early childhood education.

From working both outside and inside the system, these are some of the lessons I have learned:

1. While removing the financial burdens placed on families, the policy has successfully allowed over 2.5 million previously out-of-school learners to return to class, but teachers are overwhelmed. In many public schools, one teacher may be responsible for upto 60 learners or more.
2. The new curriculum has been introduced, but it will take time before all the right textbooks and support materials are available offline, because its all currently digital.
3. Even in urban areas, many public schools still do not have functional computer labs. Where labs exist, learner access is not always guaranteed because only 18.9% of almost 200,000 teachers have had ICT training. You could still make the assumption that many teachers have mobile phones, but the cost of internet is high with VAT and excise duty adding upto 33%.
4. The Bank of Zambia reported that many teachers are in serious debt and under serious financial pressure and have very little capacity to invest in their own professional development.
5. There are also other deeply rooted and systematic barriers stopping teachers from adopting digital technologies that are already aligned with the new curriculum that could reduce administrative work and give them more time to focus on learners.

This is why the Alphabet Institute is now focusing on operationalizing the competence based curriculum.

My 4 friends and I will be running with the goal of hosting 500 students over a period of 12 weeks and publishing a report that answers five questions:

• What skills should I build now?
• How do I choose a career path that fits my strengths and interests?
• What opportunities exist beyond the familiar professions?
• How can I connect education to income, contribution and the future of work?
• How do I build confidence and direction for my next career step?

We are now  fundraising and looking for sponsorship partners to help us cover workshop delivery, learning materials, facilitation, student outreach, reporting and documentation.

Two years ago, I just wanted to be pointed in the right direction and get to work.

Today, the work has a home.

And we are ready to welcome the next 500 young people.

I look forward to sharing sharing update #4

Thank you.