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Dear Reader, 

We are in the midst of a global crisis. Everyone is affected, but particularly our partner countries in the Global South are facing challenges of unprecedented proportions.

The last newsletter already dealt with digital solutions in the fight against the coronavirus. The topicality remains the same: In this issue, we would like to follow up on the earlier discussions and show how the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has taken action. With innovative formats such as the #SmartDevelopmentHack challenge and the digilab’s “Data vs. COVID-19” Design Thinking sprint, BMZ is gathering partners from all over the world to innovate and co-create in the fight against the virus. At the same time, we would like to shed light at our partners and their activities in the field. After all, this is a global pandemic and it requires global action.

I wish you an interesting read,

Gunther Beger

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Head of Department Policy Issues, Private Sector, Trade, Rural Development
 
BMZ News
 
#SmartDevelopmentHack:
1000 Submissions in the Fight Against Corona

In April 2020, BMZ called out the global ideas competition #SmartDevelopmentHack to scale existing digital solutions in the fight against the coronavirus.

To counteract the global pandemic, BMZ, together with the EU Commission, launched the global ideas competition #SmartDevelopmentHack in preparation for the German EU-Council Presidency. The ideas competition encompassed more than 30 partners as part of “Team Europe”. The common goal was to scale up existing digital solutions and to immediately deploy them against challenges related to the COVID-19 crisis in developing countries.

On April 20th, the #SmartDevelopmentHack called for digital solutions in the four areas of a) equal opportunities, b) good governance and human rights, c) work and employment and d) data for development. The response was overwhelming: In only one week, more than 1000 digital solutions were submitted. 20 teams were invited to join the hack days, a two-day virtual workshop to refine the project ideas together with implementing partners and mentors. On May 20th, a high-ranking jury of BMZ, DG DEVCO, OACPS, Smart Africa, TU Munich, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GIZ and KfW determined the nine winnering projects. It is not overly enthusiastic to claim that the #SmartDevelopmentHack was a success in finding digital solutions against COVID-19.

Moving forward, the nine winning projects will receive methodological support and funding to scale up their solutions. There is also the possibility to further develop the projects with the BMZ digital learning platform atingi.org.
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"Data vs. COVID-19" Sprint of the BMZ digilab 

In June 2020, the BMZ digilab made its debut with the "Data vs. COVID-19" Design Thinking sprint.

New times are calling for new measures: The BMZ digilab strives to make German development cooperation even more innovative and digital-ready. With this being said, digitisation does not become an end in itself. The goal is to make development cooperation more effective, efficient and modern using agile methods such as Design Thinking.

From June 2nd-4th, around 40 experts from various fields worked together to pursue one common goal: To further develop existing digital and data-driven solutions in the fight against COVID-19. Among these solutions were SORMAS, an open source mobile eHealth System, and TruBudget, a blockchain-based solution that enables secure, transparent management of the use of donor funds.

The digilab provided an important impetus to advance four BMZ-supported solutions in the fight against COVID-19 as well as to identify synergies among them.
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BMZ's Digital Learning Platform "atingi"

The corona crisis and social distancing have once again proven the value of digital learning. atingi is a digital learning platform commissioned by Federal Development Minister Dr Gerd Mueller and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is currently being rolled out in Benin, Niger, Rwanda and Togo and progressively being established as the digital learning standard in German development cooperation. 

atingi aims to reach young people through innovative e-learning offers. Educational contents are developed locally and geared towards improving vocational training and employability for the jobs of the future.
New E-Learning Courses with "Make-IT"

In June 2020, atingi and the tech entrepreneurship initiative Make-IT launched two new courses for young professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Due Diligence course prepares the target group for the process that is carried out before buying or investing in companies as well as before IPOs to weigh up risks, strengths and weaknesses and is intended to help start-ups present themselves well to potential investors. The online Guide to Investment helps small and growing technology start-ups to find out which financing instruments and investors are well suited for their business case. For both courses, participants receive a certificate upon successful completion.
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atingi Workshop with Smart Africa

On June 8th, a workshop was organized by the Smart Africa Secretariat in cooperation with BMZ and GIZ. The purpose of this meeting was to present the most recent work concerning atingi. This included the results of the scoping missions of each of the four partner countries (Benin, Niger, Togo, Rwanda), an overview on the planned activities and an introduction to the functionalities of the atingi e-learning platform. Smart Africa's DG Lacina Koné emphasized in his opening speech the opportunities of digital learning on the African continent: "I want to change the narrative of Africa using digital learning. With the help of on-demand and free learning modules, better employment and income opportunities are to be created for the young generation in Africa."
COVID-19 Quiz on atingi

As a quick response to the corona pandemic, the e-learning platform atingi has reacted and established a COVID-19 subdomain. Together with the partner countries of German development cooperation, this site provides locally-adapted content on the prevention, symptoms and myths of the virus. The highlight is a corona quiz, which was developed together with a GIZ health project ("Health System Strengthening in Togo - Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights"). The quiz is available in English and French and aims to provide information about COVID-19 in an entertaining way.
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More News in Times of COVID-19
 
AFD's Response to the Crisis  

Not only the German development cooperation community gathered solutions and mechanisms to tackle the crisis. The French partner Agence française de développement (AFD) collected and initiated innovative projects against the effects of COVID-19 as well. By May 12th, 16 projects have been approved for a total grant amount of €60 million, mainly for African countries. Amongst others, the aim is to strengthen their health systems, to support medical research activities and to increase patient screening and treatment capacity.
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AfDB's Ideathon #AfricaVsVirus

The #AfricaVsVirus challenge is part of the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) continent-wide response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bank has launched a $10 billion COVID-19 Response Facility to help countries strengthen their health and social protection systems as well as to build economic resilience to sustain jobs and livelihoods. Some 25,000 participants from across Africa and beyond joined the online platform to pitch their ideas for innovative solutions to the health and economic challenges caused by the virus. In the end, the top 20 solutions will be awarded monetarily and with technical support.

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Smart Africa Launched Africa-wide Coordinated Response to the Pandemic

To address this unprecedented crisis in its scale and impact on society, the Smart Africa Secretariat is seeking to improve and accelerate African governments' response to the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, Smart Africa brought together the 30 member states under the Smart Africa Alliance and its 40 private sector partners to coordinate a continent-wide response for Africa focused on digital health services. To ensure that the efforts are relevant to the African context, the article outlines critical technological parameters.
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Information Platform for African Women on COVID-19

The pan-African network FEMNET developed an online hub that gathers critical information about the coronavirus in Africa from a gender and feminist perspective. Women and girls are particularly affected by the lockdown measures and often only learn important information from third parties. The online platform is not only intended to protect against controlled reporting, but also to serve as a documentation of injustices that were uncovered or even further intensified during the pandemic.
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Delivering Education at Home in African States: Country Status Report

The corona pandemic further aggravates the educational situation on the African continent. Even before the crisis, millions of children and young people were unable to receive an education. The closure of schools and the lack of infrastructure for online teaching and learning are exacerbating this issue. The below study provides an overview of national strategies and existing technical solutions. It becomes clear that the African educational sector was insufficiently prepared for the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and that, despite some exemplary solutions, there is a lot of catching up to do. A joint strategic approach is needed.
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Existing and Emerging Digital Divides in Times of COVID-19

As pointed out earlier, digital technologies have received a great push due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, a new analysis from UNCTAD accentuates how a digitally enabled world is not working for everyone equally.The least developed countries (LDCs) are the most vulnerable to the pandemic's social and economic consequences, and also the furthest behind in terms of digital readiness: "If left unaddressed, the yawning gap between under-connected and hyper-digitalized countries will widen, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities," said UNCTAD’s technology and logistics director, Shamika Sirimanne.
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"Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance" Report

An alliance of global health organisations and private donors reacted quickly after the coronavirus outbreak in Africa: Between March 29th and April 17th, PERC (Partnership for Evidence Based Response to COVID-19) conducted a broad survey on epidemiological measurements and indicators of population movements and unrest in 20 AU member states. The locally collected data were used to derive trends and recommendations for action for the African continent taking regional contexts into account.
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More Creative Tech Solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

As African countries are taking action in the containment of COVID-19, they are increasingly looking for creative, entrepreneurial solutions. Whether locally produced ventilators, digital virus tracking solutions or information via chatbot - Many innovative approaches have emerged since the outbreak of the coronavirus. DW collected the most promising solutions, from ventilators to food delivery services in times of lockdown
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More BMZ News
 
BMZ Supports Lacuna Fund to Promote AI Training as a Public Good in the Global South

The new Lacuna Fund was launched to promote Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations in the Global South.

BMZ supports the creation of AI training data in the Global South. Therefore, BMZ partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation, Google.org and Canada’s International Development Research Centre to launch the Lacuna Fund. The fund promotes AI innovation in the partner countries of the German development cooperation. As a result of insufficient, discriminatory or non-representative data. Low- and middle-income countries have largely been excluded from the opportunities AI offers for sustainable development. Lacuna Fund lays the foundation for local start-ups, researchers and social entrepreneurs to improve and expand datasets and to make them more sustainable. This empowers local entrepreneurs to develop AI applications for local challenges.
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The BMZ's Strategic Partnership Technolgy in Africa presents "Wikonnect"

"Learn to Earn" via Wikonnect: BRCK and GIZ offer learning at over 2,700 WiFi hotspots in Kenya.

In cooperation with the Kenyan company BRCK, the Strategic Partnership Technology in Africa (SPTA) launched the Wikonnect cooperation project in October 2019 to promote skills as well as general and specialist knowledge in Kenya. An online knowledge platform based on the Wikipedia model is used to make basic knowledge accessible to everyone - for example on work-related and health information (e.g. regarding COVID-19), financial management, Internet use and data protection. Interactive video formats will help to stimulate the desire to learn. With over 2,700 WiFi hotspots and 500,000 users per month, BRCK's Moja is one of the largest WiFi providers in the region. The non-profit Tunapanda Institute and the non-profit organization Learning Lions are essential partners in this project. Via Wikonnect, users can collect so-called Moja points when finishing learning units. These can also be used for other purposes in accordance with the "learn to earn" philosophy, such as streaming music and videos.

For more information about the SPTA, you can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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Design Thinking and 3D Printing for People with Disabilities in Erbil, Iraq

A workshop collected multiple approaches to find solutions for challenges in the everyday life of the attendees.

Assistive technology increases, maintains or improves the functional abilities of people with disabilities. At the same time, 9 out of 10 people with disabilities worldwide do not have access to assistive technologies such as glasses, hearing aids or wheelchairs. The GIZ project "ICT Perspectives for Modern Youth in Iraq" conducted a Training and Design Thinking Workshop for people with disabilities in Erbil, Iraq, in January 2020. The objective of the training was to brainstorm with the attendees on challenges in their everyday life and to create solutions for their problems. Participants were trained in the use of digital fabrication tools and 3D printers. Gadgets as gripping aids for small objects such as cutlery, pens or zippers can improve motor control for people with disabilities. Such tools can be easily adapted to local needs and can be produced with 3D printers anywhere in the world, without patents and directly on site. The participants were encouraged in the training to create their own designs based on their needs.

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Make-IT and Airbus Bizlab Partner on the
#Africa4Future Accelerator Programme

The  #Africa4Future accelerator programme aims to support African entrepreneurship in the fields of agriculture and remote sensing.

Airbus Bizlab and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) have announced the top 10 African tech start-ups that are taking part in the latest Airbus Bizlab #Africa4Future accelerator programme. The programme aims to encourage and support entrepreneurship in Africa.

The 10 finalists, chosen out of 314 submissions from 19 African countries, are currently undergoing an intensive 6-month business incubation and accelerator programme involving technical, commercial and mentorship activities in France, Germany and South Africa. This includes workshops and coaching sessions with Airbus experts, GIZ’s Make-IT in Africa, MEST and Innocircle coaches. 

On July 11th, the start-ups pitched their ideas at the Africa4Future Showcase 2020, an online event where they were given the opportunity to network with experts, potential investors and other business partners.
More information
 
Other Events
 

Coming Up

July 31st, 2020: Webinar "ICT4Inclusion – Bridging the Digital Disability Divide" // Digital technologies can promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of life and help overcome many of these barriers. This webinar gives an overview. More information

September 25th, 2020: Afrolynk Conference // The conference builds a bridge between the EU-Africa start-up ecosystems and provides a platform to bring together thought leaders, private sector representatives, policymakers and entrepreneurs. Under the theme THE FUTURE IS NOW, the conference will explore innovative solutions, trends and potential partnerships with a special focus on essential sectors that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of this year's conference, Afrolynk will be hosting the African Start-up Awards to recognize outstanding start-ups and pioneering responses to the ongoing challenges.

Afrolynk believes in the immense value of partnerships for businesses to thrive. Therefore, they are looking for corporate partners with an interest to explore new market opportunities in collaboration with African start-ups. If your company would be interested to engage in the Afrolynk conference and Corporate Collaboration Design Thinking, please contact sophia.lynar@afrolynk.com.
 

Retrospective

digital kontrovers #14: The digital transformation is leading to great progress worldwide. But what about climate footprint, sustainability and resource conservation? Listen to the new digital kontrovers podcast (in German).
 

This regular newsletter aims to keep you and other partners up to date with news from the intersection between development cooperation, business cooperation and digitalisation.

Imprint: https://toolkit-digitalisierung.de/impressum/ 
Copyrights: (1) - (6) GIZ,  (7)  AFD / Prachatai, Flickr, (8)+(9) GIZ / Dirk Ostermeier, (10) pexels, (11) - (17) GIZ