Economy

UNDP, Afrilabs partner to promote innovation in Africa

Published

1 year ago

November 15, 2021

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Accelerator Labs and AfriLabs have partnered to harness the knowledge of local innovators across the continent to close the gap towards the Sustainable Development Global Goals (SDGs).

The partnership was announced at a hybrid event hosted by AfriLabs as part of their 2021 Annual Gathering held in October.

Anna Ekeledo, AfriLabs Executive Director and William Tsuma, Senior Advisor and UNDP Nigeria Accelerator Lab Focal Point attended the in-person event at the ImpactCove Hub in Abuja, Nigeria.

Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa and Gina Lucarelli, UNDP Accelerator Labs Team Leader joined virtually.

To date, Africa is only on track for Goal 14 (life below water), with a regression on Goals such as 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), which is why we urgently need to mobilize the collective intelligence of more than 1 billion Africans to accelerate progress toward these Goals.

With this partnership, the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network and AfriLabs bet on the African innovation ecosystem to increase its contribution to solving the continent’s most pressing development challenges and advance innovation policy in Africa.

Both partners’ scale and networks across the continent make them uniquely positioned to achieve that. The UNDP Accelerator Lab Network comprises 91 labs covering 115 countries among which 35 are located in Africa, and AfriLabs is the largest pan-African network, comprising 320 technology and innovation hubs across 51 African countries and the diaspora.

“With our youth population projected to be over 500 million over the next 5 years, the importance of job creation cannot be understated, and innovation hubs act as a platform that build systems and businesses that create these jobs. We see this partnership as a powerful collaboration that can multiply the effect of our goals and we look forward to recording measurable impact tailored to revolutionize the innovation ecosystem in Africa,” Anna Ekeledo, Executive Director of AfriLabs, said.

“Together, AfriLabs and the 35 UNDP Accelerator Labs in Africa will draw lessons from existing policies and develop a framework which will be shared as input for African leaders,” said Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa.

“This can shape inclusive innovation policies that will better address the complexity of current development challenges.”

“Bottom-up innovation plays a critical role if we want to accelerate progress towards the Goals,” added, Gina Lucarelli, UNDP Accelerator Labs Team Leader.

“We know there is power in the homegrown innovation happening across the continent and this partnership will help us tap into this potential. I am particularly excited about the upcoming national innovation policy dialogues we are co-organizing to surface what kind of innovation policies can unleash and enable all that power.”

The signing ceremony has officially kickstarted this knowledge partnership for the African innovation and development ecosystem.

Next up, the partners are organizing a panel series called the “Africa Innovation Policy Dialogues” which will take place in 2021 and 2022, starting in Nigeria and Kenya in November 2021, and will discuss how local innovations can contribute to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals even, and especially, in times of COVID-19.