This is the concluding article on EDUTECH.
EXISTING FUNDS AND PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES FOR
A key question innovators seeking to scale their innovations always ask is “What funds exist for innovations?”
The IEA Expo 2019 does a great job of answering this question in the sense that
the gathering brought together over 30 local and international partners open to fund scalable innovations. Initiatives like Microsoft Azure, PIND etc. are providing capacity building, technical and strategic support to countries seeking to harness the potential of ICT to increase access to, and to improve quality, equity and effectiveness of secondary education particularly in relation to science, maths, technology and English subjects to help address the low numbers progressing to university to study STEM courses and, ultimately, to contribute to the socio-economic development of African countries.
It was also disclosed recently, that the Mastercard Foundation is preparing to
launch an ICT Centre to harness the power of ICT to transform education systems. Global Partners for Education (GPE) also supports getting more children into school and learning in the most remote areas through the GPE funded strategic elements of implementation grant, in remote areas which low access to education, low school completion rates, school infrastructure, teacher training, innovation and real time school monitoring system. In addition, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports the acquisition of specialist knowledge, skills and management expertise through the International Employment for Development initiative (E4D) that is powered by a partnership made up of the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Union and the
development agencies of Korea, United Kingdom and Norway. This initiative
empowers companies to create jobs and training places that are committed to
providing extensive vocational education especially across the green economy
sector which will in turn improve incomes and livelihood outcomes.
Africa Digital Media Academy is another organization that provides students
with the skills necessary to work in all areas of the digital media industry with the same degree of talent and resources as anywhere else in the world. These skill sets cuts across developing interactive digital content, production of multimedia and animation of learning materials (gamification).
In addition, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a pan-
African network of centres of excellence enabling Africa’s talented students
become innovators driving scientific, educational and economic self sufficiency in the continent.
Summarily, the thrust of strategic digitalization of the education sector in Africa underscores the idea that digital competence does not only entail learning how to use ICT tools, but also requires elements like critical thinking, basic skills and social skills. Education has an important role in ensuring that society is able to deal with the digital developments taking place now and in the future. Society needs people with technical understanding, but also people who can understand the consequences of our technological choices for the individual and for society.
The essence of this report is to help local and international partners, government,
organisations and other stakeholders have access to emerging trends and proven innovations that can support the actualization and achievement of the sustainable development Goal 4 in Africa.
Precious Ebere, a delegate at the Innovating in Africa Expo (IEA 2019), is a
community development specialist with experience across technology, civic
leadership and youth engagement. She is also the Co-founder at “DO”
(dotakeaction.org), a civic start-up on a mission to build an active community of
young and old people taking action to drive sustainable development in their
Over the span of 4 years, she has worked actively to ensure women, girls and
children get access to inclusive and quality education, health and equal
opportunities through “DO” (dotakeaction.org).
Some of her work includes: the I-Woman (Innovative Woman) ICT Training
through which she empowered over 200 women within Abuja for financial
independence, leveraging technology. She also pioneered various projects such as Creators and Influencers for Social Change, Grassroots Development Champion, Relief hub etc. in which over 5000 people have directly and indirectly benefited from these projects.