The actual product that won Kit Yamoyo has been designed by ColaLife and PI Global. The competition in this category alone has been fierce as Kit Yamoyo was shortlisted alongside products such as Berg’s Little Printer and Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun as well as such pieces of design as Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olymipcs.

Kit Yamoyo is an anti-diarrhoea kit, designed to deliver medicines to where they are needed, leveraging the distribution networks that exist for Coca-Cola. It has been designed with direct input from African mothers and carers, the ones to which the product is targeted to deliver life saving medicine.

We at Africa Gathering are incredibly proud of the ColaLife project and wish it continued success and congratulations on winning this award.

A press release from ColaLife is available here.

Theme: Hands on technology: The rise of the makers, the dynamic and the disruptive thinkers of Africa

We are excited to announce our 5th Anniversary conference, which will take place this June in London. The conference theme is: Hands on technology: The rise of the makers, the dynamic and the disruptive thinkers of Africa.

Our 2013 event will provide an opportunity for delegates and speakers to share their ideas under our palaver tree and to showcase some of the great start-up ideas that have emerged in recent times across the continent, but also to discuss some of the challenges still present around funding and investment. And also this year, through a special series of themed presentations, we will highlight and debate the rise of women in tech across Africa. Africa Gathering 2013 will be a key event for women innovators and investors looking to discover and invest the African technology ecosystems.

Join our two-day event of experts and thinkers, in-depth panels, educational presentations and thought leadership, which aims to develop and build relationships. By highlighting grassroots, emerging technologies, and solutions that are relevant to Africa, we wish to offer a new perspective, and so encourage active involvement from Africa-focused businesses, investors, and funders.

You will have a chance to take peek at this year’s line-up and network with some remarkable thinkers of Africa. Remember to get your ticket early, grab a place to meet and network with our great network.

Themed Series

Our themed series will focus on Women Entrepreneurship in Africa and Investment for Innovation in Africa, and the conference will seek to set the tone around these topics. We will demonstrate how African innovators, especially women, are moving fast and taking the lead in developing amazing local technological solutions. We also aim to demystify the relationship between investors and African entrepreneurs.

More info coming soon!!

Contact team in London: info@africagathering.org

APPS4AFRICA 2012 COMING SOON TO GHANA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Accra, November 11, 2012 We’re pleased to announce that Apps4Africa will be returning to Ghana for the third consecutive year, with the new theme “Business Challenge.” Join us on December 1st at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence (KACE-AITI), from 10.00am for the brainstorming event to discuss and develop potential submissions. Register at Eventbrite.

Apps4Africa 2012: Business Challenge builds on the success of the two previous Apps4Africa competitions. In 2010, Apps4Africa focused on Civic Challenge and spurred developers to find innovative technology solutions to everyday problems on issues ranging from transparency and governance to health and education. The winning app – iCow – was developed in Kenya and enables farmers to better manage the breeding periods of their cows, helping increase yields. Regional winners of the 2011 Apps4africa competition on Climate Challenges in Africa came from Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Botswana and produced apps that promote food security, health, sustainable agricultural practices, and disease monitoring.

Remember Ghana’s 2011 winner, Farmeronline.org? The team will be on hand to share their experience and if they are not too modest maybe they’ll share how they went on to win the World Summit Youth Award.

Marieme Jamme, Coordinator of Events in Africa notes, “The Apps4Africa competition gives a voice to the voiceless: it gives the microphone to local people, to generate solutions to local issues that matter to them. Across Africa, from Accra to Kinshasa, the Apps4Africa competitions have changed people’s lives; people felt listened to, engaged, and part of the competition fully. We are proud to be part of this year’s competition and to engage technologists, businesses, entrepreneurs and developers across Africa to find local solutions and reward them for their work and innovation. I want to find and inspire as many young African leaders as I can, to move them from coders to CEO’s.”

This year’s Apps4Africa 2012: Business Challenge launched at DEMO Africa on October 25-26, 2012 in Kenya- Nairobi. DEMO Africa is a technology and investor forum geared towards identifying leading innovators and supporting fast-growing technology startups. After the launch in Nairobi- Kenya, a series of Apps4Africa brainstorming sessions will be held across Africa starting from: Uganda, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Senegal to debate and discuss openly the Business challenges facing the Youth, the entrepreneurs and technologists. The winners of this year competition will receive prizes, mentorship and seed capital to help them start and take their Businesses forward.

About Appfrica International

Appfrica International is an organization focused on three drivers of change for Africa’s knowledge economy: mentoring young technologists, investing in their ideas with time, attention, and capital, and highlighting their successes across the continent.

Appfrica International, with the support of the U.S. Department of State and the World Bank, will bring together civil society, academia, and the private sector to support African technology innovators in creating apps that promote economic opportunity and entrepreneurship in Africa through the Apps4Africa 2012 Competition.

Apps4Africa 2012 competition partners include TED, The Unreasonable Institute, iHub, IDEO, and LIONS@AFRICA, a public-private alliance led by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnership that fosters public-private partnerships promoting technology and innovation in Africa. Appfrica International has renewed its partnership with Senegalese Born Marieme Jamme, CEO of Spotone Global Solutions to bring again engaged, localized and energized brainstorming sessions across Africa.

For more information please visit http://apps4africa.org, www.appfrica.com, or contact for Partnership Appfrica: Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson at 917-495-1105 or bahiyahyasmeen@appfrica.org

For Apps4frica 2012 in Africa contact Coordinator Marieme Jamme: mjamme@gmail.com

AFRICA GATHERING PRESENT APPS4AFRICA 2012 COMPETITION IN ZAMBIA
Date: November 17th 2012
Africa gathering in collaboration with Bongo Hive Zambia present the Apps4africa 2012 Competition.
You are cordially invited to join us at the 3rd annual Apps4Africa competition in Lusaka focusing on Business Challenge this November 17th at Bongo Hive Tech Hub 25 Mpulungu Road, Olympia, Lusaka (Next to Chita Lodge)

The Apps4Africa 2012 Competition brings together civil society, academia, and the private sector to support African technology innovators in creating solutions that promote economic opportunity and entrepreneurship in Africa. A series of brainstorming sessions openly debate and identify the business challenges facing the youth, entrepreneurs and technologists. The innovators of the best solutions to address these problems will receive prizes, mentorship and seed capital to help them start and nurture their businesses.

Who should attend?

Ambitious technologists, developers, entrepreneurs, businesses, startups and NGOs that support technology projects.
We are looking for the next tech CEO in Zambia.

Are you ready for the challenge? Don’t miss it! Sign up Now!!

Enter the competition here : www.apps4africa.org

About Apps4Africa

Apps4Africa 2012: Business Challenge was launched at DEMO Africa on October 25-26, 2012 in Kenya- Nairobi, and the Apps4Africa brainstorming sessions will be held in Africa starting with Uganda, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Senegal.
Apps4Africa 2012 competition partners include TED, The Unreasonable Institute, iHub, IDEO, and LIONS@AFRICA, a public-private alliance led by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnership that fosters public-private partnerships to promote technology and innovation in Africa. Appfrica International has renewed its partnership with Senegalese Born Marieme Jamme, CEO of Spotone Global Solutions to bring again engaged, localized and energized brainstorming sessions across Africa.
“The Apps4Africa competition gives a voice to the voiceless: it gives the microphone to local people, the people at the bottom to discuss local issues that matter to them. Across Africa, from Accra to Kinshasa, the Apps4Africa competitions have changed people’s lives; people felt listened to, engaged, and part of the competition fully. We are proud to be part of this year’s competition and to go again across Africa to engage technologists, businesses, entrepreneurs and developers to find local solutions and reward them for their work and innovation. I want to find as many young CEO’s in Africa as I can, to move them from coders to CEO’s” Marieme Jamme- Cordinator of Events in Africa.

Washington D.C. – October 18, 2012

The conference, themed “Africa Unlimited,” strategically launches during the opening weekend of Digital Capital Week, Washington D.C.’s annual 10-day technology festival.

Africa Gathering 2011 brought together diverse individuals from a varied background including: Activist Kambale Musavuli an impassioned Congolese activist who travels as an advocate for Friends of the Congo educating people on the ongoing atrocities in the Congo; Ethiopian filmmaker Sosena Solomon whose first feature documentary explores five delicate human stories faced with eviction at the helm of modern development in one of Africa’s largest open air market Merkato in Addis Ababa; Emerging women leaders Semhar Araia, founder of the Diaspora African Women’s network (DAWN) an organization connecting and fostering collaboration amongst African women in the Diaspora with a shared passion for African affairs; Barbara Birungi, Manager of Hive Collab a community owned innovation hub and co-working space for young tech entrepreneurs in Uganda and founder of WITU, a non-profit for women in technology in Uganda,which seeks to address the gender technological gap through recruitment, encouragement,training, empowerment and career advancement of women in the field of ICT and famously impassioned Ghanaian economist George Ayittey, whose steadfast sermon is Africa is for the ‘Cheetah generation’ a coined term for Africa’s youth that represent 70% of the population that is under 30.

With Africans making up 17% of Washington D.C.’s foreign-born population, and Africa’s pace-setting emergence as a global center of technological innovation and enterprise, it is important for Africans to be a part of the conversation. This year’s Africa Gathering conference aims to displace the ubiquitous portrayal of Africa as a stagnant continent mired in conflict – with the balanced reality of an upwardly growing continent filled with an impassioned populace and a creative diaspora full of zest for progress – both with a penchant for technological solutions and an aptitude for entrepreneurship.

Featured “Africa Unlimited” speakers include successful African technology and media start-up innovators, social entrepreneurs and thought leaders who will share challenges, insights and inspirations related to their work in Africa and the wider Diaspora. Invited speakers include Ghanaian software engineer Kwame Andah, co-founder of Coders4Africa, award-winning entrepreneur Saran Kaba Jones, the Liberian-born founder of FACE Africa, a non-profit that builds water wells in Liberia and Solome Lemma, Ethiopian philanthropist, White House ‘Champion of Change’ honoree and long-time activist.

“Africa Unlimited” kicks off Friday, November 2, with an evening of interactive brainstorming that will cover five different themes, spanning from the technology boom on the continent to the role of the diaspora in relation to the continent’s progress. Saturday’s program will feature a speaker series spanning multiple disciplines, with discussions centered on current topics, including philanthropy and citizen engagement.

The collaborative effort between Africa Gathering and The African Society at Georgetown stems from a shared mission of spotlighting a balanced Africa, cultivating relationships and highlighting grassroots, emerging technologies and solutions that are relevant to Africa. Both organizations also aim to encourage active involvement from Africa-focused businesses, investors, and strategists, whilst concurrently offering a new, primarily youth-driven perspective.

Africa Gathering, a global platform active on three continents which believes in active discourse and public engagement, facilitates collaboration among brilliant African minds – from activators to innovators, artists to technologists – with a mission to highlight and champion emerging change-makers, thought leaders and doers that are positively shaping the continent.

Event Details

Venue: ICC Auditorium at Georgetown University, 37th and O St., N.W., Washington D.C. 20057

Date & Time: Friday, November 2nd: 6pm-9pm & Saturday, November 3rd 11am-5pm (All times are subject to change.)

To register click here

Sponsoring Organizations

Africa Gathering

Africa Gathering brings together a diverse community of individuals who care about Africa to share their ideas for progressive change in sustainable development, new technology and media,social entrepreneurship, health, education and good governance.

Website: http://www.africagathering.org

The African Society at Georgetown

The African Society of Georgetown is a student-led organization established for the purpose of highlighting Africa, its people, its culture, and its way of life. It has a shared vision of spotlighting a balanced Africa, developing global relationships, highlighting grassroots initiatives, emerging technologies, and solutions that are relevant to Africa – to encourage active involvement from Africa-focused businesses, investors, and strategists – whilst concurrently offering a new perspective. African Society members are dedicated to diversifying thought on campus and heightening cultural sensitivity.

Website: http://www.asgeorgetown.com/

Contact: Kathleen Bomani, Africa Gathering Event Manager,  kathleen(at)africagathering.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC, October 17, 2012

Appfrica International launches 3^rd Annual Competition to invest in African Technologists

Theme: “Business challenge – Learn how to structure and take your technological business ideas forward”

Appfrica International is an organization focused on three drivers of change for Africa’s knowledge economy: mentoring young technologists, investing in their ideas with time, attention, and capital, and highlighting their successes across the continent.

Appfrica International, with the support of the U.S. Department of State and the World Bank, will bring together civil society, academia, and the private sector to support African technology innovators in creating apps that promote economic opportunity and entrepreneurship in Africa through the Apps4Africa 2012 Competition.

This year’s Apps4Africa 2012: Business Challenge will be launched at DEMO Africa on October 25-26, 2012 in Kenya- Nairobi. DEMO Africa is a technology and investor forum geared towards identifying leading innovators and supporting fast-growing technology startups.  After the launch in Nairobi- Kenya, a series of Apps4Africa brainstorming sessions will be held in Africa with starting countries: Uganda, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Senegal to debate and discuss openly the Business challenges facing the Youth, the entrepreneurs and technologists. The winners of this year competition will receive prizes, mentorship and a seed capital to help them start and take their Businesses forward.

The Apps4Africa 2012: Business Challenge builds on the success of the two previous Apps4Africa competitions.  In 2010, Apps4Africa focused on Civic Challenge and spurred developers to find innovative technology solutions to everyday problems on issues ranging from transparency and governance to health and education.  The winning app – iCow – was developed in Kenya and enables farmers to better manage the breeding periods of their cows, helping increase yields.  Regional winners of the 2011 Apps4africa competition on Climate Challenges in Africa came from Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Botswana and produced apps that promote food security, health, sustainable agricultural practices, and disease monitoring.

Apps4Africa 2012 competition partners include TED, The Unreasonable Institute, iHub, IDEO, and LIONS@AFRICA, a public-private alliance led by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnership that fosters public-private partnerships promoting technology and innovation in Africa. Appfrica International has renewed its partnership with Senegalese Born Marieme Jamme, CEO of Spotone Global Solutions to bring again engaged, localized and energized brainstorming sessions across Africa.

She said: “The Apps4Africa competition gives voices to the voiceless:  it gives the microphone to local people, the people at the Bottom to discuss local issues that matters to them. Across Africa the Apps4Africa competitions have changed people’s lives from Accra to Kinshasa; people felt listened to, engaged, and part of the competition fully. We are proud to be part of this year competition and to go again across Africa to engage technologists, businesses, entrepreneurs and developers to find local solutions and be rewarded for their work and innovation. I want to find as many Young CEO’s in Africa as I can, move them from coders to CEO’s” Marieme Jamme

For more information please visit http://apps4africa.org, www.appfrica.com, or contact for Partnership Appfrica: Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson at 917-495-1105 or bahiyahyasmeen@appfrica.org

For Apps4frica 2012 in Africa contact Coordinator Marieme Jamme: mjamme@gmail.com

This Conference will seek to reframe the debate around Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Africa. It will demonstrate how the creative African cheetahs are currently moving fast and taking the lead in developing amazing technology solutions currently changing and improving lives.

This timely Africa Gathering 2012 will encourage UK investors, to start looking seriously at African start-ups and learn at the same time from the Managers of the Hubs and incubators where growth is increasing rapidly. “Africa is on its way to becoming a preferred investment destination” Kofi Annan in Ethiopia – WEF 2012

The programme will involve a mix of keynote speakers from Africa, Google UK, Indigo Trust and the World Bank. The morning will see three parallel workshops and breakout group think running along different themes until the afternoon and to end with a plenary session with presentations from a variety of speakers from Africa and the World Bank Team.

One highlight of our One-day event is a Group Think and Brainstorming sessions on Africa’s Start UP Future (Who is starting and building it in Africa?)

Please contact Africa Gathering at info@africagathering.org or julani@africagathering.org

Click here to view event invitation | Buy Tickets Here

Ghana Agenda

Theme: “Youth Employment in Africa”

“We want to hear from Africa’s young people themselves about how we can do more to create good paying jobs,” said the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa Shanta Devarajan. “These sessions are vital to hear directly from them.”

Friday April 20^th 2012

Morning Session

10.00- 10.30 Registration- Networking

10.30- 10.40 Welcome From Africa Gathering Curator and World Bank

10.40- 11.45 Open Debate: Who is employed and who is not?

11.45- 12.00 Let’s talk about Jobs: How hard is it to find a good paying Job in Ghana?

12.00- 13.00 What sorts of jobs are out there for the youth?

13.00- 14.00- LUNCH- TEA- COFFEE

Afternoon Session

1400- 15.45 – Focused Talking Point (Youth and Employment)

Case Study

Analysis & Discussion

• Employment: Why aren’t we employed?
• Youth & Technology: Can they be employed through Technology? Agriculture or others disciplines?
• Policy and Education:  How can we create Jobs for the youth? Is our education system enabling or failing the Youth?
• Hiring the Youth: Who is making their dreams come true?

15.45-16.15- Group reflexions- what did you learn and share today?

• Compare it to your situation
• How apply it to your personal context
• Pros and cons based on your perspective
• Processes taken to make this conclusion
• Immediate actions to take forward

16.15- 16.45– Group Leaders Presentation of Outcomes & Discussion on ideas shared

16.45- 17.00- Curator last Word and Thank you

Join the conversation on twitter: #Jobs4Africa- Follow @WorldBankAfrica @Africagathering

Facebook Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldbankafrica

Be updated via Twitter: www.twitter.com/worldbankafrica

For our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/worldbank

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2012 – This month, the World Bank in collaboration with Africa Gathering will host a series of brainstorming sessions on youth employment in Africa.  The sessions will be held in Ghana, Kenya and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the following dates:

Friday, April 20 – Accra, Ghana

Tuesday, April 24 – Nairobi, Kenya

Friday, April 27 – Kinshasa, DRC

“We want to hear from Africa’s young people themselves about how we can do more to create good paying jobs,” said the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa Shanta Devarajan. “These sessions are vital to hear directly from them.”

The World Bank is creating a report on youth employment in Africa, where input from the continent’s youth is paramount.  The brainstorming sessions will be held to collect real-time feedback, which will be reviewed and highlighted in the report.  “Who better to offer solutions to youth employment than those who are most greatly impacted,” Devarajan said.

There are an estimated 7-10 million young people seeking employment every year in Africa.  Even countries that are reducing poverty at a rapid rate, such as Ethiopia, have not solved the youth employment challenge.  If Africa’s youth cannot find productive jobs, the continent will not only fail to sustain growth and poverty reduction, it risks periods of civil unrest—as experienced in the Middle East and North Africa recently—because the expectations of these young people, fueled by growth and globalization, will be unfulfilled.

Join the conversation on twitter: #Jobs4Africa

About Africa Gathering

Africa Gathering (AG) draws inspiration from the traditional, symbolic African Baobab tree the place where people can gather to share knowledge, exchange ideas and learn from each other. Under AG’s tree all speak openly, from activators to innovators, from artists to technologists. Under our tree we celebrate the change-makers and their work, we connect them to like-minded people, we share their passion for a positive Africa. Gathered under this tree, we bring African ideas and innovations to the rest of the world so that they can be recognised, used and celebrated. We provide an online and offline exchange forum that allows ordinary but amazingly talented African activators to champion their projects and concepts so that their achievements can be given exposure, gain momentum and attract interest from a global audience.  For more information, please visit: www.africagathering.org

Contacts:

World Bank: Nicole Amarteifio, namarteifio@worldbank.org;

Africa Gathering: Mariéme Jamme, marieme@africagathering.org

Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldbankafrica

Be updated via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/worldbankafrica

For our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/worldbank

Talking points will include:

Confirmed speakers include Geoge Ayitteh, the Ghanaian economist and Voice of America radio presenter Jackson Muneza M’vunganyi.
Thank you SAIS (School of Advanced International Studies) for hosting our event.

Follow Africa Gathering on twitter for updates! Event Hashtag is #AGWASHINGTON
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