International affairs
Estonia and the African Union, in cooperation with Luxembourg, Finland, Ireland and Poland, with the implementing partners Garage48 and Smart Africa are organising an online cross-continental hackathon EU:Africa The Post Crisis Journey on 10-13 December 2020. The recruitment of participants and mentors has started on euafricathejourney.com.
The programme is open for team and individual sign ups – visionaries, developers, designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, engineers and anyone socially active. The organisers hope to engage 10 000 tech-savvy and socially conscious participants, 300 mentors and at least 100 community building organisations from both the EU and Africa. The idea submission is open for new ideas and those already being implemented which can contribute to softening the COVID-19 aftermath. In line with the Africa-Europe Digital Economy Partnership Report as well as with AU Agenda 2063 and the United Nations sustainable development goals the competition is looking for ideas in 11 areas: education, food security, health and wellness, governance, economy and entrepreneurship, Smart Cities in Africa, cyber security and data protection, big data, banking and finance, job security, vulnerable populations.
Two online matchmaking sessions will be held before the hackathon on 28 November and 5 December to combine the best teams for ideas. To give a new dimension to the European-African partnership, cross-continent mixed teams are encouraged.
The most promising teams will receive guidance and support to implement their projects in the real world. Post-hackathon support to the teams will include a matchmaking event with investors, experts and relevant organisations as well as post-hackathon mentoring for up to six months. The EU:Africa hackathon prize fund is 100 000 euros (fundraising ongoing).
According to Mr Franz Fayot, Minister for Development cooperation and Humanitarian action: “The COVID-19 pandemic has taken an unprecedented toll on our economies, making us face a variety of new challenges. But where there are challenges – there are opportunities. Through this hackathon we will be able to foster the creativity and the ingenuity of our young people and professionals from Africa and the EU, who will all be working towards the same goal in a competitive spirit: elaborating scalable solutions to today’s challenges. (Franz Fayot's intervention on Twitter)