Â鶹APP

Africa is an innovative continent and COVID-19 created an opportunity for that potential to be unleashed. In 2020, numerous COVID-19 innovations came from Africans, with youths being at the forefront in this creative response to the pandemic.

This exhibition, based on the inaugural , an initiative by UNDP Africa, showcases 50 homegrown African innovations tackling COVID-19.

The broad range of innovations encompasses drones, robots, contact tracing apps, non-invasive testing kits, portable hands-free sanitation chambers, oxygen-making machines, genome sequencing, AI-powered healthcare chat bots and much more, reflecting Africa¡¯s boundless ingenuity and untapped potential.

This list is neither exhaustive nor a ranking but is a selection of 50 innovators based on criteria that took into account the following: The projects had to be made in Africa, scalable, problem-solvers, impactful, inspirational, applicable, safe and encompass a disruptor factor.

Africa is a teeming with creative, resourceful and innovative people, as this conversation with three innovators reveals. Faced with challenges that threatened their communities, these innovators and disruptors did not cower, but rather, used their creativity and resourcefulness to develop practical solutions to local problems. The innovations are also scalable and can be used across the continent.

The innovations range from educational mobile applications aimed at preserving African languages, to non-rinsing ecological soap developed to fight against COVID-19 and environmentally friendly, automated solar-powered handwashing stations with 3-in-1 basins that dispense soap, water and blows out hot air to dry the hands in auto sequence in response to COVID-19. Although the eco-friendly soap and handwashing stations were triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, they help to fight other diseases.

The innovators also discuss what is required to create a conducive environment to nurture a culture of innovation, even in the absence of crises such as COVID-19.

In this episode Zeinab Badawi examines religion in Africa. First the enduring presence of Africa¡¯s indigenous religions, to which millions of people on the continent still adhere.

She travels to Zimbabwe to find out more about a remote community that follows traditional African religion. In Senegal she meets a Muslim man who, like so many others in the continent, blends Islamic beliefs with his ancestral ones and enjoys talking to trees!

She also charts the impact of Judaism and early Christianity in Africa and how Africans in particular made significant contributions to Christian thinking and practice through influential figures such as St Augustine who lived in what is today Algeria.

• ADS2021 Schedule
• Concept Note
• Advocacy Paper on Sustainable Peace for Development: Factoring in History
• Advocacy Paper on Harnessing Culture and Heritage for Economic Transformation
• Advocacy Paper on Human Capital - Culture and Heritage, Unleashing the Potential
• Africa Lusophone reacts actively to OSAA's ADS

ADS2021 Public Policy Forum

• ADS2021 Public Policy Forum Programme (May 26 - 28)
• Concept Note: Sustainable Peace for Development: Factoring in History
• Concept Note: Harnessing Culture and Heritage for Economic Transformation
• Concept Note: Human Capital: Culture and Heritage Unleashing the Potential
• Speaker Biographies for Opening Session
• Speaker Biographies for Session II: Roundtable on Sustainable Peace for Development: Factoring in History
• Speaker Biographies for Session II: Geopolitical Session
• Speaker Biographies for Session IV: Roundtable on Harnessing Culture and Heritage For Economic Transformation
• Speaker Biographies for Session V: Geopolitical Session
• Speaker Biographies for Session VI: Human Capital: Culture and Heritage, Unleashing the Potential
• Speaker Biographies for Session VII: Closing of Africa Dialogue Series
• Â鶹APP Secretary-General Ant¨®nio Guterres' introductory remarks at the Africa Dialogue Series 2021
• Â鶹APP Under Secretary General and Special Adviser on Africa Cristina Duarte's welcome address at the Africa Dialogue Series 2021
• Remarks by H.E. Mr. Volkan Bozkir, President of the 75th session of the Â鶹APP General Assembly
• Keynote Address by Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer, AUDA_NEPAD
• Remarks by H.E Amb. Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the Â鶹APP
• Remarks by H.E Amb. Mr. Nuno Mathias, Deputy Permanent Representative of Portugal to the UN
• Remarks by H.E. Amb. Issimail Chanfi, Permanent Representative of the Comoros to the UN
• Remarks by H.E. Prof. Kennedy Gastorn, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the UN
• Statement by H. E. Amb. Ishikane Kimihiro, Permanent Representative of Japan to the UN
• Statement by H. E. Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN
• Statement by H.E. Amb. Mohamed Fathi Ahmed Edrees, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN
• Welcome Address by Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser, Cristina Duarte, at the Africa Dialogue Series 2021
• Time to invest more in African culture - Prof. Eddy Maloka
• A new narrative on Africa is possible, with a new mindset - H.E. Amb. Issimail Chanfi, Permanent Representative of the Comoros to the UN
• Closing Remarks by H.E Amb. Fatima Kyari Mohammed, Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the Â鶹APP at the ADS2021
• Keynote Address by Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer, AUDA-NEPAD
• Statement of His Excellency Ambassador Sofiane Mimouni Permanent Representative of Algeria On African dialogue series Financing for development: IFFs and international tax cooperation
• Statement by H. E. Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN
• H. E. Amb. Omar Hilale, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the Â鶹APP remarks at the Africa Dialogue Series
• Statement by H.E. Amb. Mohamed Fathi Ahmed Edrees, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN
• Ms. Amina Mohammed Deputy Secretary-General Message to the Africa Dialogue Series Public Policy Forum
• H.E. Mr. Mohamed Siad Doualeh, Permanent Representative of Djibouti to the Â鶹APP, on ¡°Human Capital and Building Forward Better after COVID-19¡±