Malawi’s emerging innovation sector has great potential to contribute towards the growth of Malawi’s digital economy. To fully capitalize on this potential and promote inclusive innovation, UNCDF convened key players in this sector to identify and analyze possible opportunities for collaboration and brainstorm on the common challenges faced and how to resolve them.
To contribute to the engagement, UNCDF invited a panel of experts working in the tech sector; mHub Innovation Hub, Public Private Partnership Commission implementing the Digital Malawi Project, Ntha Foundation and BongoHive Innovation Hub from Zambia, who all shared best practices and insights relating to spurring innovation.
Technical skills within the innovation community need to be improved in order to deepen the technical strength in the sector
“We cannot underestimate the value of having such conversations with like-minded professionals and creating spaces where public and private sector can have these discussions on priority issues,” said Iris Kissiti, Digital Finance Coordinator in Malawi.
The rich discussion revealed several key messages and learnings:
EU and OACPS are actively supporting the work of inclusive innovation in Malawi. To begin, the Inclusive Digital Economies Scorecard (IDES) tool will be implemented by government partners, who along with regulators. The tool will be used to track the progress and development of the inclusive digital economy for Malawi. Areas that are challenges in Malawi’s innovation sector, such as status of ICT usage and ownership, status of the digital payments ecosystem and the status connectivity are all tracked by the IDES tool and can be critical in determining priorities and the relevant parties responsible for advancing the work.
This engagement revealed many opportunities that stakeholders in the market, including UNCDF, could address through collaboration and partnership in order to build a more inclusive and resilient digital economy in Malawi.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).