Each year, Africa Tech Festival partners with selected not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) to assist them in sharing their goals and ideals with a global audience focused on Africa. 2021 is no different with four very different but nonetheless, deserving candidates. Taking place 08 – 12 November, virtual Africa Tech Festival is once again set to be the biggest and most influential Africa-focused technology, telecommunications, and media event.

The Kolisi Foundation, joins Africa Tech Festival for the second year. Founded by South African Springbok Captain Siya Kolisi and his wife Rachel in 2020, the foundation addresses food security, gender-based violence (GBV), as well as education and sports development with a view to redressing inequality in South Africa – one change at a time.

Many of the conversations that will take place at Africa Tech Festival this year, will form the root of many more advancements to come. But roots of a different nature, and equally as important, are those of the trees of a continent rapidly marching into mass desertification.

Speaking very much to the theme of this year's event that is focused on sustainability and inclusion, TreeAid, will also benefit from a presence on the platform this year. According to its website, the NPO "works with people in the drylands of Africa to tackle poverty and the effects of the climate crisis by growing trees, improving people's incomes, and restoring and protecting land."

James Williams, Event Director for Africa Tech Festival reaffirmed the festival's commitment to supporting organisations that are effecting powerful change in Africa, saying, "As an event focused on bringing together the innovators and innovations that can bridge the digital divide across Africa to promote socio-economic enhancement, it is important for us to open the platform to support NPOs making a difference to the continent at ground level.

"We hope they can network and partner with like-minded philanthropic organisations who can assist them to effect their goals. 2020's event proved very worthwhile for our chosen charitable partners, and we trust that this year will be just as good, as philanthropy is no longer a nice to have but a corporate imperative."

Key to establishing a better future, is education and this year, the festival is supporting two such deserving organisations. One is KamiLimu a Kenyan award-winning registered social enterprise that augments classroom learning for university students in tech, with structured mentorship in personal development, professional development, innovation, scholarship training, and community engagement.

Secondly, and no stranger to the Africa Tech Festival platform, is CodeSpace, a global education institution, which offers full-time, tertiary-level coding courses and provides a launchpad for a technology career. Using a hybrid model of online and physical lectures, CodeSpace bridges the learning divide within the developing world, and accelerates the careers of its students by teaching the skills industry wants.

To be part of tomorrow, it's important to know today where we are going. Africa Tech Festival 2021 provides a road map of the future and what it will take to get everyone there and is not to be missed, especially in this post-COVID era where the world as we knew it has changed...forever.