AfriConEU Bootcamp in Uganda: Digitalization and Jobs: Exploring Opportunities in Africa and Europe

A blogpost of Cynthia Kyofuna , Outbox Uganda

While the Ugandan Startup ecosystem moves towards digitalization, most 21st-century jobs are interlinked with worldwide access to the digital economy. We must start to pay attention to the opportunities that might come with how digital transformation is reinventing business practices in Africa and Europe.

Our project, AfriConEU, is European Union (EU) funded. Our Ugandan partner Outbox organized a 3-day designing thinking boot camp themed "Digitalisation, jobs for the 21st century and employment opportunities" that was intended to explore the solution to the challenges women and youth are facing as they make their way into the digital economy majority of them centering around strategy, upskilling and expertise and budget constraints.?

The bootcamp that hosted a total of 80+ people, including Entrepreneurs, Digital Innovation Hubs, Students, and Policy Makers, focused on three key challenges including:

• How might we build the capacity of African DIHs to support startups and SMEs to adopt the digital economy in their operations sustainably?
• How might we establish beneficial digital talent linkages between Startups in Africa and employers in Europe?
• How might we bring more youth and women into the digital economy in Africa?

The first day focused on setting the narrative of the 3-day boot camp, so we hosted a panel session. The speakers were Vaolah Amupaire, co-founder of Wena Hardware, who emphasized that as an entrepreneur, she was faced with dealing with traditional mindsets that were still hellbent on transacting in person rather than adopting the digital economy that has availed various opportunities, Dona Ssava, the Program Lead at Hive Colab, who revealed that COVID-19 accelerated the option that is the digital economy and that as she deals with startups in her day to day work, she is starting to see the much-needed shift to what is convenient and flexible, Eunice Baguma Ball, a director at Africa Technology Business Network and Co-founder of Ishango emphasized how the digital economy has opened up an avenue to compete globally. She noted that every entrepreneur, woman, or youth subscribing to the digital economy can no longer afford to play small. In today's world, technological capabilities are constantly improving, and to keep up, entrepreneurs and Digital Innovation Hubs must be agile and innovative as they integrate these digital technologies into their business practices. A digital transformation strategy is necessary to stay competitive in any market.

On the second day, we hosted several short talks that focused on aspects of investment, marketing, and branding and how to excel as a leader. The participants then got into groups to brainstorm on different project concepts and what the prototype would look like. On the third day, the 8 teams presented their projects to a well-vetted panel of judges who selected the top 3. The winning team was "Pioneers" facilitated by Peace Odili, Emerging Communities Africa & Eunice Baguma Ball, ATBN, with the solution "ACES" (African Creative Excellence Showcase). The second team was "Expendables," facilitated by Gideon Brefo, hapaSpace Collaborative Hub, with the solution "Easy Employ." The third team was "Idealists," facilitated by Ana Aleixo, INOVA+, with the solution "SITUKA-Uganda."

The transition from business as usual to digital-first is no easy feat — our digital world shifts rapidly and unpredictably. Keeping up can present a challenge and leave many unsure how to proceed. This is where this boot camp on design thinking comes in. We would like the entrepreneurs and innovation stakeholders present today to ideate around the challenges faced by youth and women in Africa accessing employment in the digital world, said Richard Zulu, the team principal at Outbox and Chairperson at Startup Uganda.?

The outcome of this bootcamp helped design an incentive model that is not merely economic for both Africa and Europe to collaborate but also one with a clear pathway of how talent is attracted, built, and retained. A positive transition to digital technologies enabled by the human-centeredness of design will likely improve the quality of life of entrepreneurs and innovation stakeholders in the ecosystem.

While facilitating the event, Ana Aleixo, INOVA+, the AfriConEU coordinating partner, mentioned that "Digital advancements offer several opportunities to Digital Innovation Hubs to gain competitive advantages, pushing them to transform their operating models as they seek trans-continental collaborations'."?

From the managerial standpoint, governing a digital transformation process is a complex task, as it means steering the process that goes from the exploration of the ample spectrum of opportunities that digital technologies provide to the reduction of this complexity to a final set of actions to be designed and executed. Design theories are suited to solve complex problems and frame a design-driven approach to plan and achieve a digital transformation. These are some of the ideas that were suggested as solutions to the challenges that are faced with joining the digital economy.?

Here are some quotes from the participants:

The boot camp was a very timely experience. It prompted me to ask for leave from my workplace for all 3 days, and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed; Matilda, Participant.

I traveled from Luweero with 7 young people aged between 15-19; they have several ideas but need more information to get them patented and off the ground running. I am happy that even though it was last minute, Outbox managed to host us all", said Fred.

When my group agreed on our idea, I borrowed a guitar to give our presentation the needed life. I am happy that we came in first place.

During the five-step, user-centric design thinking boot camp, participants interacted with prompts and canvases that examined both present and future details of a problem and explored alternate solutions. The boot camp was a great idea considering the number of participants in the room were at the idea stage of their businesses, hungry to know how to position themselves for opportunities and interested in starting a successful business.?

The AfriConEU is a European Union (EU) funded project that aims to create a Trans-Continental (Africa – EU) Networking Academy that would facilitate knowledge sharing, networking collaborations, and joint projects (Venture Development) between Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in Africa and European countries.??

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