IGF 2024 Launch / Award Event #64 Building Bridges in Africa in the Digital Age

    GIZ Egypt
    1) Mariam Walid, GIZ Egypt
    2) Tamer Taha, Ministry of International Cooperation- Egypt
    3) DDP World Bank

    Speakers

    1) HE Dr Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation- Egypt
    2) Mariam Walid, GIZ Egypt
    3) DDP World Bank

    Onsite Moderator

    Mariam Walid, GIZ Egypt

    Online Moderator

    Mahitab Assran, GIZ Egypt

    Rapporteur

    Mariam Walid, GIZ Egypt

    SDGs

    1. No Poverty
    8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
    9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
    10. Reduced Inequalities
    16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    17. Partnerships for the Goals


    Targets: Such digital platforms allow marginalised communities access to knowledge and opportunities they can use to foster their development and grow their businesses and closing the long lived economic divide between communities and human beings across the globe thus contributing to SDG1 No Poverty, SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities. Additionally, these access to opportunities and knowledge foster innovation, job creation and resilience leading to the achievement of SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure as well as SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. Finally these partnerships and collaborations help make the agenda of SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals a reality.

    Format

    Roundtable

    This session is designed to highlight the importance of cooperation and collaboration. Starting with the room layout which will be roundtable with 1 digital break out room assigned to each table in order to permit on-site participants as well as virtual participants to introduce themselves and get to know one another. The session is divided into 3 parts and will kick-off with an official launch of the HAFIZ platform by HE Minister Rania Al-Mashaat, followed by a panel discussion with a round of introduction by the speakers and the presentation of different case-studies on the existing platforms that work on building partnerships and harnessing economic potential in a rapidly "digitising" Africa. Following the panel discussion all participants, on-site and virtual will participate in a question and answer session where they can interact with the speakers and pose questions and comments and involve each other in an immersive atmosphere of learning and sharing.

    Duration (minutes)
    60
    Description

    The concept of building bridges and creating partnerships is vital in sharing knowledge, fostering sustainable growth and inclusion all humanity which in turn is leads to global prosperity and peace. In our digital age, the technology and internet allow marginalised communities access to a world of knowledge, ideas and opportunities they otherwise would not have access to closing a long endured divide between different communities and human beings around the world. Therefore, digital platforms that seek to build bridges between different stakeholders and create previously unlikely partnerships are key in fostering sustainable development particularly in regions like the global south. Such partnerships and collaborations allow their stakeholders to virtually enter new markets and opportunities that drive innovation, growth and resilience. We take this opportunity to launch the Egyptian Government's "Hub for Advisory, Finance and Investment for Enterprises – HAFIZ" which is a fully integrated platform that allows the private sector to understand the needs of the different development partners while bridging the information gap and exposing the private sector in Egypt to finance, business and development opportunities provided by these ODA partners across the globe. Additionally there are different formats of partnerships in Africa that are helping usher in a digital era such as the World Bank's Digital Development Partnership (DDP) initiative which brings public and private sector partners together to advance digital solutions and accelerate safe and inclusive digital transformation in developing countries with extensive lessons learnt from their work in Africa and the global south which must be shared with the world.
    https://www.digitaldevelopmentpartnership.org/
    https://privatesector.moic.gov.eg/?lang=en

    1) Facilitation of interaction between onsite and online speakers and attendees will be managed by the virtual and onsite moderators who will foster a balanced discussion and inputs between speakers and take questions for virtual and onsite participants.
    2) This session is designed to foster partnerships, the roundtable set up will allow onsite participants to introduce themselves to other participants on their table and get to know one-another while the chat function on MS Teams will allow virtual participants to introduce themselves as well and communicate their thoughts and comments with one-another.
    3) In addition to the technology and tools provided by the IGF, the session organisers will use MS Teams to allow virtual participants to communicate with each other, follow the discussion, view visuals and presentations as well as pose questions for the speakers.