Inclusive Sustainable Development
Startup Fitness
December 14, 2021
Digital Innovation in Zambia
January 20, 2022
Inclusive Sustainable Development
The overall aim of the DIGILOGIC project is to increase collaboration between digital innovation hubs in Africa and Europe in order to foster innovations for inclusive sustainable prosperity in both continents. Dr Stephen Fox of DIGILOGIC consortium member, VTT, sets out a nature-based framework for inclusive sustainable development in his new scientific journal paper Synchronous generative development amidst situated entropy. In particular, a framework for development that is based on generating new cooperative human-environment interactions. Agroecology already provides a worldwide example of such inclusive sustainable human-environment interaction. However, an urgent challenge facing the world is how to extend such reciprocal human-environment interaction to manufacturing and logistics.
Thabiso Blak Mashaba, who has close connection to Botswana Digital Innovation Hub in Gaborone, has been addressing this challenge through his These Hands social enterprise. Thabiso has many successful examples of These Hands fostering local innovation and supporting entrepreneurship in rural communities of the developing world. These involve local people without any previous experience in innovation and entrepreneurship developing solutions to their livelihood challenges. Notably, their solutions are compatible with economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Most relevant to DIGILOGIC are innovations and entrepreneurship in transportation.
Through his work, Thabiso has recognized that international development and community development can be facilitated by the billions of willing hands that are ready to make a positive difference in their own lives. It is key to support these communities with the appropriate infrastructure, technical support and consistent easy to access support pathways in order for them to eventually thrive. Thabiso’s view is well-aligned with the aim of the European Commission that the digital transformation must work for all people, and that no one should be left behind. In the opinion of Thabiso, increasing Africa-Europe collaboration can lead to co-creation of new and improved sustainable solutions for the world, increased prosperity for those at the base of the pyramid through market access, skills transfer and shared enterprise learnings.
