 Hello, and good afternoon, good morning, or good evening depending on where you're joining us from. Welcome to Engineering for Change or E4C for Short. Today we're pleased to bring you this month's E4C webinar focusing on digital development in Kenya, challenges and opportunities. My name is Mariela Machado and I'm Program Manager at Engineering for Change. In this webinar you're participating in today will be archived on our E4C website and on our YouTube channel. Both of those URLs are listed on this slide. Information on upcoming webinars is also available on the E4C site so be sure to check it out. Members will receive invitations to upcoming webinars directly so if you haven't signed up to E4C do so on our website. If you have any questions, comments or recommendations on future topics and speakers please contact the E4C team at webinars at engineeringforchange.org as seen on the slide. If you're following us on Twitter today please join the conversation with our hashtag E4C webinar series. Before we move on to our presenters today, I would like to tell you a bit about Engineering for Change or E4C. E4C is a knowledge organization, digital platform and global community of over one million engineers, designer, development practitioners and social scientists. We're wanting to advance technology to solve quality of life and challenges of underserved communities. Some of those challenges include access to clean water and sanitation, sustainable energy, improved agriculture and as you will see on this webinar today lack of access to digital technologies and internet connectivity. I'm really inviting you to become a member once more if you're not already signed up. E4C membership is free and provide access to news and insights and hundreds of solutions in our solutions library and resources and job opportunities, fellowships, funding calls. E4C members also receive exclusive invitations to online and regional events and access to resources that are aligned to their interests so be sure to sign up. Before we get started, let's do a couple of housekeeping items to practice a little on the Zoom platform. If you haven't already, please type in your name in the chat window of what part of the world are you joining us from. If you cannot find that window is at the bottom of the screen in the middle of the slides, just click on it and let us know where you're joining us from. Welcome to E4C, Sweden. Welcome Sweden, Ethiopia, Munich, Montreal, Canada, Colorado, Ghana, Jerusalem, welcome Uganda. So we have as you can see here in Nairobi, of course, we see from all over the world, welcome. We're super thrilled to have you Malawi, Pakistan. Where we reach all corners of the world, welcome, welcome. And on another housekeeping item and instructions before we get started, you can use the chat window if you want to share remarks during the webinar. But if you haven't any technical difficulties, you can send us a private message at engineering for change admin. If you're listening to the audio broadcast and you encounter any trouble try hitting stop and then start. During the salon, please use the Q&A window located in the chat. We will be opening Q&A at the end of this presentation. So be sure to type your questions beforehand in the Q&A chat also in the middle of the bottom of the screen in the middle of the slide. So be sure to type in your questions before then. And let's move on right to our topic for this webinar. But before I pass it to our moderator today, and I wanted to provide a bit background about the research that we are presenting to you today. If overseas research work cut across geographies and sectors to deliver an ecosystem view of technology for good and infuse engineering insights into global development. So targeted research is conducted in collaboration with partners and sponsors, like the one you will be hearing today with iGov, Huawei, Kenya and engineering for change. And we do this to infuse engineering rigor into work changing development efforts in this case we're focusing on Kenya. So targeted research provides as you see at the right systems knowledge cross cutting networks perspectives, and we also prepared the future workforce through our fellowship program. As you can see here we also have that critical critical research questions and you see here the diverse partnerships that we cover and that is from nonprofits to universities to private sector. And we infuse that knowledge to provide unique insights and essential human infrastructure. The research is conducted as I mentioned before that talent is being prepared through our fellowship program that research. It's done on behalf of our partners and sponsors and is delivered as reports with implementable insights. We wish to learn more about this unique workforce development program called the if you see fellowship program. Go to our website on the link on the slide and we'll be sharing also in the chat applications are open until February 28 so if you want to become an if you see fellow for 2021 be sure to check it out and apply before February 28. As you see here on this slide are fellows cover the whole continent. We have awarded 86 fellowships so far and you'll be hearing from one of them, Jacob from Kenya. And we have cross cutting engineering expertise as you see on this slide, and we have covered also 24 nationalities 56% women. If you have any questions or ideas to work with us on a research project be sure to reach out to us and to check out also our annual reports published on our website and contact us at research at engineering for change.org if you have any questions ideas, or you wish to partner. So let's move right into our research for today the ICT landscape analysis of Northern Kenya challenges and opportunities. This research was conducted on behalf of I gov Kenya assignment, I gov Africa and and Huawei Kenya, and something that I just want to highlight before I pass it on to our presenters and our speakers fellows conducted a 14 semi structure interviews with stakeholders in the ICT sector, especially those with expertise in agriculture education health and income generation. They also did a desk research where we call this research, a gathering data around what is, what is happening in Northern Kenya in terms of digital technologies. So before further to say and you'll be hearing some details from the fellow itself in a few minutes. I will pass it on to Ronald Osumba. Ronald has 18 years of work experience. In the field in the private sector public service and entrepreneurship having held leadership positions in technology and government and cooperation is now the founder and chief executive officer at I got Africa limited at boutique innovation house and also co founder of M Safari a passenger manifest digital payments and data analytics platforms that provides the Kenyan government and public transport stakeholders with commuter data insights and helps in contract tracing for COVID-19. And without further to say run, I would be reading your bio for a long time where we're thrilled to have you were honored that you will be moderating this panel today and that you're a partner of engineer first for change. So without further to say I will pass the mic to you run. Thank you. And welcome. Thank you, Mariella for bad introduction and welcome everybody from wherever you are across the globe. And we are happy to see people from, you know, so we have morning afternoon and evening all represented in this webinar and we really appreciate your presence here today as Mariella has said, you know I've spent a bit of my career in the tech space, mostly working with public service and leveraging technology for good. So very excited to be to have been part of this project. And I just now want to invite all the speakers to briefly introduce themselves. And then we will come back to the real flesh of the conversation and we will start off with Jacob. My name is Jacob and I'm based here in Nairobi, where I work as an ICT consultant with Haslan Africa Limited. And I'm also a columnist with I African Media and tech moran where I write about various things to do with business technology and digital technologies is impacting lights in East Africa. I was also knee for CSL 2020. And I'm glad to be part of this meeting. Thank you. Thank you Jacob. Hello everyone. My name is Aldenura Ali Mahdi. I'm a telecom engineer, former telecom engineer, let me say, an education technologist and the founder of M-Luba app. And today I'll be here discussing about the challenges that has been that is faced by the innovators from the northern part of Kenya and the ICT challenges. Thank you for your information because from this, from the time I started the startup up to today where the reach has been a very long journey, and I will be hoping to share some of the experience with that. So basically M-Luba was awarded one of the best hundred startups in Istanbul worldwide out of 160,000 application. So that's a few of the hours that we got after the very long struggle. So we're going to share about the challenges about the startup and how we overcame it. Thank you so much. Thank you. My name is Caroline Kiarikimondo. I'm the head of exploration at the UNDP accelerator lab. My goal is to collect, identify new data, new partners, new information and insights that will inform, develop and work in the international and national space. Previously I worked in the philanthropy space where we provided grants to women's rights organizations, and then I branched out into social innovation work and that is what has led me here and I'm very passionate about this work, and I'm very happy to be here. Carol, and also just to note that Jacob was one of the fellows who conducted this research and so he will be giving us real insights into the conversations that he had with people from across North and Kenya. Just a little bit about IGAP Africa. We are a boutique innovation house, essentially bringing together the ecosystem, the innovation ecosystem. So whether you're talking about problems or neighbors, conveners and promoters to address real social issues, leveraging technology. We try to close the gap for citizens to access services, and not just from government but also from development partners. We are working to support knowledge sharing, you know, co-creation and we do this in three ways. We developed a community of innovation for innovators who are focused on civic tech and gavtech. The first thing is we're in the process of building an open data and open APIs platform that will make it much easier to share data on public services. And finally, we are this year going to publish a digital government index, essentially to track the use of digital technology in improving the business delivery. So when you look at our business, we really have the ecosystem. And next, and the ecosystem essentially we are looking at is around, you know, for ideas. Sorry, Mariela next slide. And as an integrator, we are looking at who are the problem solvers, who are the people who are building digital technologies and other technologies, you know, whether big tech or old tech to address this problem. So whether they're SMEs, startups, social entrepreneurship, which is now becoming a big thing in this part of the world and individual developers. We then connect them with enablement platforms. So that is whether we are, you know, we are connecting them to hubs. We are connecting them to engineering labs where they can test the ideas. We are providing them with platforms on open data. We are linking them with connectivity as Jacob will speak to later you will realize that, you know, internet is still a very expensive commodity in this part of the world, and we're providing them with soft skills through business training. When they have this capacity, we then convene the ecosystem and the market, you know, through summits, conferences, fireside charts, hackathons, we're now just building a digital marketplace as well, where they can be able to present their solutions. And finally, we link them to promoters. So people who are putting in capital and equity into this businesses so that they can be able to scale. We are running a catalytic fund financed by the DFID. And we are partnering with impact funds and we're partnering with other donors. So our role essentially is to look at this entire ecosystem of innovation and to make the cogs move together so that we can collaborate in addressing this public social issues. Now, I would like us to just get into the flash of the conversation. I would like to say Jacob was a fellow is a fellow of E4C and was part of the team that conducted this research and he just takes us through the findings of the research. Welcome Jacob. Thank you, Ronald. I'll go through the overview of the research and what we were doing in Northern Kenya. And the research focused on Northern Kenya, which is majorly the arid part of Kenya and concedes quite a huge area which is 70% of all the land mass in Kenya and houses 30% of the population. We focused on porky areas which is in agriculture in health jobs and education. Some of the distinct characteristics in this place that may be different from the rest of Kenya include the nomadic lifestyle and the area also has a low population population density. Shortage of key infrastructure that makes it hard to provide services and to for makes it hard for innovators to penetrate this area. We also have low rainfall which affects agriculture activities and limited job opportunities, which is a common problem all over Kenya. In terms of communication information and communication technologies these limited connectivity and there are several unique challenges in Northern Kenya. However, it's not all doom in Northern Kenya. There are also positive stories of solutions that are at work as they are highlighted in this report, and maybe Abduino will present next after me. Next slide. I want to mention something about challenges implementing the solutions. And one of the things that challenges that we found for innovators is the, the supporting infrastructure is lacking or limited and most areas of the areas that are covered with network over to the connection and there's also shortage of electricity and the last mile access is a challenge even in urban areas where just getting good reliable internet is a problem. We also have a challenge in education and digital skills in terms of basic literacy is low, although it's improving but digital literacy is a problem. So when one is having a solution, do you want to target people in this area you have to be considerate of the fact that they slow literacy levels. In terms of infrastructure that could enable all that it's also a challenge and one more thing is about exposure where people use feature phones with limited services such as voice and SMS. And if one is to focus on the people in this region you are probably thinking of technologies that can rely on work or feature phones utilizing the voice and SMS service or find ways of going around that we also see that most people are not familiar with various benefits of internet and may not find it relevant as one person says that they don't see the need to keep that their mobile data on because they are not online they don't find anything of value and they are not exposed to the internet. We have a challenge with culture where the region is linguistically diverse. So someone going into Northern Kenya you are meeting many different languages which you need to find your way through them, but then there's also the dramatic lifestyle which means people who are moving from place to place and where you found them this season may not be the place where they will be next season. Then we have gender roles and such which can affect how people interact with technologies like who handles the money who is doing different kind of roles. And also it affects education where we find that there could be a difference in education levels between men and women in those societies. Next slide. Now in terms of opportunities in consideration there is an enabling environment that has been occasioned by the one of the things is devolution where we have regional governments that have been in place for eight years as of now. And these are able to promote equitable distribution of resources and help solve the problem of exclusion in those places. We also have the county government implementing their own growth strategies including supporting innovation in their areas. So for anyone seeking to venture into this area, the devolution is helping to make things easier. We have also various government policies as highlighted in the report like the digital economy blueprint, the Agira digital program. For example, in the year 2020-30 development strategy for Northern Kenya and other area plans, the universal service fund which is also helping fund access to telecommunications services for people in Northern Kenya. In terms of collaboration days, there are also stakeholders, there are various stakeholders driving innovations in those places, and we have the national government, I also talked about local governments, various agencies, private sector civil society, there are some hubs which have made some inroads there, although they are few. So an innovator may need to collaborate with one of those stakeholders to make it easy to access. Some of the consideration for the innovators is to come up with technologies that do not demand a lot of resources to partner with others, partners who are already on the ground so that they can lower the cost of entry into those areas. Coming up with simple to use technologies like the ones that depend on SMS that can work offline and that can be used by people with low literacy levels. So that's an overview of the report I know it has been shared in the chat. Thanks a lot Jacob, really appreciate that very high level view of what is captured in the report and we will get into a bit more detail when we come round to having a discussion. So I would just like to introduce Abdi Noor who is a practitioner in Northern Kenya, born and raised there and he will speak to us a little bit about his solution M Luga. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Basically M Luga is offline. As Jacob said, one of the considerations you need to consider when venturing into this region is you have to consider offline applications due to connectivity. So basically M Luga is offline interactive mother tongue based learning language learning art that translate the syllabus, Kenyan syllabus into indigenous language. As you can see from the picture here, those are exclusively Somali kids and they only speak Somali language. Imagine when they walk to a classroom for the first time, but the language of instruction is either English or Swahili or even French. And the only language they understand is their mother tongue. So M Luga basically helps them learn using their own mother tongue and basically language barrier is not a Kenyan problem. It's an African problem. Every African child is struggling with a language that is not his first language. So basically M Luga now helps these kind of these children at least acquire basic literacy and numeracy using the language that they understand and they are proud of. Next slide please. So in Northern Kenya, we have very serious educational crisis. And when I'm saying Northern Kenya, we're talking about 70%, as Jacob said 70% of the land mass. And before even COVID disruption, most schools were closed. Why? Due to insecurity. Most of the non-local teachers who were teaching the area were targeted by Alshabab and other security threats. So hence, there was massive loss of teachers from the region. Not only the security, but also the nomadic lifestyle. We move from one place to another. Hence, we move away from schools that leaving a high number of dropouts. We have mass exam failure. Because of limited resources, we have the limited teachers, limited access to learning content. So basically the academic challenge that exists there is just beyond explanation. We also have, like I said, the dropout is so high because of the nomadic lifestyle. So now, how is this M Luga offline helping them? Imagine you wake up one morning, but you're told we are moving. But if you have your M Luga tablet, which is solar powered, and the apps, which means you can move, you can learn on the go. You can learn without the teacher. Maybe when you come back to the area, maybe you can cope up with the syllabus because you have the content, basically the digital content in your own mother type. Next please. Next slide. So the last one month I was in Wajia, and actually I'm going back this weekend, hopefully. On the first pictures, this is a new school in Wajia South. It has 80 students and is still enrolling. Unfortunately, they only have two teachers. So you can check the teacher student ratio is so high. So I'm actually taking 25 tablets, this weekend with M Luga apps, offline apps, so they can learn with limited resources. And below here, the pictures with the project on the screen, those are secondary schools also in Wajia South with my new, also another initiative called Elim Machinani. And you might find a whole teacher, a whole school with only one teacher or two teachers, and some subjects are not even taught because they don't have teachers. But because of Elim Machinani, now they can access digital content from one to form four in a remote content access point. It doesn't require internet, it doesn't require connectivity, it doesn't require anything, but you need to power it. So with that, the whole lesson is projected like physics, chemistry, biology without even a teacher. So basically now we have bridged the teacher shortage gap. And these are two of the solutions are currently being used in northern part of Kenya. One is M Luga for early years of education where learners are accessing digital content using their own mother tongue. And also for secondary schools, they're accessing form one to form four digital content using a content access point. The lessons are being projected in the classroom. We also put the Khan Academy offline, which is offline basically Wikipedia that's offline and also other open educational source. Next slide please. So imagine being the first innovator from the region with no hub, with no tech mentorship, with no accelerator program, nothing. So with M Luga became like made to this this far, this Africa Union innovation, this is the 10 outstanding Africa innovation innovators pitch. This was just for one month ago and Luga was awarded 10 best startups by Africa Union. On the right, we have Africa telecommunication union. Egypt was number one, and M Luga was number two, basically providing solution for COVID-19, and also an education in quality in Africa. If you come if you come below there, sorry, we'll find M Luga as best hundred startups in Istanbul out of 160,000 applications. On your right, you also have Africa Tech Summit Kigali last year on January where 11 11 startups were selected to pitch at Africa Tech Summit. So basically, without a hub, without the tech mentorship, without a program, we managed to at least through, you know, you know, thick and thin to find this kind of a word. And I will show you what could have been done right for us to, to at least excel, even do better. Thanks. Next please. So, and this is my wish. If M Luga had the following support or from, from me, let's say from stakeholders from education, what do you call from education stakeholders from the government from everyone, it could have been, it could have done better. So what support does the innovators need in Northern Kenya, like me. So, first of all, we need an incubation hub so that anyone with a crazy idea can just walking, getting, you know, support, startup support. From that incubator programs also innovation hubs. So, we also have we need also need the innovation mentors who can walk you through the innovation journey tells you about the, you know, pitching skills tell you about what's happening in the tech world and also help you into connection to the market. We also need ICT training adoption, primary and secondary schools in the Northern Kenya, we have clubs in schools, maybe agricultural club, we have what you call debate club, but we don't have ICT clubs. So I think we need to have ICT clubs at early years, you know, of education to the head to the secondary school. We need to set up ICT clubs. We also need free ICT training skills after phone for imagine when students work from phone for they don't know any digital skills, they don't even Microsoft what even is a problem. So we need to give them free ICT skills. We also need the fully equipped labs in schools, every school currently there are none. We have we need innovation competitions. We need ICT innovation hackathons and food camps, holiday coding classes, government policy institutions. As I'm speak right now, I have a very big challenge with the government because they don't they can't approve the content I have developed because of the bureaucratic bureaucratic nature. You have to pay $20,000 you have to go through a rigorous process for you to get approvals. We also actually let me surprise you there are no ICT colleges in the Northern Kenya, the whole of Northern Kenya. We only have one university which was under attack and currently it just struggling and that's university doesn't even offer ICT courses. Next please. So what are the unique opportunities that's available now right now. I can say Northern Kenya is a gold mine for new innovators because because of the rural urban migration due to the harsh climatic weather. And now people are becoming moving more to urban so what I'm saying is we have these are blank check for innovators. So especially the social innovators so you can set up ICT colleges, innovation hubs, e-commerce platforms. We have been you can have innovation on value addition on animal product as we can say 90% of the camel. Camels in Kenya come from the northern part of Kenya. Almost 56% or 59% of cattle come from Northern Kenya. Almost 70% of goats come from Northern Kenya so we can do a lot of things with the with the products. We also have aggregate innovations we have climatic innovations, peace and COVID resolution. Actually, this is endless is a huge potential in this region, which is yet to be to be to be implemented. Next please. Thank you. Thank you very much Abdinur. You know for sharing your experiences and this are real life experiences and challenges that you face on the ground every day, but it's also encouraging to see that innovators like yourself are not being held back by these challenges but you're still, you know going out and facing those challenges head on to provide solutions. We will be coming back to talk a little bit more about that. So let me now bring in Caroline, who's a development expert. Thank you, Ronald. So my presentation will look at the drivers, the challenges and the needs to accelerate digital development in Kenya. Now also give you a brief introduction about the UNDP and the UNDP accelerator. So the UNDP is UN Global Network Global Development Network and we advocate for change and connect countries to knowledge experience and resources to help build a better life. We look at challenges such as inequality, climate change, election and development, and we design our programs to link to look at the nuanced effects of inequality and exclusion towards achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth. We also have a new digital strategy which is aimed at better harnessing technology and innovation to deliver better and more results in the countries and communities we work in. The UNDP accelerator lab is a new service offering within the UNDP we work with people governments and the private sector to reimagine development. The next step is to look at new data, new partnership to look at new trends within the country and beyond to map solutions, particularly local and grassroots solutions, and to test this different solutions and prototypes with the objective of using this experiential way of learning to scale and grow local solutions. So we have four different offerings within the within the accelerator lab, which summarized is data collection, knowledge creation and harnessing solution mapping experimentation and community outreach. Next. So the UNDP accelerator lab in Kenya we're looking at youth unemployment, and we're looking at four approaches to youth unemployment. The first is young people's access to information where we believe when young people have more access to information around what opportunities are out there, they'll be able to use and translate this information into businesses and jobs for themselves. We're also looking at employability mismatch skills mismatch. We know that some of the institutions of learning in our country do not address the market needs and the industry needs and want to bridge that gap. The second approach is looking at expanding opportunities in untapped sectors such as a creative the circular and digital economies which are some of the emerging economies, which have great potential for jobs and businesses for young people in the country. And the fourth is supporting nascent micro and small businesses and solutions. We believe in this small startups or nascent organizations and businesses, if they're supported to grow will become huge employers of young people. There are a number of things. When it comes to technological we've been supporting local innovators through innovation challenges and acceleration initiatives. We recently collaborated with tech concept techno police to host the great cove in 19 innovation challenge. We took through 15 of these innovators from across the country's run acceleration program and their solutions were looking at decent work, food systems and health systems. But in addition to that we also working with government through the SDG accelerator lab to look at issues such as intellectual property frameworks and funds. We also been working on access to information by bridging the digital device through different webinars need different knowledge products. And in addition we've been collecting data to support meaningful engagement with young people on governance and COVID-19, as well as collecting data on the digital preparedness of MSN is a snapshot. So what's the relevance of the digital economy for young people. The digital economy is propelling Kenya's economic growth, and this is driven by increased mobile telephony. As Jacob has mentioned, you know, the high mobile penetration in Kenya, which is around 90% internet usage. So 46% of our population has access to broadband. Of course, this is not equal. So there's some areas that some people who have more access than others, but generally one in four Kenyans do have access to internet. This is an uptake of eco mass and this has increased especially with COVID-19. But as of 2017 Kenya had between 2.6 million to 3.3 million online shoppers. This has really widely increased with with with COVID-19 and the dependence that we now have on online spaces. There's also the expansion of digital services. So there are financial services which are mobile such as, you know, and banking, digital credit and Shari and also government services. So there's a lot of movement towards the digital space, particularly in Kenya and this has been enabled by the infrastructure that Jacob talked about and that in the different investments that the government has made. And the gig economy. You know, there's there's a lot of interest in the gig economy which is facilitating more than 600,000 online jobs. Next. So the future is digital and this picture just reminds me of the cartoon that Jetson and how far ahead they were in their time but right now this is becoming more and more of a reality for our generation. Next. What do we expect now country. So we've seen a fast growing digital startups in Kenya over 38 startup incubators and accelerators are currently in operation. Once again this is not equal so a lot of them are clustered around Nairobi and several secondary cities. There's a lot of interest and engagement in robotics and robotic technology which is a big role in customer engagement and automation of business processes. We expect artificial intelligence to be more relevant and utilized in Kenya. We've seen more digitally enabled services and I've mentioned such as the financial services, but we see this growing with the entertainment with a lifestyle, a hospitality healthcare and education. So more services are getting online. We see Kenya to be a knowledge hub. So we've known Kenya to be a business and tech hub, but we're seeing interest in the intellectual products and services available in Kenya. We've seen Stanford setting up shop here we've seen Harvard also setting up shop here. So there's a lot of interest in our intellectual resource. We've seen blockchain technology becoming more used and engaged in giving us the potential to provide even more access to essential services for people in the remote areas. So we've seen Bangla Pensa by grassroots economics. Next. The first picture is a group of young people who have devised a robotics to facilitate persons with disability to access and use of robotic arms. And these three robots were facilitated by UNDP to the government of Kenya to enable in COVID-19 response especially in hotspot areas such as airports and hospitals. There are gaps in barriers to digital transformation and we know that, you know, when we cannot afford to leave anyone behind in the journey towards digital transformation. And some of the gaps, you know, Jacob and Ahmed have talked about them, such as limited access to relevant digital skills, majority of the secondary schools do not offer computer studies as a standalone compulsory course. And even though there are initiatives such as the Digital Literacy Plan, a lot of schools do not have access to the technology, whether it is tablets, whether it is internet access, whether it is electricity. There's weak quality and relevance of training at tertiary institutes. So I met some of the doctors, you know, working. You know, right now and they talked about the absence of computer training or computer education within the medical sector. So when you don't have access to computer training and then the country is evolving the global, you know, development when it comes to healthcare is very tech dependent and that's not a skill that you're familiarized with in your course, then that becomes a huge challenge. There's a lot of digital exclusion in the rural areas. We've talked about that, but also when you look at persons with disability, how many innovations are related to addressing the challenges of persons with disability face. How many of these startups, how many of these innovations address gender issues or how many startups are even led by women. So that's, there's a huge divide when it comes to access and inclusive innovation. There's poor engagement of digital technology within the informal economy, which is the highest employers of young people. There's a lot about high cost of internet and electricity. And then there's need for more academic rigor. The rate at which we are evolving when it comes to access to digital technology, there's need for more research more analysis more data to provide predictive information for policymakers to be to make the necessary decisions to protect local industry. So we've seen how Amazon, how different global markets are coming into the space and into the Kenyan space. And it's, it's, it's opening up the country to more markets, more services, more products, but at the same time, it's really limiting the access of local industry. So we need to understand and make predictive information that is guided by data. At the same time, we need to push towards an African digital market where we can be able to support our local industry to be able to trade and access each other's products and services from an African perspective. Next slide. So the UNDP conducted a survey of the digital preparedness of MSMEs, especially in light of COVID-19. And we saw that 62% of the MSMEs in the country are in the nascent level. That means they have very little maturity when it comes to digital technology. This is a, this is a challenge because a lot, a lot of the businesses, a lot of the enterprises that were able to be resilient during COVID-19 were because of their access to and their engagement with digital technology. And so we equate them on what, what do they need to adopt digital technology. And we saw opportunities such as skills development, and we've talked about this by the previous panelists, internet access, knowledge of and use better use of social media platforms. So one of the highlights from that survey was that only 15% of MSMEs own or have websites. So there's need to build their capacities and, and just support them to be able to use digital platforms. There's need for continuous learning and mentorship. There's need for computer hardware, need for computer software, and also platforms for them to access a wider market, whether nationally or globally. And then there's need for technical support, for example, software. So the UNDP has, has been able to collect this data and look at how to transform the existing strands of work. So we are supporting, for example, the, the setting up of, of innovation hubs in Massabit and Tana River. We are supporting the revival and expansion of BHR centers. We are supporting the acceleration of, of youth innovators across the country. And there's more that can be done by the development sector and engaging with this information and, and pulling different insights from the local in the, in the global scene helps us to do this better. We do recognize that inclusion is really an important aspect when it comes to digital transformation and that's why we've invested specifically in, in, in supporting PWD centric innovations through our, our latest digital disability inclusive innovation challenge, but and we, we hope to continue to partner with different stakeholders and different partners to be able to drive this agenda. So thank you. Thank you so much Carol for sharing, you know, this critical work that UNDP and development partners like yourselves are doing on the ground. I would just like to, and keep the questions coming. We have a few, I think, maybe not, but keep the questions coming, I will have an opportunity to ask the panelists to respond to your questions. I would just like to bring back Jacob, because Jacob you are on the ground doing these things. And we have consistently had, you know, the, the key barriers to entry and I so we need, okay, we will make a comment that we need to remove this, this barrier. So you know whether you're talking about the cost of internet or devices, lack of hubs, which I think again all the speakers have spoken about lack of infrastructure skills, skills development, what did you find on the ground what's happening, what are the interventions that are there, and how in your recommendations from the report, do we accelerate this. Thank you Ronald. I think as I mentioned, it's not all doom and gloom in Northern Kenya, there are some things that are taking place and Abinura has taken us through that. And one of the things we saw that's happening is the, that's major is partnership between different stakeholders to enable entrepreneurs and innovators to penetrate the market and all the region. And surprisingly, the county governments in Northern Kenya are very welcoming as opposed to other places. Those who have tried to work with them some have said they are more receptive to people who are coming with solutions, maybe because there's a bigger need there, but they are open to collaborate with people who have solutions for those places. But then we also need to have various policies implemented fully. One of the examples is the fiber internet connection to almost all county, two county headquarters in Kenya. But they are not being used optimally there are various uses that people on the ground can make use of them. It has not been fully implemented. If we see what the communications authority is doing with a universal service fund, they are increasing connectivity to the remote parts. And while this takes, if this is accelerated, we'll see more people connected and this will allow more innovators to be able to offer their services in those areas. There are various stakeholders who are partnering. There's one example of someone was saying that it was very difficult to start their services in Isiolo, but through partnership they were able to get people who have been on the ground. They know the area, they can lead them to the farmers. I mentioned that the area is quite expensive, which means that it's hard for someone to live Nairobi today and go to Marsabit County. They learn in Marsabit Town and then they want to go to a place like Alturot or even Kargi. An innovator may not know those places, but working with people on the ground, it's possible to do that. But then also increasing the literacy levels, we need people on the ground to learn various skills like ICT training skills. And sometimes accounting government may want to offer those ones because that's within their mandate to train people post-college in post-high school education on digital skills. But you find that we don't have reliable power that can be used. Some of the solutions to that is use of solar power and it has its own limit because when it comes to ICT it's easy. We have computers and such which are easy to handle with solar power. But if you are doing courses like welding where you are helping people to be skilled so they can work as well that it may not be possible unless there is mains power connected. So at the end we need all stakeholders to collaborate to make those work. And also we encourage there are social enterprises that are targeting those places. I think they need to encourage more and more because the problems that are there, it means there are opportunities for innovators. Thanks a lot for that Jacob. And I had wanted to go to Abdinur but let me just jump to Karo because you bring in a critical component around how do we partner. So Karo we have built this knowledge around the opportunities, the situation that is on the ground. How do we convert this into real opportunities with money in the pocket for people of Northern Kenya, converting these opportunities into economic activities. I mean you've spoken about 62% of SMEs, you know, being nascent in the digital economy space. I don't know what the representative figure would be in Northern Kenya probably higher. So how do partnerships work so you're doing what you're doing private sector academia and communities and government. Please share, you know, just your thoughts as we ask for other questions to be sent in. Thank you, Ronald. So one of the things that that we see as a gap and as an opportunity as well is a recognition that knowledge is currency. There's so much that is happening in Northern Kenya that is not that doesn't have an audience that doesn't have a market in the in the national and the global space. So how do we link how do we provide a pipeline of information flow that can can translate into a market can translate into in into financial resources or or or benefits for the people of Northern Kenya. So providing this platform is very, this this platform is very, very crucial and that can be can be done through government spaces. Government enabled spaces like BHR centers or innovation hubs, but I can also be a private sector making deliberate investments in the region to just provide that pipeline of of information. Thanks a lot. Yeah, and I think this is this is a critical component in terms of how do we build pipeline. How do we ensure that you even when investors come into the ground that they are ready innovations that can be scalable and that can have a payback, and I can see Bryce Newman is asking, you know, has there been an innovation around any innovations that are uniquely originally Kenyan, and I'd just like to tell Bryce Abdu know spoke about one that is an ed tech focused one, and that is very local. And I can pivot this question into what I wanted to ask you Abdu know that the obviously with all these challenges the cost of ownership of any such digital technologies, of course goes up. So what has been your experience in terms of partners who are willing to come into the risk, you know, your, your, your solution, and how, then do we reduce the total, the cost of total ownership. Thank you so much Ronald. I think there's one aspect that we focus so much on on the problems but there's so much solution. As Jacob said, there's so much solution. Actually, in wajia Garissa Mandara, the solar, you can cook an egg even with the outside solar. Because sometimes goes up to up to 3940 degrees. So we can tap to that into that solar energy that is to provide solar to our tablets or our computer labs and everything. But unfortunately, we don't see many investors tapping into that in that field. So I think it's not about we are not short of innovation, we are not short of solutions, but we are short of infrastructure and devices. One, for, for example, I'm looking up right now, the app is ready, it's offline. What we need is just seven inch tablets, which can be solar powered. And a seven inch tablet can cost less than $50. So we just need a powering system using solar and the tablets. And currently I'm glad we are through Africa Telecommunication Union, we are, we are talking with some of the our partners like yes ma and Huawei. I've approached them with the decision that suggestion that they provide with us with tablets that's a solar powered. So basically what we need right now is just tablets and and computers, but solutions are really there. So we are not short of solutions. Thanks a lot, Abdel Noor. Unfortunately, unfortunately, as just a conversation is beginning to get exciting, we, we, we unfortunately have to bring this to a close. I can see Danielle Breaker is saying Ray and Cosa program actually should focus on powering up schools and hospitals. How this things developing with this program. So I'll just like us to bring this to a wrap just your final thoughts in less than a minute. How, how, what, what, what is your view from the conversation that we've had here today, and how do we leverage pro government programs like Ajira to be able to coordinate all the efforts from stakeholders in this region. Thank you, Ronald. I think one key area is developing skills. And we have people, we have people who are very capable in North and Kenya. And we have various channels that are available that may not be working optimally and one of the best thing that needs to happen is to see that education systems are working as they should be. And that's similar to what Abdel Noor is doing. And once we bring people to be literate, we can move to the next step of instilling digital literacy skills. But in overall, I think the opportunities can be done if there is more coordination. And if everyone is playing their part like the county governments are working with innovators, the hubs are there, they support for entrepreneurs want to venture into those places, and there is the right relevant infrastructure in place in those areas. Thanks a lot, Jacob. You know, you have given us a good context because you know you understand that territory from experience. And one of the things you raised was the issue of language as a barrier. Now, from all the things that you have pointed out as a barrier. I think external parties can come and help solve those you know through partnerships through investments and such like, but there are other cultural contexts. That actually captured also in the report you know whether that is the nomadic lifestyle, the issue of gender and the role of gender in creating this digital gap religion. What's your view on as you wrap it up what's your view on how then this soft issues are built into the solutions that we're looking for. Thank you so much. And, but for, for, for the audience, let me tell you, my grandmother in just out now is sending me a WhatsApp voice call. That's you know how, how things are changing nowadays in terms of culture and terms of integration. So what I can say is, there are challenges there, but we are, we are slowly overcoming it. And in terms of the population, actually the last last month we traveled 1,700 kilometers with our senator, but unfortunately you travel 100 kilometer you find a very small settlement you move to another 100 kilometer you find another small settlement. So I wish there was a way they could just come together into into one place, so that at least we can share resources because they're so desperate that's possible. Located. But all in all, all I can say is, if we have a hub that you know addresses all this, the challenges that we've been talking about. And with true partnership. I think we met also Carol, in one of my making noise around through at Kenya School of government. And I'm still extending a partnership with UNDP and, and also engineering for change. Let's support the nomadic hub, because with the hub fully equipped. I think most of these challenges will overcome. But for cultural, I think that nothing we can do about it, but let me tell you something. We are some a little bit, you know, coming into out of the closet as we speak, because of the social media and the and diversity we experience. Thank you for that insight. Thank you so much I've been known Carol take us home in what where is your headspace as a development partner. I mean, we know sometimes we put too much baggage on the likes of the UN and the wild bank and we expect you guys to pull off magic with your headspace in terms of what are the little games we can get quickly, so that the the ball starts moving. Right. So I think one of the things that Abdu know has talked about it is supporting this community centric innovations because what we we have no lack when it comes to ingenuity creativity as a country and some of the solutions are quite relevant like you know some like what Abdu know is working on is quite relevant is quite user centric and these solutions need support. So what we need to do as an international development development partner and even the government and other stakeholders is support this innovations because and support them to scale support them to be to be able to be produced in mass and to be able to achieve a wider market because these solutions are what the community needs and what is meeting the relevant need at that time so that's that's what I think is needed. Thank you so much Carol thank you our our panelists Jacob for all the good work that you did on the ground in terms of putting this research together Abdu know for the fantastic work you're doing and Carol for just providing that thought leadership. Mariela I think this is the point I hand back over to you so that you can bring this to a close. Thank you so much Ron it was a true pleasure to hear you speak you all speak and I we were also discussing briefly that it's a it's really our mission at Engineering for Change to have a panel full of canyons discussing the the ICTs in Kenya so we were thrilled to see you all you know discussing the issues challenges and opportunities and we hope that we can keep building the future together and not only of Kenya but of ICTs in the world. Thank you so much Ron for this incredible partnership and for the research collaboration thanks to our speakers as well to our fellow for presenting the work and we're very proud of the report and we invite you to read it before we move on and I just wanted to remind everyone that on March 4 we have our next webinar Advancing Sustainable Engineering Building the Future Workforce and that's aligned to the World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development so we really invite you also to continue the conversations around the research collaborations that our fellows did but more than that it's you know some insights around different STGs and what we're finding as an overall trend in some of this worldwide issue so we invite you to broaden what you just heard here and for our next webinar. We really want to thank you all again for attending thanks Ron, thanks Caroline, Abdinore, Jacob this was incredible this is my perfect start of a Wednesday for us here at E4C and we'll see you soon be sure to sign up as E4C member and if you have any questions reach out to us thank you.