ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), through the East African Resilience Innovation Lab (EARILab) in partnership with the National University of Rwanda (NUR), a network-plus university partner invites you to a 3-Day Bootcamp on Ideation, Managing Innovations and Community Co-Creation from 2nd – 4th March 2016 hosted at the National University of Rwanda.
The ERILab continuously examines community resilience in the face of climate change and conflict in the region. In the same regard, the EARILab also recognizes the importance of startups and local ecosystems as key engines to grow innovation and spur entrepreneurship in Rwanda and Africa as a whole. However, Startups in themselves are of little value, if the local masses/ users of the innovations and technologies being created are not involved in the innovation process. With a strong belief of “taking the university to the community”, RAN will, in the 3 days, harness the ingenuity and passion of university faculty, students, local entrepreneurs and community representatives to deliver a great learning experience on how to identify great ideas/ innovations, grow and diffuse them into the affected societies.
As innovation entry points, the bootcamp will dwell on various scopes of resilience that impact the vulnerability, mitigation and adaptive capacity of communities faced by the various challenges identified. These include; Wealth creation, Health, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Governance, Human Capital development, Social Networks, Environment and Psychosocial support.
The outputs of the bootcamp will include;
• How to Systematically identify and understand local problems/ needs
• How to create intervention strategies/ innovations using techniques like user-centered design and creative community co-creation.
• Establish a network of student innovators ready to work with community representatives, local entrepreneurs and mentors to tackle the looming challenges.
• Establish at least one collaborative partnership with a local innovation hub as an incubation and mentor support partner for the innovations sprouting out of the university.
• Strengthen the rapport between local communities and the university innovators through engagement activities like needs finding and creative capacity building (CCB).
Who will participate?
The bootcamp will attract students, faculty members, community representatives and local innovators/ entrepreneurs.
More details RAN-UR Innovation Bootcamp_ Concept Note & Agenda