New AKE Innovation Policy Recommendations for Africa

The AKE is a GESCI initiative funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The AKE project revolves around the thematic area of ICT, skills development, and employment in an inclusive knowledge society. The overall goal of the project is to demonstrate the critical link between skills development, innovation, and enterprise creation, for social and economic development. The project also focuses on demonstrating how new Digital Creative Media (DCM) skills can be developed to grow new enterprises in East and Southern Africa.

Nairobi’s Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) was the venue for the 2013 Policy Forum for an Inclusive Policy Environment for Innovation, Youth Skills Development, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise. Policy makers and researchers met some of the great talent driving Africa’s creative digital media industry to discuss how policy can be better developed and implemented to nurture innovation, entrepreneurship and enterprise in Africa. The two day event was organised by GESCI and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and hosted experts on ICT, Education, and Science, Technology and Innovation from ministries across several African countries. Joining them were advisers from Finland’s South African and Kenyan embassies, leading policy specialists from UNESCO, UNICEF and USAID, entrepreneurs, cultural media proponents, and technologists.The following recommendations are drawn from the forum’s participant working group sessions:

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