The AfriConEU project essentially strengthens and reinforces the digital innovation ecosystems in Africa by targeting existing Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) and supporting them through capacity building and networking activities. African DIHs are playing a central role in the development of digital entrepreneurship. By raising their capacities to tackle the challenges, they will be more effective in driving digital innovation forward. The project develops, tests, and validates the “AfriConEU Networking Academy,” an innovative mechanism for connecting and sharing best practices, experiences, and resources between DIHs in Africa and between DIHs in Africa and the EU, in a comprehensive, replicable, and self-sustaining way. Through two flagship programmes, the AfriConEU Networking Academy empowers and enables African DIHs to best serve their local industry, boost their Startup ecosystem and empower the youth population with the necessary skills to thrive in a digitalized world.

The AfriConEU project aspires to create the first Trans-Continental Networking Academy to support African and European DIHs in capacity building, knowledge sharing, networking, collaboration, joint projects, and venture development.

The main objective of the project is to develop the first Networking Academy between African and European DIHs with the aim to:
(i) facilitate knowledge and experience sharing,
(ii) drive the development of mutually beneficial partnerships,
(iii) support the creation of collective projects to boost the digital economy, empowering youth and women, and thus fostering innovation and growth.

In perfect alignment with the “Africa-Europe Alliance” goals, the AfriConEU project aims to enhance the capacity of African DIHs to accelerate the digital transformation of the African economy and society. It achieves this goal by developing, testing, and validating a mechanism to share learnings, best practices, experiences, and resources between DIHs in Africa and between DIHs in Africa and EU, in a way that is aggregated, easy to understand, replicable, and self-sustaining.

The AfriConEU project adopts a Community of Practice approach. It combines it with Collaborative Design Techniques to bring together key stakeholders from both continents and engage them in the co-creation of the flagship programmes and the sub-programmes of the AfriConEU Networking Academy. This empowers and enables DIHs to i) more impactfully serve their local industry ii) boost their Startup ecosystem and iii) empower the youth population with the necessary skills to thrive in a digitalized world.