The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported as of 2020 to be the second largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $69 billion in assets. On his 43rd birthday, Bill Gates gave the foundation $1 billion. The primary stated goals of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the U.S. Key individuals of the foundation include Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, Warren Buffett, chief executive officer Mark Suzman, and Michael Larson.
TechSoup, founded in 1987 as CompuMentor and later known as TechSoup Global, is a nonprofit international network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provides technical support and technological tools to other nonprofits.
The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) is an independent U.S. government agency established by Congress in 1980 to invest directly in African grassroots enterprises and social entrepreneurs. USADF's investments aim to increase incomes, revenues, and jobs by promoting self-reliance and market-based solutions to poverty. USADF targets marginalized populations and underserved communities in the Sahel, Great Lakes, and the Horn of Africa. It partners with African governments, other U.S. government agencies, private corporations, and foundations to achieve transformative results.
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) also known as Women of Uganda Network Development Limited is Ugandan non-governmental organization that aids women and women's organisations in the use and access of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to share information and address issues their concerns such as gender norms, advocating for their rights and building communities and businesses through education.
Sophia Bekele Eshete is an entrepreneur, corporate executive, governance and risk management specialist, policy advisor on ICT, commentator and philanthropist.
Farm Radio International, or Radios Rurales Internationales, is a Canadian non-profit organization that was founded in 1979 by CBC Radio broadcaster George Atkins. The organization is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario and works with radio broadcasters to improve food security and agricultural methods for small-scale farmers and rural communities in African countries.
Fahamu is a not-for-profit organization supporting organizations and social movements championing progressive social change and human rights. With branches in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Senegal, and Kenya, Fahamu primarily engages with civil and human rights organizations through Pambazuka News, an online platform focusing on social justice. Additionally, they offer online courses on human rights and social justice and employ new technologies, including SMS, for information dissemination, lobbying, and interactions.
University of Buea (UB) is found in Molyko, Buea, in the southwest region of Cameroon. It was founded as a university centre in 1985 and became a full-fledged university in 1992, following a government decree that re-organized state universities in the country. It is regarded as the best university in Cameroon and is one of two English speaking universities in Cameroon, alongside the University of Bamenda, which follow the British system of education. It serves citizens from both anglophone and francophone regions of Cameroon and from neighboring countries such as Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.
Lifeline Energy is a non-profit social enterprise that provides technology solutions for off-grid learning. The organization designs, manufactures and distributes solar and wind-up media players and radios for classroom and group listening and was behind the first solar and wind-up radio for humanitarian use which launched in 2003. Since it began operations in 1999 more than 550,000 wind-up and solar powered radios and media players have been distributed, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions of listeners have been reached, as classrooms of up to 60 children or listening groups can use each radio or media player.
Worldreader is a 501(c)(3) global nonprofit organization working with partners to get children reading at least 25 books a year with understanding.
Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) was started in January 2012 by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) in partnership with the Web Foundation (WF), to make Government of Ghana data available to the public for re-use. The establishment of GODI is meant to promote efficiency, transparency and accountability in governance as well as to facilitate economic growth by means of the creation of Mobile and Web applications for the Ghanaian and world markets. The project was scheduled for completion in 2014 and aimed to create a sustainable Open Data ecosystem for Ghana. GODI was launched with a 100 data sets categorized as political, legal, organizational, technical, social or economic. The vision of GODI is to develop an open data community involving the Government of Ghana, civil society organizations, industry, developer communities, academia, media practitioners, and the citizenry, to interact with one another with the aim of developing an open data portal to bring about transparency, accountability and efficiency in government.
HiveColab is an innovation hub and startup incubator in Kampala, Uganda. The space was founded in 2010 and is noted as being one of Africa's first innovation hubs of note along with the IHub. HiveColab was founded by African technologist and Appfrica CEO Jon Gosier, Senegalese Born, British Businesswoman Marieme Jamme, Daniel Stern, Teddy Ruge and supported by Director Barbara Birungi. The space is funded by Appfrica, IndigoTrust and Dutch NGO Hivos. HiveColab is one of the founding members of Afrilabs a network of African innovation hubs across the continent. Barbara Birungi has stated she's passionate about how technology can change the future of Africa, for women in particular.
AfriLabs is a Nigerian social networking service for African technology startup companies and business incubators. AfriLabs provides a network for 300 organizations across 50 nations.
Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, nonprofits, consultants, and private companies as well as embedded tech teams working within government.
Fintech Valley Vizag is an initiative of the Government of Andhra Pradesh to promote business infrastructure in the state, and attract investors and multinational corporations to set up offices. Fintech Valley was founded by N. Chandrababu Naidu then Chief Minister of the Andhra Pradesh state in December 2016 with the goal of enhancing Visakhapatnam City as a financial technology capital in Andhra Pradesh.
Science and technology in Botswana examines recent trends and developments in science, technology and innovation policy in this country. The Republic of Botswana was one of the first countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to adopt a science and technology policy in 1998. This was later updated in 2011.
Educational technology in sub-Saharan Africa refers to the promotion, development and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), m-learning, media, and other technological tools to improve aspects of education in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960s, various information and communication technologies have aroused strong interest in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of increasing access to education, and enhancing its quality and fairness.
Bayes Impact is a non-profit organization, founded by Paul Duan, Eric Liu, and Pascal Corpet. Initially launched in the US in 2014, Bayes Impact started several projects throughout the world and especially in Europe.
Eyitayo Ogunmola is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur and an international speaker who started Utiva, a global talent development company that has helped over 45,000 Africans learn technology skills and supported major startups and enterprises to hire talents among Africans and Minorities.
