published 2022 | by ipf softwares
Casestudy: Mapping the Tanzania Innovation Ecosystem with leaders of social innovation and technology.
2020,HDIF & COSTECH trusted us to design and develop an open-source and crowdsourced digital solution for mapping the Tanzania innovation ecosystem to improve collaboration among stakeholders.
Earlier Efforts
The Innovation Ecosystem Map of Tanzania project started in 2014 out as a study by HDIF1 and COSTECH 2 to map out various innovation ecosystem stakeholders.
The goal of the mapping was to increase HDIF and innovation stakeholders’ understanding of the key players and actors in the innovation ecosystem, with the aim of improving connections and collaboration between players to help inform future programming and to understand the landscape and gaps in the innovation sector.
1. HDIF, The Human Development Innovation Fund was a £39.9 million UKAid-funded programme managed by Palladium International in partnership with KPMG, Newcastle University, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The programme provided financial and technical support in form of competitive grants to 48 projects, but also supported over 55 start-ups and hubs, either through various challenges and competitions, or through the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH). In 2021 the programme came to an end, most of her key activities and initiatives i.e The Innovation Week and Innovation Ecosystem Map have been adapted by UNDP's innovation ecosystem support programme Funguo.
Learn More About HDFI : www.hdif-tz.org
2. COSTECH, The Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology is a parastatal organization affiliated with the government of Tanzania. It was created by an Act of the National Assembly of Tanzania in 1986 as a successor to the Tanzania National Scientific Research Council
Learn More About COSTECH : www.costech.or.tz
SDG GOAL #9
Industry,Innovation & Infrastructure
Client
Services
UI/UX design, Engineering
Timeline
SEP. 2020 - FEB.2021
We had already started developing the prototyping back
in 2014;
A wordpress system to help us collect data on innovation stakeholders, the prototype served
it's purpose showing us what could be possible.
It had it's short comings,collecting and analysing data was almost mission impossible, also we couldn't scale the prototype to the point where the community could contribute to the database because it was too constrained.
Simon Mtabazi
Former Palladium, Social Innovation Advisor
The Project Brief
Palladium has been a key driver of innovation in Tanzania through the Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) programme funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Initiated in 2014, the HDIF’s major achievements include promoting innovation through institutional strengthening of ecosystem players (innovation, hubs and accelerators), including through the provision of catalytic funds and convening stakeholder events within the innovation sector. In partnership with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the HDIF spearheaded the launch of Innovation Week, which has become the premier innovation event in Tanzania.
When HDIF challenged us to design and develop the innovation ecosystem map for Tanzania, we got excited just to make it even better the HDIF team required the entire project to be open source, double excitement to our engineering team, we could not imagine the possible use cases, and ideas that the tech community and open source developers would come up with.
6 Hours | Joint application design Session
From our Joint Application Session with the HDIF Team, we were able to highlight 4 key challenging areas from the existing platform, and we brainstormed on how we can address the challenges.
Usability
The registration of stakeholders was done through google forms, and the administrators had to process the data through Excel, the entire mapping experience did not encourage more stakeholders to use the tool
Scallability
It was difficult to scale the project, and very difficult to add more functionality on top of the existing platform.
Open collaboration
Stakeholder had difficulties utilizing the data collected in the platform, there was no APIs to connect the platform to other ecosystem solutions and platforms
A dedicated agile
development team
Our Approach
At IPF Softwares, we use agile software development methodology for large scale digital solutions, and in many cases
we would choose Agile - Scrum framework for project execution, but this was not the case for this project;
The HDIF team had already built the prototype the had most of things figured out already and the entire project backlog was almost ready; For this reason and many others, our senior project manager proposed we use Agile-Kanbarn Developement methodology .
PROJECT TEAM SETUP
UX & Design
A User centric design approach which resulted in an increased stakeholder mapping rate.
The Tech
The project’s technical part required developing a custom Open Source Web Application based on Node, Alpine Js and Handlebars framework.
TECH STACK
DESIGN TOOLS USED
colors
Proper color use is important for creating a positive engagement and improve user experience, for primary colors we picked Yankees Blue (162A45) which goes well with Vivid Red (Eb1418), the combo created an amazing visual hierarchy
Typography
For the typeface our design team choose Quit Sans, which is crispy, sharp and redable for both small and large screens.
Quit Sans
Quit Sans
Quit Sans
Quit Sans
Quit Sans
Quit Sans
The Impact
Key Achivements
Innovation Ecosystem Data used for reporting and publication of UNCDF Fintech Report , Tanzania Startup Association AGM Report ,ITC Report .
The project’s technical part required developing a custom Open Source Web Application based on Node, Alpine Js and Handlebars framework. The framework allowed us to build the scalable Minimal Viable Product and mapping activities began just after the launch of the project.
10 Hackathon conducted during the innovation week resulted to the development of 3 software solutions consumming Innovation Ecosytem Map APIs.
Collaboration with OpenMap Development Tanzania, Since 2017 OMDTZ has promoted a number of community mapping projects, actively pledged open data sets, and continue to build a network of enthusiastic mappers in Tanzania. We worked side by side with OMDTZ and HDIF team with their experience in mapping projects we were able to design an excellent user experience for the platform.
I love the Innovation Map, Kudos to the team - this is an amazing work.
Alexa Du Plessis
Partnership & Knowledge Specialist for FUNGUO Programme at UNDP
Next Step
Funguo Innovation Programme
Unlocking Innovation. Investment. Impact
The UNDP's innovation ecosystem support programme Funguo3 builds on the work of the former UKaid-funded HDIF. Funguo will work with the stakeholders to improve, scale and promote the innovation ecosystem map for the benefit of the wider innovation ecosystem stakeholder.
3. Building on the work of the former UKaid-funded Human Development Innovation Fund programme (HDIF), the aim of FUNGUO is to increase the number of successfully scaled innovation ventures/ start-ups to contribute to the national development goals and the SDGs in Tanzania. This will be achieved through the programme’s contribution in addressing the stumbling blocks and gaps in the innovation ecosystem that hinder innovative impact ventures from scaling, while promoting an environment that promotes innovation for development and empowers innovators, entrepreneurs, and enablers.
Learn More About Funguo : www.funguo.org
We all enjoyed the journey; rebuilding the innovation ecosystem map, the bi-weekly update sessions were simply effective
Joseph Manirakiza
Former HDIF Country Director | Currently, Funguo Programme Manager
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