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What a Year! Foreword by Anna Ekeledo, Executive Director, AfriLabs
This year 2020 brought with it a plethora of emotions, experiences, and social, economic, political, and health events mainly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. A number of us suffered loss and to those I say, in solidarity, our hearts continue to be with you and your families as you navigate into the year.
In spite of all of this, we are incredibly proud of the efforts of our community members, especially innovation hubs across the continent. At AfriLabs, we have seen resilience in the face of unprecedented disruption. Every day this year, we have worked with our community members who have stepped up to the challenge to support businesses across Africa navigate the negative effects of the pandemic; and build innovative solutions leveraging digital technologies to support governments, organizations, and society to increase access to healthcare, products, and services needed.
Most importantly, we have seen first hand the power and impact of collaboration among all stakeholders of the ecosystem. Throughout this report, you’ll see this evident in projects like Rollo Africa executed by our hub members in Egypt, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Cameroon in
partnership with the African Union and UNDP, and our cross-regional projects between hubs across Africa supporting women entrepreneurs and driving new models of virtual incubation and investor matching supported by
2020: A Resilient Africa: An annual report of AfriLabs impact
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