Apps4Africa (A4A) is an African innovation accelerator founded by African technologists who compete for up to $10,000 in seed funding for projects that use technology to solve local or global problems. Apps4Africa was founded by African technology-firm Appfrica, its CEO Jon Gosier, Joshua Goldstein, Philip Thigo and colleagues at the U.S. Department of State.
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History
Apps4Africa began with a series of Challenges sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. The goal of Apps4Africa is to promote 'African solutions to African problems' by rewarding African technologists seeking to impact society with their inventions. The competition asks civil society and citizens throughout the continent to submit local community challenges on issues like transparency and better governance, health, education and more. The project began in late 2009 by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of African Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy (AF/PDPA) as part of President Barack Obama's administration's 21st Century Statecraft initiative.
In 2010, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated the winners of the first Apps4Africa competition. In 2011 the competition winners were announced at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 2012 Hillary Clinton kicked off the third Apps4Africa competition with another encouraging message.
Past competitions
The Apps4Africa Challenges have been held since 2010. There have been three to date: the Civic Challenge, the Climate Challenge, and the Business Challenge. Senegalese Technologist Marieme Jamme helped organised events on the ground in Africa and sourced the African innovators.