The GIZ project began in May 2020 and has been a success with the initial objective of the project being capacity building of enablers, professional development, fostered collaborations among ecosystem players.
The Association conducted workshops that equipped ESOs with skills that they need to be able to provide better support for entrepreneurs. The main areas of cooperation for this partnership under the Make IT in Africa Tech Entrepreneurship initiative were:
- Pursuing standardization activities for the Kenyan ecosystem
- Designing and/or facilitating and/or contributing to the development for policy that supports entrepreneurial growth in Kenya through participatory processes
- Connecting the Kenyan ecosystem, regional and/or international entrepreneurship ecosystem networks with the purpose of knowledge sharing and/or pursuing joint interests
Under this partnership we were able to conduct the following activities under member engagement;
- The Mombasa Regional Engagement Forum in the month of July with the topic focusing on Enabling the Future Coastal Entrepreneur’ .
- The Kisumu Regional Engagement Forum in June 2020 with the topic focusing on Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
- The Nairobi Regional Engagement Forum in September 2020 to discuss ways of strengthening the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kenya through partnerships with local government agencies.
In addition, under the GIZ MAKE IT Project, we were able to carry out a series of knowledge exchange forums in line with our mandate. The knowledge exchange forums served as a platform through which upcoming ESOs and ESO enablers would be able to garner knowledge on matters of sustainability. We were part of the following knowledge exchange forums:
- Kisumu Knowledge Exchange Forum whereby ASSEK partnered with Lake Hub under GIZ to participate in the Lake Basin Innovation and Investment Week in the month of November 2020 to discuss “Strengthening the ESOs community Nationally; Harnessing regional strengths”.