The online innovation hub for Egypt, “EgyptInnovate”
platform has won the ITU Innovation Challenges 2020, in the “Ecosystem Best Practice Challenge” category.
The platform is part of Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) innovation support strategy where it’s managed by
the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) through the Technology Innovation and
Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC).
The platform’s winning reflects the effective tools it provides for promoting innovation, learning, and availing
networking opportunities to innovators and entrepreneurs, through a digital platform supported in both Arabic and
English. It also provides an interactive map that embraces the key players in the innovation and entrepreneurship
ecosystem in Egypt.
Projects from 26 countries, including Egypt, applied for the competition, where entrepreneurs, innovators, Small and
Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) owners, policymakers, and ecosystem builders competed.
The ITU Innovation Challenges 2020 is a global open competition platform for innovators and ecosystem builders to
present their ideas and projects, empowering them to transform their communities into thriving digital societies.
The table below provides the details of the overall challenge timeline.
The competition comprised three categories: Digital Change-maker Challenge, for innovators with ideas that create a
digital impact in their communities; Ecosystem Best Practice Challenge, for ecosystem builders with good practices
that nurture an enabling environment for innovators in their communities; and Women in Technology Challenge, for
individual women tech innovators and eligible startups with digital projects that create impact for women in their
communities.
The overall theme of this year's challenges was “Rethinking the digital economy's value chains during the Covid-19
pandemic.” The theme reflects the dire need for the digital transformation, more than ever before, to help global
decision-makers and innovators build a digital economy and maintain economic stability for their societies. It also
provides an opportunity for innovators and ecosystem builders to present their ideas and projects and enables them
to transform their societies into thriving digital ones.
The challenge winners are qualified to join the virtual ITU Global Innovation Forum, in October, where they will
participate in capacity building workshops, pitch their proposals to a global audience of experts, and network with
decision-makers.
According to the GSER 2020 report, Cairo
provides a perfect testbed for innovation and an attractive market for scalability. Egypt has seen a surge in
technology innovation support programs and movements by the public and private entities that triggered an
entrepreneurship boom and led startups business to thrive.
EgyptInnovate platform aims at exposing Egypt’s innovators locally and globally, connecting nodes and building
collaborative communities of Egypt’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Besides, it aims at educating
innovators, startups, and businesses about technology and innovation management.
The platform was built on open-source software, enabling free access to all its data. The number of registered users
on the digital platform this year exceeded 50,000, and the number of registered entities on Egypt Innovation Map
reached over 1,000 organizations, agencies, and startups.