The Innovation for Policy Foundation (i4Policy) was founded in 2019, building on years of collaboration between African innovation hubs to co-create better policy environments. With a focus on participatory governance and inclusive policy-making, i4Policy has pioneered initiatives like the Africa Innovation Policy Manifesto and organized hackathons, supported startup policies, and worked with governments on participatory governance projects across the continent. In 2020, its #Don’tGoViral campaign with UNESCO reached over 200 million people, and by 2021, i4Policy had co-initiated and coordinated the first Global Citizen’s Assembly for COP26. Today, i4Policy continues to facilitate dialogue, enhance decision-making, and support change-makers through tools and training globally”.
The Innovation for Policy Foundation (i4Policy) was officially established on October 24, 2019 though its roots trace back to 2016 when 25 African Innovation Hub Managers convened in Kigali, Rwanda. They recognized their potential to act as non-adversarial partners with governments, advocating for entrepreneurship and better policy environments. This collaboration led to the launch of a communiqué at the 2017 Transform Africa Summit under the hashtag #i4Policy.
In 2018, during the African Innovation Hub Convention, this communiqué evolved into the Africa Innovation Policy Manifesto, supported by 90 innovation hubs from 32 countries, collectively representing over 450,000 individuals. This milestone solidified i4Policy’s mission to enhance innovation and policy advocacy across Africa.
As i4Policy matured, it organized policy hackathons in countries like Mali and Ivory Coast by request of the government. Policy hackathons followed in Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo early 2019, receiving support from organizations such as the World Bank. And a host of 11 regional hackathons in Ghana set the stage for the Startup Act process.
The Foundation’s incorporation in Mauritius marked a turning point, allowing it to expand its focus beyond startup policies and entrepreneurship, adopting the slogan “The Future is Co-Created.” This shift enabled i4Policy to engage in participatory governance projects and ongoing policy dialogues.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic altered priorities, leading to the launch of the #Don’tGoViral campaign in partnership with UNESCO. This initiative aimed to combat misinformation and successfully reached 200 million people in just six weeks. During this year, i4Policy continued its advocacy for policy reforms in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and facilitated the drafting of the Rwandan Startup Act.
By 2021, i4Policy’s focus evolved towards participatory, co-creative policy processes. A significant milestone was the organization of the first-ever global citizen’s assembly ahead of COP26, highlighting its increasing influence in shaping inclusive, democratic policy on a global stage.
In subsequent years, i4Policy championed collaborative policy development on broader issues such as artificial intelligence and agriculture. It introduced the Decision Thinking methodology (an evolution of the “i4Policy process” of earlier years) and established the first African Citizen Engagement Platform while continuing to foster entrepreneurial ecosystems through its suite of tools and resources freely available on Ecosystem.build platform.
Throughout this journey, i4Policy enhanced its role as a facilitator of dialogue among governments, communities, and ecosystems, promoting policymaking that empowers diverse voices and addresses urgent local and global challenges. Recognizing the importance of integrating research and knowledge-sharing, the Foundation now focuses on inclusive, collaborative policymaking that delivers real impact.
Tools like the ADDIS – Decision Thinking approach and projects such as the Governance Vocabularies Initiative are being utilized to reimagine decision-making processes on various levels. i4Policy supports governments in designing and implementing inclusive policies, and has created programs like the Entrepreneurship Policy Learning Series to scale impact by training change-makers to lead participatory processes independently. Over the past year, training programs have been conducted globally in cities such as Brasilia, Berlin, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Kigali, Lisbon, Mexico City, New York, Rabat, and Victoria Falls.
i4Policy’s holistic approach supports the entire decision-making process, promoting co-creation from initial ideas through to sustainable implementation.
Key projects mentioned in our history:
