General

In Uganda, a process to establish a Start-Up Act has been initiated by the government together with the startup ecosystem. After training ecosystem enablers in Uganda, Startup Uganda continued to push for a startup act process. In October 2022 a workshop was held with the Cabinet Secretariat and the ecosystem with the aim to reach a common understanding about startups, innovation hubs, and the main challenges the ecosystem faced. During this workshop we shared the rationale for pushing entrepreneurship policies and lessons learned from other countries. A number of change-makers from the Ugandan entrepreneurial ecosystem have been part of our Entrepreneurship Policy Learning Series.

In Mauritania, following the request to support the Startup Act from the Innovation Ministry, we have advised the Ministry on the engagement of the ecosystem. We have participated in interviews with ecosystem players, to understand their needs & challenges and we have provided capacity building on the ADDIS methodology in order to ensure an inclusive process. Following this, in early November 2023, the Ministry hosted the first co-creation activity with the ecosystem in Nouakchott.

In Botswana, we trained 10 members of the government on the ADDIS Process (Decision Thinking) to carry out a Policy Hackathon in October 2023.

In Togo, we have supported the analysis of the current regulatory environment and a map of best practices in other African countries to promote the growth of start-ups and digital economy actors. Following this preparatory work the ecosystem pledged for a greater dialogue between start-ups and public authorities, as well as coordination in law-making processes for reforms applying to the digital economy.

On November 12, 2019, the DRC StartUp Act process was initiated with intense support from i4Policy. Over 10 co-creation events were held in total. The Startup Act resulted in two years of co-creation and advocacy to enable a framework to support entrepreneurship, innovation, and youth employment. With ecosystem partners, public stakeholders, the private sector, and international partners. Last November we hosted a conference together with the Embassy of the Netherlands, convening Congolese ecosystem players as well as policymakers from Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana to share best practices, perspectives and start a conversation on the application of the startup act.