EDACY Team Blog — weekly stories from the EDACY team that we would like to share with you, to help you understand our values better and to meet those behind the scenes that make EDACY possible.
This week: Carine Vavasseur, Program Developer at EDACY.
When it comes to the topic Africa, the majority will associate it with a long list of challenges. Making it an attractive but still a very uncertain continent.
Challenges are the positive way of mentioning problems so people can see the opportunities that can arise from these challenges. Meaning that Africa is a continent with high potential to drive the world’s economy but also with a wide range of issues to be solved related to education, health, economics, politics and almost all economic growth related fields.
The question remains who will tackle these “challenges”, take or create the opportunities needed in Africa in order to drive its growth and get the continent moving again?
When it comes to solving these problems, it seems obvious that the ones with the potential to change the game are … ‘Problem Solvers’. Those with a certain mindset who see opportunities and bring solutions whereas common people will still struggle.
This being said, here are 13 reasons why Africa needs Problem Solvers.
1 / Africa is a potential time bomb
Fifty percent of African population is under the age of 20. It is estimated that 450 millions African youngsters will look for a job in the coming 30 years but only half of them can get a job unless the issue is addressed with the urgency it deserves. This is the biggest challenge for Africa. To solve this great issue, people need to be educated on how to ideate and design solutions for those societal challenges.
2 / Problem Solvers make better leaders
“Africa lacks good leaders”, you have probably heard this sentence a thousand times. Africa needs leaders who are able to solve problems. By growing and nurturing problem solvers, we ensure the ground for the next generation of leaders.
3/ “A problem well put is half solved” (John Dewey)
“If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and 1 minute finding solutions” said Einstein. 99% of us would do the contrary and that is where problem solvers are key. Contrary to the mass they dig deeper in finding the root of one or several problems before bringing the solution, avoiding short term solutions with dangerous mid and long term side effects. They are likely the ones to bring structural improvements to societies.
4 / Success requires making 100 small steps to go right
Problem solvers are more likely to focus on long term effects of the solutions they design, taking likewise the short and mid-term impacts into consideration. In the process of facing challenges of the next decades, this type of people is essential to build sustainable economies and societies. It takes specific skills to build a long term solution and not just come with a punctual and short-lived remedy.
5 / Africa doesn’t need more but better entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is often said to be THE solution to solve problems in Africa especially when it comes to youth unemployment and booming demographics. Most of African youth wants to start a career as an entrepreneur. Still, figures show 80% of Sub-Saharan African startups do not succeed after 3 years. Quantity is not the issue, quality is. Entrepreneurship can positively impact Africa only if driven by skilled entrepreneurs able to clearly identify which problem they tackle and how they manage their venture until success. This problem-solver mindset is necessary to define the WHY of their venture and face daily challenges coming with the life of an entrepreneur.
6 / Copy-paste should remain a keyboard process
Innovation and invention, two words not yet associated to most solutions born in Africa. Whereas we can observe these notions are mastered in some Anglophone African countries (M-Pesa, Pick n Pay…), it is still uncommon to find innovative approaches on the Francophone African market. Copy-paste solutions is common thread here. Still, what has been designed in a specific context and has worked abroad was not meant to fit in the local context and should be either adapted or abandoned. By forgetting local specificities and the user experience, several copy-pasted models and solutions fail fixing the problem they address on their targeted African market(s). This could be avoided with better methodologies and skills like problem solving.
7 / Solution designed for you, without you may be against you
The solutions to problems in Africa should be designed locally to directly benefit to African markets. Local solutions that can solve major problems in a scalable way have the potential to become a global success.
8 / Making — thinking outside the box — a reality
If current challenges faced in Africa were easy to solve they would have been tackled already. Each problem relates to a more complex sum of problems which need to be seen from a much larger perspective before solutions are defined. If you want to enable such an approach, thinking outside the box should go beyond being a motto and should become a reality. It is a necessity to educate the youth to think outside the box and provide them with the right tools. So far, only a few belong to this category of people, like the Problem Solvers.
9 / Solving 1 key problem in Africa is changing billions lives
The market is huge and so is the number of people affected by the same problems. Problems are social, professional, health related, education related, cultural… Whereas a lot has been done on other continents, a lot still has to be done in Africa, representing a big opportunity to impact billions lives. One problem solver could make a huge difference in such an environment.
10 / More Problem Solvers, less Trouble Makers
People occupied with solving problems are less likely to become trouble makers. When a generation grows up with no perspective or will to positively impact its society, it becomes a potential threat. By providing problem-solving skills to our youth, we ensure it will likely spend its time finding ways to tackle challenges rather than raising new issues or growing the existing ones.
11 / “If it works in Africa, it can work anywhere” (Sami Niemelä)
Due to various barriers that still exist in some parts of Africa when it comes to growth, the context is so difficult that efficient solutions to key challenges could easily be replicated elsewhere or inspire emerging countries in the rest of the world (i.e reversed innovation). If such solutions were developed in a hostile environment, they would easily fit to less complex environments. By growing Problem Solvers on the continent, chances to drive innovation and change worldwide are even bigger. Making Africa a leading economy and even more attractive continent for international investors and stakeholders.
12 / Where last generations did not succeed, next ones have to
Previous generations have failed in ensuring a better future for our generation and the ones to come. Improvements have been made but big dangers have come along (climate change, environment threat, fast growing populations, natural resources exploitation, health issues…) If nothing is done, Africa will fail turning its economic growth and fast growing population into key assets. We have few decades left to turn these threats to our advantage, our generation is thus among the last bastions to solve these problems.
13 / Make Africa moving again
At a time in its History, Africa has been the place where great innovative ideas were born, making it the cradle of humanity. Africa can choose to be nostalgic of this glorious past or decide to make the future even greater. At EDACY we opt for this bright future and believe Problem Solvers will drive these high impact changes that will transform the face of Africa.
#GetAfricaMoving
Ready to change the status-quo? Join the digital transformation movement to Get Africa Moving, Again. Pre-register now for our second cohort on www.edacy.com to start your transformative journey and become a software leader by working on innovative projects at top enterprises. Let’s #GetAfricaMoving
Prêt à challenger le status-quo? Rejoins le mouvement de la transformation digitale! Pré-inscrits toi maintenant pour notre 2nde cohorte sur www.edacy.com pour commencer ton parcours transformateur et devenir un leader en développement logiciel en travaillant sur des projets innovants au sein d’entreprises leaders. Let’s #GetAfricaMoving
You want to know more about how we identify and grow these Talents with the potential to be Problem Solvers and Game Changers ? Discover it in this article.
