Help us, Help you — Aligning Actors in sub-Saharan Africa’s EdTech space
By Thomas Kaye and Caspar Groeneveld, Nairobi-based Education Technology Consultants
Over the last 10 years, the global EdTech environment has grown exponentially. Investments in the field are skyrocketing, research in the space is growing more targeted and insightful, and governments the world over are becoming increasingly interested in finding ways to enhance their education systems by effectively deploying EdTech tools.
The increased interest in EdTech has led to an explosion in the number of entrepreneurs and organisations working in this exciting space. While the growth in actors has led to some exciting collaboration and innovative new ideas, the rapidly changing landscape has made it increasingly difficult to identify the number and type of firms operating in the space. This, in turn, has made it difficult for entrepreneurs, investors, donors and the government to identify and foster effective strategic partnerships. This is particularly the case in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a large number of great new innovations emerging, but also a high level of turnover.
Arriving in Nairobi in 2019, we (Caspar Groeneveld and Tom Kaye) were excited to enter this exciting and vibrant space. Kenya has been the birthplace of a range of cutting edge innovations that have shaped how the world approaches EdTech. Landing here we were struck by the vibrancy of the community, and the passion of the various actors in the space (see, for example, the EdTech East Africa community), but also by how difficult it was to generate a consolidated, up-to-date understanding of all the different actors in the field.
As we dug deeper, we also heard from the government that one of the challenges they faced in better-integrating EdTech into public systems was a lack of insight into which tools were available, and which of these had been able to robustly demonstrate positive outcomes.
With this in mind, we set about developing a database of EdTech-focused organisations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our purpose was to develop a tool that would provide insight into the number and type of firms designing and deploying EdTech. We also wanted to use this data to help connect EdTech entrepreneurs with interested parties (e.g. governments, donors, investors etc.). When designing the database our focus was, first, to ensure that the database was a high-quality public good that would be useful to the various users; second, to create partnerships to make the database sustainable over time, and third to maximise the benefit for those submitting information and minimise any administration burdens.
We’ve had a great response so far. We are now collaborating with the new EdTech Hub and EdTech East Africa to ensure we can make this iniative sustainable in the longer term. We’ve also received a great number of responses, particularly from within Kenya and neighbouring countries. We’re now looking to expand our reach further and would love your help. To include your data, please fill out the short survey at bit.ly/2KYvLIg. Also, please forward this information to any other you feel should be included in the database.
Finally, it’s important to emphasise that the database is, and will continue to be, publicly available and freely accessible. Please take a look: airtable.com/shrWkzpnLTpjP2ip8.
Given we’re aiming to ensure the database is as useful to as many actors as possible, we would love your thoughts on our aims, the scope of the information collected, or potential partnership. We’d love to hear your thoughts, so if you have any comments or questions, please contact us at: edtechssafrica@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
