Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) organized and coordinated a day-long development partners tour on June 19th, 2019 for the sake of stakeholders from different development organizations interested in the hub space and the innovation ecosystem. It involved organizations such as The Embassy of Sweden, the World Food Program, Embassy of Switzerland, European Union Delegation and the United Nations Development Program led by the HDIF Team.
It was a great honor to be visited by these development partners and to be recognized as one among many other ecosystem shapers. Their aim for the tour was to get to know all the existing hubs and innovation spaces in Dar es Salaam, to get acquainted with the work of the hubs, the different objectives and approaches used by these hubs to support startups and what challenges they are facing in implementing those objectives.
The visit was indeed very productive and very much needed for us to engage with these key stakeholders who are involved in shaping and improving the innovation ecosystem at large. A lot was discussed besides presenting our goals and focus in empowering startups which involves a unique approach of linking learning institutions, startups with corporates. This was the first step of their involvement with hubs showing interest in supporting startups which is a good sign to moving together towards the same direction.
The day tour started from SafeSpace followed by STICLab, Tumaini University DSM College IRIS program, Hub255, Buni Hub, DLab, Smart Lab, Seedspace, Sahara Ventures & lastly Ndoto Hub.
We look forward to more visits as well as collaborations and partnerships intended to moving the innovation ecosystem forward.