AfricA re:LoAddiscovernew opportunitiesfor innovAtionAnd business

icebauhausWorkshop | Weimar, August 29 - 30, 2011

GiZ on new pAths

A grassroots innovation network for “home-grown” technology development does not necessarily come to mind when talking about Ethiopia, but sometimes you have to go off the beaten tracks in order to dis-cover new potentials. The iceethiopia innovation network (short for “innovation. collaboration. entre-preneurship”), which has been initiated by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Government, is certainly an appeal to do so.

The low level of technology-usage in the economy, the scarcity of locally relevant and adapted technologies as well as the lack of decent jobs will pose a major challenge for Ethiopia’s economic growth in the co-ming years. A challenge the ice innovation hubs aim to take up. Through iceethiopia, GIZ and its partners aim to accelerate Ethiopia’s economic growth by promoting market-driven and environmentally viable innovations through enabling new private sector in-itiatives and facilitating the constructive interaction between technologists, entrepreneurs, investors and creative workers.

Driving collaborative action to strengthen the eco-nomy by bringing together a diverse community of action-oriented thinkers, doers and leaders in a dyna-mic, intelligent ecosystem, is instrumental to this ap-proach. Therefore, the ice innovation hubs (icehubs) provide an open innovation environment as well as

buiLdinG in AfricA.A 1:1 laboratory for research and experimentation

training facilities, which cater for the development of entrepreneurial skills, innovation mind-set and colla-borative cultures. iceethiopia champions technologi-cal creativity as well as social and business ingenuity.

However, networking and business development at national level is only one side of the coin. Today’s eco-nomic globalisation demands cooperation at global level in both technology and business development. Therefore, partnering with global research hubs as well as with business development expertise is crucial for the success of iceethiopia. One good ex-ample for this is icebauhaus, a cooperation between the University of Weimar in Germany, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development in Ethiopia, and GIZ. icebauhaus promotes and actively scouts opportunities to esta-blish strategic partnerships between Ethiopian and German universities as well as the private sector to promote investment and job creation in the techno-logy sector.

Márton Kocsev

Sustainability is an important topic in the area of architec-tural building engineering. A possible approach to meet this objective is to promote lowtech constructions, which have the potential of being assembled by the consumers themsel-ves. These lowtech constructions need to be smart and I be-lieve that the African context has very specific demands for such constructions which we can only establish there, on the ground.“ Prof. Dr. Jürgen Ruth

Based on our particular experience as an enterprise, Africa currently offers the greatest potential for indus-try-partnerships worldwide!“ Oliver Gürtler

AfricA re:LoAd workshop

End of August 2011, a diverse group of experts and practitioners gathered in the German city of Weimar to discuss new forms of intercontinental collaboration for locally viable solutions: between Europe and Africa, between industry and academia, between a diverse range of professional disciplines and frames of mind.

Weimar has since centuries been a growing ground of European innovation and cultural change pro-cesses: Philosophers and artists of the “Weimar Classicism” movement developed new concepts of aesthetics and humanism, the Bauhaus school of design gathered avant-garde artists and innovators to unite art with craftsmanship and technology, re-sulting in revolutionary impulses for modernist ar-chitecture, industrial and graphic design.

In line with this tradition, Weimar now hosted the birth of icebauhaus, the first European node of the international tech innovation network ice.

United by the basic consensus, that todays challen-ges can only be adequately met by strengthening long term partnerships between academic insti-tutions, enterprises and individuals, through open non-hierarchic dialogue and on equal terms, the workshop participants generated a wide collection of new ideas on how to apply state-of-the-art digital tools & open, active methods to promote a network

the new GenerAtion of ethiopiAns.Open Innovation in iceaddis tech hub

of learning and expertise, ideas that since then con-tinue to evolve into concrete projects and partner-ships.

Many significant next steps of global development will be taken in Africa and icebauhaus is set to faci-litate Germany’s constructive part in that process. Stay up to date @ tinyurl.com/icebauhaus

Jörn Schultz

the new And oLd AfricA.A unique mix of realities

The novelty of the situation that all partners experience promotes the generation of many new and constructive ideas and especially also raises the level of motivation immensely. From our German perspective, it is evident that we, through this opportunity of actually being able to realize our concepts, offer an added value to our students, which we would not be able to offer to them under normal conditions. Besides concei-ving the project planning process in theory, the students also realize the project practically down to the last screw - therefo-re, I believe that we can benefit a lot from these projects.“ Dipl. Ing. Susanne Gampfer

I see a great potential in Africa as a field of experimen-tation, because you can try out things that are sensible and necessary for the African continent, as well as for oursel-ves.“ Dr. Dirk Donath

We have very motivated personnel to back up the coope-ration, who also know Ethiopia well. Also from the subject-mat-ter perspective, it is very interesting to us, because we have the architecture, building engineering and media departments, that all three of them fit well for a cooperation and furthermo-re, we have the artists whom we can actually send anyplace: For them Africa is an exciting field, I believe.“ Dr. Muriel K. Helbig

I would say that Africa will be the next venue for the whole urban development. You know that Europe has passed this pha-se maybe hundreds of years ago and Asia and Latin-America have been in this process in the last decades and then naturally, the next step will be Africa: A venue for huge urbanization. Take the example of Ethiopia: We are predominantly rural and we expect, in the coming few years, a huge urbanization process, which actually means a lot: It‘s about education, about servi-ces, about industries: So if a place is a venue for urbanization, it opens up different possibilities. If you see the demographic change in Africa in the last two decades, and what is happe-ning right now, then you will learn a lot about what is expected in the coming few years. And we also now witness how, from the West as well as from the East, interest is growing. Due to this, I would say that many doors are opened now and are also opening, both in research and education, and also in the private sector. [. . .] Zegeye Cherenet

[. . .] If I start with education, especially higher education and if I link it to urbanization: It needs a lot of technological edu-cation, as you can imagine, which means a higher level of re-search and partnership and collaboration in the research and educational areas: Training high skilled labor, conducting local research and partnership with experienced universities in the West will be necessary - it‘s not an option anyways, it‘s going to be a necessity and as you know, Africa has, as compared to other continents, the largest density of challenges in terms of environmental as well as political and many other challenges, which need ample answers. This also calls for research and higher education, so these kind of things call for collaboration. And, when it comes to the involvement of the private sector in this collaboration: It‘s not very complex to imagine, because as was reflected in the workshop, the population in Africa is incre-asing and predominantly young, which means, that it‘s also a market if you have the right products to address it. The market is growing and basic resources are available in Africa.So, when you combine all these things: Research, education and private sector involvement, in the Universities and also in the production sector, it means a lot, and I hope and I believe that people now are getting awareness of these things and I also see an increased interest in this area, which is very much important for us as Africans, with an equal partnership, finding a balanced relationship, both in the private, as well as in the re-search institutes and also investors in the West: Well, I believe that it will be a win-win situation for all of us, that‘s all I can say!“ Zegeye Cherenet

List of pArticipAnts

hagos Aman Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Architecture

Geraldine de bastion newthinking communication GmbH

Jasmin bauer KNOTEN WEIMAR GmbH

eckardt M.p. dauck ECOSYSTEM BAUSTOFFE Ltd. & Co. KG

dirk donath Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Architecture

dipl. ing susanne Gampfer Technische Universität München | Faculty of Architecture

Marina c. Glaser, M.A. Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | International Office

dr.-ing. Gregor J. G. Gluth BAM - Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing

oliver Gürtler Dr. Michael GEOMATICS

dr. karola hahn Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC)

Asgedom haile Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC)

kokebe haile Gabriel Centrum für internationale Migration und Entwicklung (CIM)

claudia heinze Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Media & International Office

dr. Muriel k. helbig Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | International Office

dr. Gerald heusing Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)

christiane kilian Gründerwerkstatt neudeli

florian kirfel Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Architecture

Alex klein Consultant

Márton kocsev Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) - Ethiopia

prof. dr. reinhard könig Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Architecture

seble Lemma Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC)

Jana Liebe SolarInput e.V.

florian Manderscheid Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Art & Design

susanne Muschik Gründerwerkstatt neudeli

kim nguyen van Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) - Eschborn

christian niemczik Technische Fachhochschule Wildau

oliver petzoldt Centrum für internationale Migration und Entwicklung (CIM)

hagen reum Assmann Beraten+Planen GmbH

prof. dr. Jürgen ruth Bauhaus-Universität Weimar | Faculty of Civil Engineering

Johannes schilling Centrum für internationale Migration und Entwicklung (CIM)

Jörn schultz Consultant: Learning & Collaboration Technologies

published by: icebauhaus

edition: Jörn Schultz & Marton Kocsev

design: Claudia Heinze

citations transcribed & in some cases translated from audio interviews by: Jörn Schultz

photo credits: Claudia Heinze, Dirk Donath & Jörn Schultz

produced & printed with friendly support of: Centre for International Migration and Development

publication date: October, 2011

icebauhaus

Jörn schultz

web: www.uni-weimar.de/cms/international/icebauhaus.html

mail: joern.schultz@uni-weimar.de

phone: +49 (0) 36 43/58 41 98

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