The winner of the Innovator of the Year Award is announced

NAIROBI, Kenya - Feb. 28, 2018 - PRLog -- 2 Aid & International Development Forum is delighted to announce the winner of the Innovator of the Year Award at the Aid and Development Africa Summit.

The innovator of the year award celebrates individuals as well as teams who have introduced game-changing initiatives, created research or inventions that have made an impact on the humanitarian aid and development sectors in Africa over the past year. The aim is to recognise individuals for their inspiring leadership, forward-thinking, creative problem-solving and implementation of innovative programmes that have helped drive Africa's progress towards Sustainable Development Goals.

The award recognises equity, inclusion and poverty alleviation; with affordability, feasibility, and acceptability being key, as well as the impact among intended users.

The winner, Apps and Girls Foundation, has been awarded the 2018 Innovator of the Year Award at the 3rd Annual Aid & Development Africa Summit.

They were chosen because of their role in teaching girls technology and entrepreneurship skills and encouraging them to find digital solutions to the problems they face in their communities.

A Tanzanian registered social enterprise, Apps and Girls seek to bridge the tech gender gap by providing quality coding training (web programming, mobile app development game development and robotics) and entrepreneurship skills to girls in secondary schools via coding clubs, and to university level students at academic institutions.

Apps and Girls also organises holiday events such as hackathons, bootcamps, and competitions and provides internships opportunities. Apps and Girls provides high class mentorship (from local and international mentors) to girls to create tech startups, connect them with jobs and internships. They also offer a 3 year incubation to emerging young female TECH entrepreneurs and use the network to promote their work to customers, partners and potential funding opportunities.

Founder of Apps and Girls Foundation Carolyne Ekyarisiima commented:

"Thank you Aid & International Development Forum for recognising our work [of] empowering girls in Africa with coding and Entrepreneurship skills"

The panel of judges included:

Karin Kallander, Senior Research Advisor, Malaria Consortium

Ademola Olajide, Resident Representative, UNFPA

Charles Gerhardt, International Project Manager, Regional Centre of Excellence for Vaccine,and Health Supply Chain Management;

Alexandra Brown, Product Manager, Aid & International Development Forum.

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About Aid & International Development Forum:

The Aid & International Development Forum (AIDF) strives to be a catalyst of cross-sector collaboration and innovation in humanitarian and development sectors by bringing together governments, UN agencies, intergovernmental agencies, national and international NGOs, development banks, investors and the private sector.

AIDF brings together key humanitarian and development practitioners, influencers, investors, thought leaders, policy makers and entrepreneurs. Our events and insights are based on comprehensive research and contributions from world leading experts including government ministers, FAO, UNESCAP, WFP, Asia Development Bank, UN OCHA, World Vision, UNOPS, USAID, GIZ, Red Cross, World Bank and many others. http://www.aidforum.org

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