The Seminar was kicked off with remarks by H.E. Mr. Raphael Morav, Ambassador of the State of Israel, H.E. Jemal Beker Abedula, State Minister at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, and Mr. Markos Lemma, Co-founder and CEO of Ice Addis.
The hackathon which lasted for three days with a participation of 30 young entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts was led by the Israeli expert Sinai Gohar, from the Systematic Inventive Thinking.
The event was organized with the aim to gather innovative youth from diverse field and facilitate the development of new digital technology based ideas that can solve major problems faced in the water sector.
In the bible, Israel was referred to as the "Land of Milk and Honey," but Israel of today is labeled as "Startup Nation", a title that often comes as a surprise due to the country's small size. Israel is also a relatively young economy – 71 years old and has a culturally diverse population – Melting pot.
Israel has the largest number of start-ups per capita in the world, including more than 2,000 founded in the past decade.
But Israel is also home to more than 350 R&D centers of some of the world’s largest multinational corporations, such as Microsoft, Apple and Google. The Israeli economy is remarkably resilient, and despite its youth, the country has made significant strides in terms of global impact.
The Embassy here in Addis in collaboration with different governmental and non-governmental actors works in facilitating the process experience sharing to foster development in Ethiopia.
Systematic Inventive Thinking(STI): SIT offers programs that help organizations develop the culture and practices through which innovation thrives. In these programs, it works with to generate and implement ideas that are both innovative and practical; teachs skills that help organizations think and act differently in an effective way; and assist in designing the structures that will help innovation become consistent, systematic, and reliable throughout the organization. SIT helps organizations stay on top by developing a culture and practice of innovation. Change is supported in the long-term.
Iceaddis: is Ethiopia's first innovation hub & tech startup incubator established in May 2011. It works on youth-driven private sector initiatives and facilitate constructive interaction between techies, entrepreneurs, investors and people from the creative industries.
It is partly open community workspace, vector for investors and incubator for young energetic tech- entrepreneurs and creatives. The collaborators share ideas, pool resources, use ICTs effectively, make effective use of product development projects, access business and life skill trainings, and transform ideas into viable businesses.
Global rankings of the top innovation ecosystems in the world consistently find Israel to be one of the world's top locations for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, together with the Silicon Valley in California and the economic capitals of Europe. Indeed, Israel's self-proclaimed "Startup Nation" title often comes as a surprise due to the country's small size, relatively young economy and culturally diverse population. Yet anyone who knows a thing or two about Israel knows that the country itself is a kind of "startup" endeavor that takes risks, constantly seeks improvement and knows that innovation and creativity will pave the way forward. Read more