Urban Innovation in Practice Event:

Stimulating a sustainable collaboration between the UK, South Africa, and Kenya to address urban challenges in African cities and improve citizens’ lives.

Why Urban Innovation in Practice?

The Connected Places Catapult (CPC), in partnership with UN-HABITAT, are inviting you to the Urban Innovation in Practice event. The aim of this event is to promote a sustainable collaboration between cities and hubs across UK, South Africa and Kenya to address urban challenges and improve citizens’ lives. This key event will promote collaboration between different stakeholders in UK, South Africa and Kenya to exchange experiences and knowledges and best practices relating to urban innovation. This event will also include a roundtable discussion which will discuss how donors can engage with city managers, tech hubs, civil society, and the private sector to enable donors to build a thriving innovation ecosystem in African cities.

What is Urban Links Africa?

As part of the UK government strategy is to establish long-term and mutually beneficial partnerships with African nations, Connected Places Catapult, the UK centre of excellence for urban innovation, is running an ambitious £2.5M programme, Urban Links Africa (ULA), funded by UKRI through the Global Challenges Research Fund. The programme facilitates a sustainable collaboration between the UK, South Africa, and Kenya, bringing together six cities and tech ecosystems to address challenges in African cities and improve citizens’ lives. Challenges include sustainable mobility, solid waste management, wastewater management and urban flooding.

ULA funds and supports 7 impact-driven UK-African equitable partnerships to develop joint tech solutions to these challenges. The project has benefited from ULA’s support in 6 cities: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

Agenda

SESSION ONE: Introduction to the Urban Innovation Market

1. Introduction & Welcoming remarks - Sir Michael Bear, Former Lord Mayor of London and Special Advisor to Connected Places Catapult

2. The Urban Innovation Market: Global Challenges & Opportunities - Nicola Yates, CEO, Connected Places Catapult

3. Urban Innovation in the Context of African Cities - Eduardo Moreno, Chief of Knowledge and Innovation Branch, UN Habitat

SESSION TWO: “Urban Innovation in Practice: Urban Innovation in Practice: Stimulating the innovation ecosystem to address city challenges

1. Urban Innovation in Practice: ULA learnings and methodologies

1. Roundtable discussion: Stimulating the innovation ecosystem to address city challenges through collaboration, from the perspective of different stakeholders

2. Closing remarks by rapporteur and Q&A

Break 10 mins

SESSION THREE: Sustainability and scale: The role of funding and donors

1. Brief overview of the global donor landscape

2. Roundtable discussion: To exchange experiences and knowledges and best practices relating to donor

CLOSING REMARKS activity.

3. Closing remarks by rapporteur and Q&A

• Eduardo Moreno, Chief of Knowledge and Innovation Branch, UN Habitat
• Sir Michael Bear, Former Lord Mayor of London and Special Advisor to Connected Places Catapult

To find out more about Connected Places Catapult events please visit our website.