African Futures Fund by Jessica Berlin, Germany (ADEL 2017)

June 25, 0021

African Futures evolved from a conference to a digital platform and fund that helped impact-driven entrepreneurs and secure the funding and partnerships they need to scale their businesses across the continent. African Futures goal is to help turn national level sustainable business success stories into continental successes, and continental successes into global companies. African Futures was able to attract outstanding talent, and make waves in the African entrepreneurship and tech innovation scene. About Jessica: Jessica Berlin is the founder and managing director of CoStruct, a strategy consultancy working at the intersection of business, technology, and economic development. CoStruct consults public, private, and nonprofit organizations on innovation strategy, program design for tech and entrepreneurship initiatives, and market entry in emerging and frontier markets. An international policy expert turned entrepreneur, Jessica's passion for advancing sustainable business and tech solutions stems from her prior work in security, foreign policy, and development aid. She has lived and worked in Afghanistan, China, Germany, Myanmar, Rwanda, the UK, and the US. Her crosscutting experience gives her unique insight into the challenges and opportunities of building international partnerships to address interconnected global challenges. In addition to founding CoStruct, Jessica is co-founder of MakerNet, an international consortium fostering networked local manufacture and digital design; BerLink, a business consortium linking the Berlin tech ecosystem to emerging innovation ecosystems in other countries; and Die Brückenbauer, a nonprofit initiative scaling economic and cultural inclusion programs to underprivileged communities in Germany. She holds an M.Sc. in Political Economy of Emerging Markets from King's College London and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.

MOINS

Speakers
Jessica Berlin
Founder and Managing Director, CoStruct (Emerging Leader)
...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    March 24, 2020
    Alors que le monde est depuis quelques mois confronté à l’une des plus graves crises sanitaires du siècle, l’Afrique semblait en être jusque-là épargnée. Les pays du continent n’avaient alors annoncé que très peu de cas, une dizaine pour certains et aucun pour d’autres. Cependant, à mesure que le temps passe, l’Afrique se trouve avec de plus en plus de cas, d’abord exportés d’Europe et d’Amérique résultant ensuite en une contamination locale. Ce n’est pas la seule crise sanitaire à ...
  • Authors
    Benjamin Augé
    March 20, 2020
    L'épidémie de coronavirus vient encore davantage affaiblir les économies du golfe de Guinée déjà particulièrement fragilisées par un secteur pétrolier localement en crise depuis plusieurs années. La rapide baisse des cours va mettre à nouveau à rude épreuve des systèmes qui ne parviennent pas à se réinventer et à se diversifier afin de se prémunir des travers souvent constatés au sein des Etats rentiers. Outre l'impact économique, ce sont également les potentielles difficultés d'ord ...
  • March 20, 2020
    The Service sector is central to economic growth, trade and employment across the world. Trade in services has increased from 8.5 per cent of global GDP in 1995 to 13.1 per cent of GDP in 2017. However, Africa is taking less advantage of these opportunities than others. In this policy brief we highlight important misconceptions that may be holding back services exports in Africa. The potential for services sector growth and services exports from low levels in Africa is large. Polici ...
  • Authors
    March 19, 2020
    L’usage des technologies d’information et de communication et l’intégration des pays africains dans le cyberespace figurent parmi les Objectifs de Développement Durable (ODD) de l’Union Africaine. Cette intégration est de plus en plus observable dans divers secteurs d’activité : (infrastructures numériques, banques, assurances, éducation, commerce, etc.). En Afrique, la course aux technologies et aux services numériques suscite des questions majeures, non seulement sur la place du c ...
  • Authors
    March 17, 2020
    The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) defines regional integration as a “multidimensional process which may take the form of coordination, cooperation, convergence and deep integration initiatives and whose scope extends not only to economic and trade issues, but to political, social, cultural and environmental ones as well.” As an organizing principle, the concept of regional integration has been around for some time in various config ...
  • Authors
    Hamza M'Jahed
    March 11, 2020
    West Africa has always played an essential role in African geopolitics. Although less thought of than north, south and east Africa, because of their envied strategic openings into both the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, West African countries are transforming themselves into a major African hub. For Britain, the completion of Brexit heralds a new era in its contemporary history. In this framework, West Africa is a crucial region for the United Kingdom’s long-term strategic goal ...
  • Authors
    March 10, 2020
    Le mouvement des femmes marocaines est issu de l’histoire récente de la société depuis la période précoloniale. La trame du débat autour de l’élaboration et de la réforme de la Moudawana, qui s’est imposé dans la vie politique marocaine depuis les premières années de l’indépendance jusqu’à nos jours, traduit, en fait, un processus amplifié et récurrent des enjeux autour du statut et du rôle de la femme dans la société marocaine qui remonte loin dans l’histoire. Produit moderne d’un ...
  • March 9, 2020
    The Moroccan diaspora contributes in major ways to Morocco’s economic development. Moroccan migrants ease the country’s chronic unemployment and underemployment problems, send remittances, invest in the home country, and typically visit Morocco frequently as tourists. In addition to that migrants usually retain close links with Morocco, and help in less direct ways to forge trade and third-party investment links between Morocco and their host countries. Drawing on the relatively sma ...
  • March 6, 2020
    La Mondialisation et nous prolonge les deux derniers ouvrages de l’auteur : La Crise économique et nous, 2009, (en arabe), et La Chine et nous, 2017. Il revient aux origines de cette mondialisation, dont le point de départ a été la Méditerranée occidentale et la conquête de la ville de Sebta par les Portugais en 1415, ouvrant la voie aux grandes découvertes et à l’émergence du capitalisme. L’évolution historique et analytique de la mondialisation l’a amené à s’interroger sur ses per ...
  • Authors
    Abdessalam JALDI
    March 4, 2020
    When I think about women’s empowerment, I see it as a constant process of attaining milestones in our lives as individuals man and woman, and as society. When I think of women’s empowerment in the context of Morocco, a host of questions come to mind. First, how is the ‘Moroccan woman’? In other words, to what extent are Moroccan women seeking to empower themselves? Does empowerment, mean the same thing to every Moroccan woman? To what extent is it self-empowerment? And what are the ...