Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub (BDIH) & UNICEF Botswana are dedicated to contributing to Botswana’s competitive advantage through skills honing and knowledge capacity building.
In June this year, BDIH & UNICEF Botswana signed a work plan commitment to deliver amongst others innovation, skilling and entrepreneurship capacity building. UNICEF Botswana committed financial resources as a contribution to the delivery of the work plan. To implement the capacity building goal, BDIH partnered with Bøthofus Organisation from Sweden (co-funded by the European Union) through a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the capacity building training program.
The capacity building program is devoted to imparting knowledge that is crucial to the day-today work of BDIH employees. The employees went through a 5-day intensive & interactive training that covered topics such as;
● Digitalisation process and Digital transformation
● Resource mobilization,
● Revenue/Financial sustainability (FS),
● Public/Private Partnerships (PPP),
● International relationships,
● Sustainable Development Goals localisation,
● Stages of innovation and Technology Readiness Levels
● Technology Transfer and commercialisation
● Scrum methodologies
With the rapid changing innovation and entrepreneurship landscape, it is critical for employees of an Innovation Agency to acquire new knowledge that appeal to diverse innovators, partners and ecosystem players. The training sought to educate, stimulate conversations and provide a platform for the staff members to delve deeper into areas of focus that will have a positive trickledown effect on service & support delivery to the innovators.
“We are pleased to partner with one of the leading capacity building organisations such as Bøthofus and benefit from a wealth of knowledge they offer. Together we create international collaboration opportunities between Botswana, Africa & EU. We also commend UNICEF on committing funding in areas that enhance our knowledge which we pass onto our startups and entrepreneurs through the support we offer. We all have a shared vision of contributing to the SDGs through knowledge sharing and driving impactful innovations for sustainable economic
growth” Said BDIH Acting CEO, Diane Mongudi.
Commenting on the delivery of the training, Bøthofus Founder Kay Nag said “BDIH staffs are willing to have mindset change and to adapt, be agile with innovation and digitalisation, ToT(Training of Trainer model) will now help BDIH to build capacity for other local institutions. We shall conduct a follow-up on the implementation of the learning acquired within a period of 6 months. Beyond that, our partnership with BDIH allows for knowledge exchange between the parties.
Delighted to have received the training, Tshephang Bome a member of the BDIH Team said “ The training has significantly enriched my skill set and capacitated me to play a pivotal role in nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship within Botswana. One of the most valuable takeaways has been the exposure to the global innovation ecosystem, which has the potential to elevate Botswana’s and BDIH’s presence on the international stage and harnessing our newfound knowledge and capabilities to contribute meaningfully to the achievement of UN Sustainable development goals through novel solutions and establishing key strategic collaborations”.
