The inaugural Aid & International Development Forum (AIDF) Africa Summit was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 2-3 February 2016 at the United Nations Conference Centre. The two day summit attracted more than 300 participants representing NGOs, UN agencies, donors, governments and the private sector.

The topics discussed included mobile innovations, procurement, finance, humanitarian logistics, health and WASH, strategic partnerships, emergency communications, safety of aid workers and improving livelihoods of displaced people.

Sonja Ruetzel, Event Director, AIDF addressed the audience with opening remarks emphasizing the importance of technological innovations in improving aid delivery and development strategy in East Africa.

The first expert panel of the Summit focused on Mobile Innovations for Humanitarian and Development Work. Moderated by Christopher Hoffman, Regional Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Director East Africa, World Vision International, the diverse panel discussed the impact of mobile devices on development work and utilising mobile technology to better reach and engage communities. Nada El Marji, Director, Aid & Development, Enterprise Channel & Portfolio Development, Inmarsat addressed how communications solutions can drive sustainable innovation. mHealth innovations and their practical implications were covered by Dr Sharad Sapra, Director of Global Innovation Centre,United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in his presentation “Mobile for results”. Frédéric Massé, Vice-President EMEA Deputy Head of Global Government Relations, SAP commented on capacity building and community resilience through eAgri solutions. Importance of building partnerships and collaborations was discussed by Brice Rambaud, Regional Director for Africa Programs, Internews.

After a short refreshment break, sponsored by ATEA, the conference proceeded with an update on UN Procurement Principles and Process by Beng Teoh, Consultant, Procurement Unit, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). His presentation was followed by a case study on mobile banking in Ethiopia: Lorenz Wild, Senior Economic Technical Advisor, PRIME, Mercy Corps and Bethel Tsegaye, Innovation Investment Fund Manager, PRIME, Mercy Corps shared their experience of introducing the PRIME (Pastoralist Areas Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion) project’s Innovation Investment Fund.

The following panel focused on Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Challenges and was moderated by Eva Mwai, Regional Director, East Africa, North Star Alliance. In particular the panellists focused on how to ensure agile operations, reduce programme waste and improve supplier relationships. They also shared lessons learned from recent operations like challenges related to transport, storage and distribution. Rishi Ramrakha, Head of Zone Logistics Unit, Africa,International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) addressed challenges of last mile logistics and best practice for shipping supplies into areas of reduced infrastructure and difficult borders. Measures necessary to be undertaken to preventing corruption in humanitarian aid were highlighted by Anne Signe Hørstad, Project Coordinator,Transparency International Norway.

After the networking lunch, sponsored by Ilex, where participants had an opportunity to explore the exhibition, the AIDF Africa Summit continued with the keynote presentation on Technology & Youth by Raphael Obonyo, Africa's Representative to the Global Coordination Board, World Bank Group. His presentation was followed by panel discussion on Innovations, Partnerships, Technologies for Effective Emergency Communications moderated by Brice Rambaud, Regional Director for Africa Programs, Internews.

Andrew Rugege, Regional Director for Africa, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Simon Gray, Field Support Manager, System Integration, Eutelsat and Stuart Worsley, Country Director, Ethiopia, Mercy Corps shared their insight into how to make communication among aid and development agencies effective as well how to empower local communities to take leadership roles and be primary agents of their own response.

After these panels the participants had an opportunity to engage in an informal roundtable discussions and also share their experiences with the group or ask more specific questions around livelihood & shelter assistance (NRS International), WASH, partnerships for health programmes (Bio-Rad Laboratories), use of satellite technology (Eutelsat), technology & youth (SAP), regional capacity building, supporting at-risk groups and disaster relief management.

The next two panels focused on Data & Knowledge Management and Sharing, which covered importance of social networks and data exchange among aid and development stakeholders, data collection/sharing and GIS uses for humanitarian programmes. The panel was moderated by David Barnard, Vice President, Africa, TechSoup and speakers included Dr Chukwudozie Ezigbalike, Chief of the Data Technology Section, Africa Centre for Statistics (ACS), UNECA,Moses Sitati, Head of Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) East Africa Data Lab, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Ambachew Deresse, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, Action Aid Ethiopia.

Last but not least participants had opportunity to learn about Safety and Training of Aid Workers. Dylan Evans, Head of Operations, Salama Fikira International shared his thoughts on how build partnerships for security and safety in complex emergencies. 

Day One at the AIDF Africa Summit concluded with a drinks reception, sponsored by Iridium. The audience was exposed to latest technologies and innovations from carefully selected solution providers presented at the exhibition as well as unparalleled networking opportunities amongst key stakeholder groups.

The second day kicked off with an update on Child and Maternal Health Initiatives and Innovations, moderated by John Graham, Country Director, Ethiopia, Save the Children. The panellists provided an overview of current health threats in East Africa. Dr Martina Fuchs, CEO, Real Medicine Foundation discussed how to strengthen health programmes through the use of mobile technologies, while Brigitte Dacosta, Director, Public Health Department, bioMérieux shared her thoughts on disease prevention and control – vaccinations, testing and monitoring. “Embrace Health – Unite to screen and treat anemia” was the title of presentation by Lena Wahlhed, Director Alliance Development, HemoCue followed by Dr Azmach Gebregiorgis, National Program Officer, World Health Organization (WHO) update on regional health programmes, including maternal health.

As one of the most pressing health topics of this century, panel on HIV and AIDS Response in the Post-2015 Development Agenda was led by Dr Esther Aceng, Communicable Diseases Team Leader, WHO. Miriam Maluwa, Country Director, Ethiopia, UNAIDS provided an update on rapid testing solutions. Suggestions on how to eliminate false positive through a new rapid test solution, improve access to HIV/AIDS prevention and counselling were offered by Julien Pizzuto, CDG Channel, Partners Sales Manager Europe, Middle-East, Africa, Bio-Rad Laboratories, while Amitrajit Saha, Senior Advisor HIV and Human Rights, HIV, Health and Development Team, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) discussed scaling up HIV treatment and care, e.g. via CD4 count or T-cell tests.

What followed was a panel on WASH Innovations and Good Practice with participation of Sean Kerrigan, Global Head of WASH, World Vision International, Manoj Kumar, Country Director, Ethiopia, Plan International, Dr Patrick Marcus, Executive Head of Technical Sales, Training & Service, Kärcher Futuretech and Dr Samuel Godfrey, Chief Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), UNICEF. The speakers shared with the audience how to ensure access to safe drinking water and sanitation, quality requirements for drinking water in the field, how to examine solutions for water treatment and what are the best practice for improving hygiene awareness and education.

Further looking into Improving Livelihoods of Displaced People, Berhanu Ulla, National Director, Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia debated how can life and livelihoods of refugees be protected and improved by looking at key areas such as shelter, energy, education, food and water supply. Clementine Nkweta-Salami, Representative, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) looked at latest innovations and trends in shelter assistance, disaster resilient settlements and shifting focus from temporary shelter to safe livelihoods and protection. Christopher Hoffman, Regional Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Director East Africa, World Vision International followed with a discussion on implementing safety and product standards across the board, while Marnix Eykhout, Business Development & Sales Executive, NRS International shared his views on how can we better support at-risk groups providing them with better shelter, lighting and rechargeable solutions & nets.

Saurabh Sinha, Chief, Employment and Social Protection, UNECA presented on economic and social impacts of poverty and inequality in Africa.

The concluding panel at the AIDF Africa Summit focused on Building & Strengthening Strategic Partnerships and Richard Walden, CEO, Operation USA took role of the moderator. Best practice in building effective and sustainable partnerships that meet their goals was presented by Michael Jacobs, Chief of Party, PRIME, Mercy Corps. Troy Conrey, Managing Director, Air Serv discussed common challenges, particularly around multi-sector partnerships. New partnership models, such as shared value approach and crowd funding was at the centre of Barlin Ali, Program Coordinator, Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI), Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) presentation, which was followed by Eva Greitemann, Partner Development, Deutsches Medikamenten-Hilfswerk, Action Medeor proposal on how to manage NGO and private sector partnerships.