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Stories & insights
Useful questions, practical guidance and perspectives on building Africa's future together. Start with a guide, follow a story, or bring what you learn to a local challenge.
Built together · A practical collection
Choose a contribution, prepare a brief, support a project or leave knowledge the next team can use.
People and collaboration
Choose a useful task, agree the boundaries with a local team, and leave work that someone else can maintain.
Read the guide →Project planning
Turn a broad concern into an answerable request, with local ownership, evidence and a manageable first step.
Read the guide →Learning and skills
Use a small task, visible reasoning and specific feedback to turn a learning conversation into evidence of progress.
Read the guide →Giving and accountability
Look for an accountable owner, a useful budget and clear evidence of progress before and after a gift.
Read the guide →Knowledge and data
Package a useful dataset with context, permissions and a clear owner while keeping private information protected.
Read the guide →People and collaboration
Give a group a clear purpose, a local relationship and a small body of work it can sustain.
Read the guide →The original archive
Original articles retain their authors, dates and historical context.
Software
In the realm of web development, it is tempting to think of modern web apps as infinite in their variety. The creativity of developers, coupled with the flexibility of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, seems to produce an ever-expanding range of designs and interactions. However, when analyzed carefully, the underlying buildi…
Read the article →Health
The state of healthcare in Africa demands attention on a human level, but it is also at the heart of the continent’s economic problems. By some estimates, infectious diseases cost Africa $2.4 trillion a year in lost productivity. African economies need to improve so that more healthcare funding will be available, but t…
Read the article →Agriculture
Agriculture has long been the backbone of the African economy. An estimated 65% of the African labor force works in agriculture, accounting for 32% of the African GDP. Africa is also home to approximately 60% of the earth’s uncultivated arable land. Africa’s agricultural sector can do more than just help the continent …
Read the article →Education
The purpose of education is not only to prepare for the future, but also to build the future. The type of education we provide to our youth is a reflection of what kind of future we want to live in. At Engineer Africa, we envision a future where Africa is strong, independent and a true world leader.
Read the article →Organization & cooperation
It’s common to hear people talk about African unity, but what would that actually look like? There’s a big distance between theory and reality when it comes to getting the African continent working together. At Engineer Africa, we believe that a higher degree of cooperation and collaboration is key to realizing Africa’…
Read the article →Standards
We rarely notice them, but engineering standards literally shape the world around us. From the size of the pipe fittings in your kitchen sink, to the shape of the nozzle you use to put gas in your car, to the specifications of the lightbulb you turn off before you go to sleep, standards are unsung heroes in all of our …
Read the article →Housing
Urban development is arguably the single biggest factor which will make or break Africa’s future. Urbanization is strongly linked to economic growth and growth in per capita GDP, and Africa has the fastest growing urban population in the world.
Read the article →Water
Flooding disrupts the livelihoods and education of millions of Africans every year, and this problem is on the rise. Recent years have seen some of the most severe and widespread flooding in recorded history. It is estimated that the number of people affected by seasonal flooding in East Africa has increased by 500% in…
Read the article →Connectivity
This phenomenon is especially visible in Africa. Across Africa, you can find highly intelligent and enterprising individuals developing original solutions to problems faced by their community. In many cases, however, Africa’s best minds have not even been able to access formal schooling to gain basic literacy skills.
Read the article →Transport
Over the years, many great African intellectuals and scholars have spoken of the great potential of a united Africa. Kwame Nkrumah once said:
Read the article →Organization & cooperation
Engineer Africa was officially founded on December 27, 2018, and we’ve been in a state of constant evolution ever since. Initially, the organization’s focus was solely on alleviating challenges faced by startups in African markets, which I’ve written about in detail here. After many discoveries and challenges, our scop…
Read the article →Organization & cooperation
Startups have the potential to be a powerful force for Africa’s development. At the same time, there are many obstacles standing in the way of realizing this potential. During the process of building several startups in Africa, I experienced some of these challenges firsthand. These experiences, which I’ll be sharing w…
Read the article →Find shared resources or read the publication that sets out Engineer Africa's founding approach.
