UN launches its African Technology Innovation Lab in Egypt
The UN has announced the opening of its African Technology Innovation Lab (UNTIL) in Egypt on the sidelines of the latest Cairo ICT Conference, held under the aegis of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
The announcement came after The Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser ElKady had witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch the lab on the second day of the conference. The launch of this lab comes within the framework of the UN plan to deploy a global network of technology innovation labs across the world. Egypt was selected to be the headquarters of the UNTIL of Africa due to the great development made in Egypt in the field of ICT and entrepreneurship.
The UNTIL in Egypt will be housed at Egypt’s Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC), which is located in Smart Village; the country’s flagship technology business park on the outskirts of Cairo. The Lab is designed with the intent to train, host and implement technology innovations and to develop innovative technology solutions that address global challenges, and to help Egypt progress towards achieving its Sustainable Development Strategy and the global Sustainable Development Goals, and serve the UN Member States.
The Egyptian Lab will be focusing on a number of fields and thematic areas related to the education of People with Disabilities (PwDs), prevention of epidemics, medical tourism and waste management for protecting the environment and rationalising water consumption in agriculture. All solutions will be developed using open source software and open data where Egypt will cooperate with the entities of the labs established around the world in order to achieve integration and confront challenges through exchanging experiences and tools.
