Transform Africa 2017, Kigali

10-12 May 2017. Transform Africa Summit is the leading African forum bringing together global and regional leaders from government, business and international organizations. This annual event enables them to collaborate on new ways of shaping, accelerating and sustaining Africa’s on-going digital revolution. This summit is geared to enable member states to become more competitive, open and innovative smart economies, with favourable business environment, leveraging ICT innovations. The countries will be able to attract large-scale investments, reward entrepreneurship, have rapid growth in exports, to transform African nations into smart societies.

Extract of the programme:

Smart Villages: Pathways to Africa’s digital transformation 
People are migrating from villages seeking an improved quality of life, good education, healthcare, access to electricity, etc. As this migration poses several challenges, there is a need and opportunity to create smart villages, especially in Africa where majority of the population live in rural areas. This session explored how to bridge the rural urban divide (economic, technological and those related to facilities and services) and what can be done to ensure that Smart villages become the drivers of Africa’s digital transformation.

Developing Integrated Smart Water and Energy Solutions for Communities 
The demand for sustainable energy and clean water in Africa is unprecedented; the energy supply and distribution gaps have a direct and indirect cost to African economies and households. How can smart energy and water solutions systems effectively solve this problem? Dimensionsaddressed: - Leveraging smart renewable energy and water solutions - Financing affordable clean energy - Up-scaling community level solutions 

Published on 11 May 2017
Heads of State attending the Transform Africa Summit in Kigali deliberated on how Africa can use ICT to accelerate it's socio-economic transformation, deliver wealth and prosperity for its citizens. During the high-level panel discussion, Rwanda's president Paul Kagame called for political will and urgency to fast track Africa's Digital Transformation.

Related: 
30 May - 02 June 2017. IST Africa 2017 Hosted by the Government of Namibia through the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology, and Supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission, IST-Africa Week 2017 is the twelfth in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.

Sessions related to agriculture:
Session 9e: eAgriculture

• IoT at the Grassroots – Exploring the Use of Sensors for Livestock Monitoring, Ciira Maina, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya
• Jaguza Livestock APP, Ronald Katamba, AFROSOFT IT Solutions, Uganda
• The development of a mobile information system to assess the food security of rural communities in South Africa, Marita Turpin, University of Pretoria, South Africa
• Farmers’ Perceptions of ICTs and its Effects on Access and Use of Agricultural Input Information in Developing Countries: Case of Sikasso, Mali, Suama Hamunyela , Namibia University of Science and Technology , Namibia

Session 10e: eAgriculture and Environmental Sustainability

• "Virtuous Cycles" for Rural Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development, Johann (Rensie) Janse van Rensburg, CSIR, South Africa
• Demonstrating Smart Irrigation Control and Communications Systems for Rural Farms, Robert BASOMINGERA, Carnegie Mellon University Africa, Rwanda
• MCDA Criteria Elicitation For Dams In Conflicted Regions - Merowe Case Study, Mohamed Abdallah, Sudan university of science and technology, Sudan
• Leakage Detection in Tsumeb East Water Distribution Network Using EPANET and Support Vector Regression, Joseph Kemba, University of Namibia, Namibia
• Linking Climate Information to Livelihood Strategies through ICTs: the Role of Integrated Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, Michaelina Yohannis, University of Nairobi, Kenya