On September 30^th, as part of the Accelerator Lab’s event to celebrate its Entrepreneurship Contest, organized alongside the Rádio Jovem of Guinea-Bissau, a round table on the topic “UNDP’s Digital Strategy and a pathway to Bissau-Guinean innovation: how digital can be an ecosystem enabler” gathered representatives from UNDP Guinea-Bissau, UNDP’s Chief Digital Office, Djassi Africa, World Bank, and Innovalab. 

The discussions, moderated by UNDP Guinea-Bissau’s Digital Transformation Focal Point, Maria Julia Torres, highlighted the importance of the adoption of digital in the socio-economic development of countries, particularly in Guinea-Bissau, while also pointing out the role entrepreneurs and startups can and should play a role in the creation of digital foundations, acting as drivers and enablers as well. 

Daniel Nogueira-Budny and António Baptista, from the World Bank, touched upon the Bank’s Digital Economy Assessment as well as on the importance of regulations and an incentives framework. To Rudolphe Cabral and Fernando Cabral, from Djassi Africa, there is a need to break the existing “silos”, highlighting the importance of infrastructure and of digital literacy. 

Ransford Mensah, from UNDP’s Chief Digital Office, talked about the importance of digital transformation to UNDP’s work as well as of a whole-of-society approach to digital. From the local perspective, Adulai Bary, from Innovalab, and Victor Pereira, the Accelerator Lab’s Head of Exploration, focused on how digital can improve public service delivery and on the relevance of digital solutions for the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in the country. 

The round table, as well as the event, are available on UNDP Guinea-Bissau’s Facebook page here.