Capacity Development Using Virtual Hackathons for Sustainable African Agriculture

Abstract:

Capacity building can be described as a process of sharing knowledge, planning and arranging training in general and introduction to and use of technologies. This is true for both developed and developing countries. Particular challenges, such as access to new technology, infrastructure, languages etc, have to be overcome to reduce the so-called digital divide in developing countries. The Kampala INSPIRE hackathon, an all virtual event in the period March to May 2020, is a good example of capacity building related to the field of agriculture and usage of Earth observations, science, models, and infrastructure.

Hackathons provide an excellent opportunity for bringing together people from different disciplinary backgrounds to form teams around a problem or an idea, and collaboratively solve the problem or develop ideas. The outputs generally take shape in the form of websites, webinars, applications, tools, policy papers, or processes. Traditionally hackathons are organized as on-site events with different groups working on different challenges that are judged on diverse pre-agreed criteria.

As all INSPIRE hackathons, the Kampala INSPIRE hackathon was planned to consist of both a virtual stage and a conclusive on-site stage including a session with presentations of results and an awards ceremony. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kampala INSPIRE hackathon was organized as an all-virtual event.

In this presentation the advantages and challenges of an all-virtual INSPIRE hackathon will be detailed, both the practical elements, inclusiveness, and effectiveness of the capacity building.

The goal of the Kampala INSPIRE hackathon was to build on and strengthen the relationships between several EU projects and African communities, an activity that began in 2019 with the Nairobi INSPIRE hackathon. The lessons learnt from this experience will be included in future INSPIRE hackathons continuing to support capacity building not only in developing but also developed countries.