When - Wednesday, 19 August 2020
WSA - Global. Digital. Purpose Driven.
14:00–15:00 CEST (UTC+02:00), Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Digital solutions are one of the most promising to tackle global gaps - be it in terms of health, education or inclusion and empowerment.
The global pandemic showed that digitalization is a key driver for global development and that digital innovations help to make our societies smarter, healthier.
WSA invited young digital entrepreneurs from all around the world, to share how their solutions contributed during the Covid-19 crises and support the achievement of the UN SDGs.
They will share their personal and regional perspective
PANELISTS
Dorothy GordonChair, Information For All Programme, UNESCO Ghana
Dorothy K. Gordon is a specialist in technology for development. She has over two decades of leadership in diverse projects and programmes to support Africa's move from technology consumption to creating technology designed to meet the continents needs. She provides consulting and advisory services to government, private sector, and civil society. The focus of her work from capacity development; digital inclusion projects; innovation (including support to technology start-ups, digital content creation, copyright and intellectual property); gender and IT, and cyber-security. Her work as a specialist in international development spans over 30 years with increasing leadership and management responsibilities. Her extensive experience within the United Nations is complemented by work in the private sector and with civil society organisations globally. She served as the founding Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT from 2003-2016 and currently serves as an Associate Fellow with Chatham House. She is actively involved at Board and advisory level in a number of global organisations working on defining our digital future. These include the World Summit Awards, Creative Commons, Global Commission on Internet Governance etc. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Cyber Policy as well as the International Journal of Gender Science and Technology. The present direction of her work relates to how best ICT can be ‘owned’ by developing countries. Capacity-building must set a sound foundation for innovation and cutting-edge research both to improve overall competitiveness as well as identify solutions for survival. She holds degrees from the University of Ghana and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of the University of Sussex, UK.
Prof. Dr. Peter A. Bruck Chairman WSAModerator
Prof. DDr. Peter A. Bruck studied law, economics, sociology and communications at the universities of Vienna, Iowa and McGill. He holds doctorates in law and communications and has taught at universities in Canada, the US and Western Europe plus Israel and Poland. He has more than 25 years experience in research, university teaching and information technologies in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Portugal, the US and Canada. Mr. Bruck received numerous awards and fellowships in Europe, the US and Canada and is listed in the Canadian and Austrian Who's Who. He founded, built and headed research institutes at three universities, and he is a senior partner of the ICRA (International Communications Research Associates) in Ottawa, Canada. Prof. Bruck is the founder and honorary chairman of the WSA as well as the CEO and Chief researcher of the Research Studios Austria.
Saba KhalidCEO Raaji, Pakistan
Saba Khalid is an award-winning social entrepreneur, public speaker, activist and journalist from Karachi, Pakistan. She is the founder and CEO of Aurat Raaj, a women empowerment, education and entertainment platform. She is behind its key product “RAAJI”, an AI-powered chatbot that educates girls on taboo health, safety and hygiene topics such as menstruation, pregnancy, STDs and sexual consent. Raaji was selected as part of the MIT Solver 2019 class and won the Vodafone Innovation for Women Prize. Raaji has also won the Ilm Ideas Education Prize, Unicef Innovation Challenge, UNESCO girl’s education grant and the Pollination Project Seed Prize, World Summit Award. She Loves Tech Pakistan and Social Media for Empowerment Award. Raaji has been a finalist for Index Awards and Equals in Tech in 2019. Khalid’s film RAAJI has been showcased at the BAFTA in UK. She is an alumni and fellow of IVLP, The DO School, IFA CCP Program and Cultural Vistas Tech Camp. She has been a closing speaker at the World Summit of Arts and Culture 2019, and at the Tech BBQ 2019
Patrick HabibCo-Founder Kognikit, Lebanon
Patrick is a software engineer engaged in using his tech skills for education. He is working with Lebanese Alternative Learning, an educational NGO, on the creation of e-learning material and the development of digital offline solutions. Patrick is also a research-assistant in AI and Machine Learning at the Saint-Joseph University in Lebanon, he is working on improving the accuracy of asset detection for self-driving cars. A WSA winner of 2018 with his project DrosBox, a pocket-sized server that aims to give Organisations and Educational Institutions the necessary tools to create, curate, and deliver content anywhere, anytime. It provides vulnerable communities with quality education.
Patrick hopes to influence future generations to use knowledge for the betterment of the world.
Kingsley Iweka Founder
Africa on the Rise, Nigeria
Kingsley Iweka is the author of fiction novella DAPPLED THINGS and the Founder of Africa-OnTheRise.com and Winner of the 2016 World Summit Youth Awards for Digital Innovation. He is a creative writer and communications consultant based in Lagos. He also volunteers as a Grant Advisor with the Pollination Project in the United States, an organization dedicated to making daily seed grants of $1,000 to development projects across the world. His platform Africa-OnTheRise won the African Bloggers Awards for Top Blog in Africa, as well as Best Social Issues and Active Citizenship Blog.
Tori SamplesCo-Founder and CTOLeaf Global Fintech, USA
Tori Samples is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Leaf Global Fintech, a virtual bank for refugees escaping conflict. Leaf enables refugees and migrants to safely store and transport their assets across borders through a mobile platform using distributed ledger technology. Previously a Data Architect at HCA Healthcare (the leading for-profit provider of healthcare in the US), Tori spent six years designing and developing on some of the largest datasets in the world. She holds a patent pending in claims-based longitudinal care summaries through Health Information Exchange. She has also worked in HIV/AIDS clinics in Tanzania and on the executive team of a 650-bed hospital in the US. She previously served on the board of Leadership Health Care and now sits on the board of the Nashville Social Enterprise Alliance. Tori has personally worked with resettled refugees in the US for fifteen years. She is passionate about empowering overlooked and stereotyped populations by recognizing the inherent dignity in every individual. She has an undergraduate degree in Harp Performance and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
George Ulmann COO
MedShr, UK
George currently works as COO and Partnerships Director at MedShr. Now with over 1,000,000 members, MedShr is a private professional network for doctors to share knowledge and improve healthcare. Developed by doctors for doctors, MedShr helps doctors to discuss cases with colleagues in their specialty as part of a global professional network. Prior to MedShr, George was a strategy consultant at Monitor Deloitte, where he primarily worked in healthcare and life sciences.