Partnership between UCLG Africa and 01Talent Africa: For the involvement of African local and regional authorities in speeding up the digital transformation process (PRESS RELEASE)
Rabat, Morocco, September 22nd, 2021
The socio-economic development of the continent will be local, or it will not be.
It will also be digital, or it will not be.
If this double conviction was still the prerogative of a few players 18 months ago, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world that local governments and the digital transition are now a necessary condition for development, cohesion, and social peace.
To permanently anchor African local governments and the continent as a whole in the digital world and reduce the digital divide that has widened over the years, the pan-African organization of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) and 01Talent Africa signed on May 30, 2021 an innovative and ambitious strategic cooperation and partnership agreement, based on both the power of digital education and the extraordinary potential of the talents of African youth.
The UCLG Africa – 01Talent partnership aims to train more than 500,000 talents on the continent free of charge and according to the best global standards over the next 10 years. It provides a clear response to Africa’s most precious resource, an ever-growing, creative, and dynamic youth and offers a promise of social and economic integration through the creation of 01Talent Africa / UCLG Africa collective intelligence zones: the Zones01.
The continent’s first Zone01 will be inaugurated in Praia in Cabo Verde in early 2022 and will host 300 young talents from Cabo Verde and 26 other African partner countries. These talents will be selected solely on the basis of their potential and motivation without any form of discrimination at entry. They will follow an innovative curriculum based on a “peer to peer” and gamified pedagogy that relies on 01Edu, the learning platform developed by Nicolas Sadirac and his team. Training in digital programming and coding professions will take place over 24 months. At the end of this period, the selected talents will be employed and paid by Zone01 Cabo Verde, in partnership with the leading companies of the local and international networks of 01 Talent.
Within the next 18 months, the UCLG Africa / 01Talent Africa partnership aims to set up the first 5 regional collective intelligence zones on the continent: North Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa, and Central Africa. The choice of their location will be made on a voluntary basis according to the “first come, first served” principle.
Statements
Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Government of Africa (UCLG Africa):
“Young people are Africa’s strength. They have to be its luck too. This has proven to be true in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also true for the conversion of institutions and organizations to digital that the pandemic has helped popularize. This conversion gives young people new employment opportunity and the space to exercise their creativity. The partnership between UCLG Africa and 01 Talent offers a unique chance to African local authorities to contribute to the training of young people in the digital field and to speed up their entry into digital culture as well as that of companies operating in their territories.”
Deror Sultan, CEO and cofounder of 01 Talent:
“Youth is a priority for Africa, its most precious human capital. People aged under 25 will represent more than half of the African population in 2050. By committing ourselves to this partnership with UCLG Africa, we wish to give them hope and release their creative potential so that they contribute to innovative and digital transformation of the African continent.”
For more information on the initiative, please contact:
UCLG Africa
Christophe Lumsden
Head of Strategy & Partnerships
clumsden@uclga.org
+212 661 082 281
01Talent Africa
David Sultan
Global COO
david@zone-01.com
+ 33 6 19 66 48 92
Press contact:
UCLG Africa
Gaelle Yomi
gyomi@uclga.org
+212 06 10 56 71 45
www.uclga.org
01Talent Africa
Adama Ba Gueye
adamabagueye@hotmail.com
+221 70 603 38 03
www.01-edu.org
About UCLG Africa
United Cities and Local Governments of Africa is the umbrella organization and the united voice ensuring the representation of local authorities from across the African continent. It was born from the merger of the three pre-existing associations of local governments: the African Union of Local Authorities (AULA), the Union of African Cities (UVA) and the African chapter of the Portuguese-speaking organization of local authorities, União das Cidades Capitais Luso-Afro-Américo-Asiáticas (UCCLA). The founding congress of the organization was held in May 2005 in the city of Tshwane, South Africa. UCLG Africa brings together 51 national associations of local authorities from all regions of Africa, as well as 2,000 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. UCLG Africa represents more than 500 million African citizens. Its headquarters are based in Rabat, capital of the Kingdom of Morocco, where it enjoys diplomatic status as a Pan-African International Organization. It also has regional offices on the continent. UCLG Africa’s vision is to build African unity and drive Africa’s development from the bottom up. www.uclga.org
About 01Talent Africa
01Talent Africa is the pan-African talent agency of the 01Talent International group which aims to identify, develop and connect to the professional world 1 million high-level developers in the world by 2035 thanks to the combination of a proven educational model in more than 40 countries and a sustainable and exponential economic model.
01Talent Africa is based on 01Edu, the ultimate upgrade of the “peer to peer” pedagogical approach (without a teacher) and gamified and developed by Nicolas Sadirac and his team, which is a learning platform intended to respond to the lack of growing number of IT developers.
This educational model which develops the entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and collective intelligence has already been deployed by our co-founder Nicolas Sadirac and his Alumni in more than 40 countries around the world, thus training more than 100,000 Talents in the last 10 years. www.01-edu.org