Young Malian innovators harness technology to increase public safety in the country

 

• After an extended period of instability, Malian society has embarked on a process of national re-building aiming to ensure peace-building and social cohesion.  
• In this context, Motorola Solutions, a leading supplier of public safety communication solutions, partnered with Impact Hub Bamako to organize a competition dedicated to the development of innovative solutions in civil protection: the MotoSecure Hackathon Day.  

Bamako - June 21, 2017 – After years of conflict in Northern Mali, the country remains in an insecure state, experiencing a rise of humanitarian and development needs in affected areas. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), one Malian out of five needs humanitarian assistance[1]. With the urgent requirement to ensure fundamental public services such as healthcare and security, emerging initiatives that cultivate the young generation to innovative for public safety is more than relevant.
 
Mali, a young generation to address society’s safety needs
As Malians strive to advance stability, development and prosperity despite regular security challenges the MotoSecure Hackathon Day, organized by Motorola Solutions and Impact Hub Bamako, attracted young technology-savvy entrepreneurs. The potential of youth is characteristic of a Malian society that presents a high birth rate combined with 35 percent of youth unemployment and lack of economic opportunity. It is from this observation that Impact Hub Bamako was created. The association, part of a global network, just celebrated its first anniversary in April 2017 and is the perfect illustration of the resilience capacity of the young Malian generation. 

With a first objective to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, Impact Hub Bamako offers a co-working space and low cost with the final aim to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem leading to business projects. The association enables anybody to be part of the driving force of the digital growth in a country that needs innovations as a lever for social inclusion and its society’s well-being.
 
Mohamed Keita, co-founder of Impact Hub Bamako, explains ‘Impact Hub Bamako aims to build a community of young entrepreneurs in providing a unique ecosystem of resources and inspiration. The event organized with Motorola Solutions was a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and solutions to improve security nationwide.’
 
Creating factors of peace with Motorola Solutions
The MotoSecure Hackathon Day, organised in March 2017, is clearly embedded in this broader trend to find innovative ways to ensure Mali’s national re-building. As a leading supplier of public safety communications infrastructure, devices, software and services, Motorola Solutions specifically brought its expertise in the area of smart public safety solutions.

Safi Camara, one of the participants and a member of Women Tech Makers Mali, proposed a solution to improve the healthcare system in Mali. Observing that the poor management of medical records in hospitals often put patients’ health in jeopardy, she imagined the development of the mobile application ‘Medic+’ to enable doctors to follow patients more easily.  Another participant, Amadou Yarangore, chose to tackle the rise of insecurity in the society in using Motorola Solutions application program interfaces (APIs) to create a direct and secure information linkage between citizens and security agents.
 
Travis Heneveld, Director, United Nations and International Accounts at Motorola Solutions, ‘We are proud to have organized this event with Impact Hub Bamako with whom we share the same ambition to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem as part of local, national and regional plans to build safer cities in Africa. We strongly believe that Motorola Solutions’ solutions can contribute to a safer society in Mali.’

Motorola Solutions offers a wide range of mission-critical communications solutions in the African market including infrastructure, devices, software and services in various countries and for various industries including governments and parastatals. Motorola Solutions is conscious of Africa’s significant economic potential in the digital economy, and the company is also committed to answering the continent’s development needs. Building on its 40 years of experience across Africa, recent Motorola Solutions initiatives include a 2015 partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to release research findings on the use of mobile technologies to foster human development. Motorola Solutions is also engaged in Rule of Law infrastructure development projects, including a 2014 project with the Somalia Police Force to provide safe communication solutions to local police.
 
About Impact Hub Bamako
Located at the heart of Bamako Business District ACI 2000, Impact Hub Bamako is the first Impact Hub in Francophone Africa. We belong to the global network Impact Hub, leader in community building spaces with more than 80 Hubs on 5 continents with more than 11,000 active members. Our mission is to tackle the pressing issue of youth unemployment in Bamako by inspiring the next generation of Malian leaders, fostering a disruptive entrepreneurship ecosystem, hosting exciting events, offering relevant educational programs and accelerating and incubating the most promising startups and SMEs.
 
About Motorola Solutions
Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) creates innovative, mission-critical communication solutions and services that help public safety and commercial customers build safer cities and thriving communities. For ongoing news, visit www.motorolasolutions.com/newsroom  .