In 28 years, African cities are projected to be home to 950 million people and by the end of this century, 2100, Africa is projected to be the only continent with a growing population. This is according to the Africa Development Bank. Against this backdrop of a rapidly urbanising space, it is crucial we understand how our cities are developing and whom they serve.

To answer these questions, we brought together two celebrities - Georgie Ndirangu and Just Ivy Africa to test their knowledge against an expert - data scientist and 2021 Mawazo Learning Exchange Fellow, Mutono Nyamai whose work focuses on combining applied epidemiological modelling and data analytics to develop prevention and control strategies for infectious diseases in Africa. Additionally, Mutono is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA) at the University of Nairobi where she studies the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases.  

In front of a live audience, we asked our celebrities questions about our home town - Nairobi, how African cities are tackling climate change and the built environment of cities on the continent.

Further Reading:

• This Is What Informal Transit Looks Like When You Actually Map It - Bloomberg
• Land use management challenges for the city of Nairobi
• About EDGE green building certification system
• Growing plants on buildings can reduce heat and produce healthy food in African cities
• Kenya Power to spend $331,000 in pilot transition to electric vehicles
• Kenya Power should rethink strategy on electric vehicles
• Cementing material from rice husk-broken bricks-spent bleaching earth-dried calcium carbide residue
• Kenyan recycles plastic waste into bricks stronger than concrete
• Development of banana fibers and wood bottom ash modified cement mortars
• The history of Akon City
• Akon to build new city in Senegal with own currency called AKoin
• The 3 trends shaping the future of Africa’s cities

Mawazo builds platforms to help scientists communicate on the issues of our time. To unpack what the climate change looks like for the African continent we hosted a live quiz night that put local celebrities to the test against experts. With three rounds of trivia questions and only one winner, our quiz night, 'It's Getting Hot in Here' featured marine scientist Dr. Fiona Moejes (Mawazo CEO) and media personalities, Wanjira Longauer and Georgie Ndirangu.

We'd love to see you at the next Quiz Night on Tuesday Nov 1st! This time we're talking about the future of African cities. RSVP on Eventbrite: bit.ly/3gEk3F3 or catch the Livestream on our YouTube page. 

The research to commercialisation pipeline is plagued with a lot of unknowns and many researchers don’t know where to start when thinking about how to attract funding for their ideas. In this episode, we replay a taped discussion with industry professionals, where we demystify the commercialisation pipeline for researchers. We also talk about gender and the investment landscape. 

The discussion features: Kim-Andrée Potvin - partner at Bamboo Capital Partners and Board Chair of the Mawazo Institute; Carol Masila-Maiko - international lawyer and legal associate at Persistent Energy; Faith Wilson - a venture builder at Persistent Energy and Prof. Maina Mwangi-Director of Innovation Incubation and University Industry Linkages at Kenyatta University.

1. Research to Commercialisation (R2C) Accelerator; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
2. Directorate of Innovation, Incubation & University Industry Linkages (IIUIL); Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
3. Persistent Energy; Twitter, LinkedIn
4. Bamboo Capital Partners; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
5. Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA); Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
6. Young Entrepreneurs in Science (YES); LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
7. BasiGo