Capacity Building Workshop Design Thinking & Storytelling as part of the TAP
17 participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo, Tunisia and South Africa gained knowledge on how to incorporate the concepts of "design thinking" and "storytelling" into their daily work during a workshop at the HSWT International School on the Triesdorf campus from 12 to 16 June 2023.
Design Thinking
The participants come from various universities, government institutions, NGOs and SMEs in the partner countries. Even before their arrival in Triesdorf, they all worked on presenting the challenges that are relevant to the community in their home countries. In preparation for the workshop, participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo and Tunisia took part in an online design thinking workshop on 16 March 2023. On the first day of the live workshop, they each chose one of the five groups to design solutions for the challenges presented. During the 5-day workshop, the groups worked on developing solutions to the challenges relevant to their countries and communities and learnt how to use the Design Thinking method in their work with different target groups.
Storytelling
Also before the workshop in Triesdorf, storytelling trainer Yannis Angelis had already worked online with 7 participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo and Tunisia on the use of storytelling in their everyday work. eLearning content for the training of trainers was created and made available to the participants in November 2022. This activity supports the creation of digital materials and exchange with partner universities in Africa.
Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) and discussions on further cooperation
On the first day of the workshop, Ms Melanie Schulte from BayFOR presented the possibilities for future research and innovation cooperation. She informed the participants how BayFOR supports partnerships between African and Bavarian institutions. On the last day of the workshop, the participants themselves had the opportunity to present their own projects and topics in order to discuss further future cooperation. This included presentations and discussions on various research and development projects ranging from basic agricultural production and processing to the use of business incubators and simulations to develop and test entrepreneurial ideas. The workshop was organised as part of the Technology and Application Pact (TAP) funded by GIZ and financed by BMZ. Another participant from South Africa was sponsored by the African-Bavarian Alliance for Applied Life Sciences of the Bavarian State Chancellery.
