Centre of Digital Excellence
Centre of Digital Excellence
Overview
The Centre of Digital Excellence (C0DE) at Genesis supports African governments, their development partners and private firms to harness technology to achieve their development objectives. We advise our partners on how to build sustainable ecosystems that enable transformative tech applications – covering the full spectrum of elements that must be in place.
Our digital economy consulting services include strategy formulation (identifying the right opportunities and how these will achieve the desired outcomes), governance and leadership (co-ordination between government departments, private sector and donors), digital infrastructure requirements (broadband connectivity, data storage and processing and device usage), policy and regulatory reforms (innovation policies, data sharing and protection, sector regulation), human capital development (capacity building of government staff, digital skills development for the economy) and innovative business (supporting private sector innovation, selecting the tech providers .).
We have a dedicated R&D function to design and develop a G:Connect Digital Toolkit to help our clients do their business better. This includes digital applications such as mobile data collection, data analytics and visualisation, chatbots and digital behaviour change tools. Our toolkit is designed to help our clients connect with population groups of interest and make sense of complex datasets to inform their decision-making.
SADA PLAN TO CREATE 500,000 NEW JOBS IN 10 YEARS
South Africa in the Digital Age (SADA) is an urgent, multi-sectoral, economic strategy development process to charter South African pathways for inclusive growth in the digital age. The process is a joint venture between the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), Genesis Analytics and the Pathways for Prosperity Commission. Read more
Areas of Expertise
Digital economy
Our digital economy team at Genesis focuses on technology innovation and the opportunities it provides for improving the development potential of African nations. Our work is focused on supporting African governments, their development partners and private firms in forging new tech-enabled pathways to inclusive growth:
G:Connect Digital Toolkit
The G:Connect Digital Toolkit is a suite of tools that the C0DE Team has at its disposal to support the research and analysis for our clients. These tools are used to support the gathering, analysing and visualising of data to unlock value for our clients. The C0DE co-creates the intervention using design-thinking methodology to understand our clients' needs, define the problem statement, and brainstorm solutions.
Projects
Genesis supports Uganda with strategy to capitalise on 4IR to drive growth
Genesis is providing technical support to Uganda's Presidential Taskforce on the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) to formulate a national 4IR strategy to guide the country on areas where 4IR technology can be domesticated to achieve development objectives.
Genesis looks for drivers of innovation ecosystem in SADC region
Genesis was contracted by FinMark Trust and the Insights 2 Impact (i2i) Facility to conduct an innovation scoping study for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to identify the drivers of innovation ecosystem development and opportunities to enhance the innovation ecosystem in the SADC.
First comprehensive mapping of South African fintechs for national treasury
To enable the growth of the fintech sector while minimising risk and protecting consumers, the National Treasury, in partnership with The World Bank Group, commissioned Genesis to conduct the first full market diagnostic and sizing of the local fintech sector.
Setting the baseline study for global digital development
Description Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), an independent organisation established to engage and resolve barriers associated with integrating digital development and data in developing and emerging nations, engaged Genesis to undertake a global baseline study.
Balancing innovation with regulation to grow SA financial services
Genesis partnered with the Centre of Excellence in Financial Services to understand which policy and regulatory approaches best suit the South African financial sector in managing the balancing act of preserving the country's sound financial system, while enabling fintech innovation that promotes improved access to finance and growth in the sector.
Rockefeller looks to new digital skills for Africa's youth
Genesis was awarded a two-year grant by The Rockefeller Foundation to serve as monitoring and evaluation (M&E) partner to their Digital Jobs Africa (DJA) initiative, which was set up in response to the challenge of widespread youth unemployment in Africa.
Related Focus Areas
Agriculture and agribusiness
Africa’s agricultural sector is critical to sustainable economic development. It supports economic opportunities in rural communities, the alleviation of poverty and plays an essential role in food security. Genesis works across the public-private interface for governments, donors, philanthropic and private sector clients.
Unlocking the sector’s potential requires a combination of political will, enabling regulatory frameworks, improved access to finance, skills investment and climate change adaptation. An understanding of these interlocking factors underpins our approach to programme design and implementation.
Applied behavioural economics
Behavioural economics is a powerful field that combines economics and psychology to influence behaviour and improve decision-making for the better through low-cost, high-impact, easy-to-implement interventions. Genesis Analytics created the first team of consultants in Africa in 2014 to use a scientific understanding of human behaviour to solve practical problems in the world of business.
Communications and broadcasting
We work with governments and regulators to cut through the complexities of digital markets and ensure that digital policy and regulation are fit for purpose, striking the optimal balance between intervention and innovation. Our work includes all aspects of governance and economic regulation including competition, digital rights, data protection and privacy, consumer protection, e-commerce, economic structure and digital trade.
Competition and regulatory economics
As the leading provider of competition and regulatory economics services in Africa, Genesis has an unmatched breadth and depth of skills and experience. Blue-chip companies, regulators and competition authorities across Africa routinely rely on us for expert economics advice and input.
We have worked on most major competition and regulatory matters in South Africa and we have been involved in key matters across multiple other African countries including Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Digital financial services
At Genesis we provide digital strategy support and advice to our clients looking to embark on a transformation journey, enter new markets with a digital proposition, or optimise their existing strategy through better use of digital analytics.
We have a broad understanding of fintech innovation and keep abreast of developments across the financial service core competencies. These include payments, lending, deposit taking, investments, and wealth management and capital markets.
We have advised a number of financial institutions on their digital transformation journeys and have contributed to how policymakers can support and enable innovation that promotes improved access to finance while protecting consumers and ensuring the stability of the financial services sector.
Economic opportunity
Expanding access to economic opportunity is essential for improving lives and livelihoods, generating jobs and creating wealth. The private sector plays a leading role in delivering economic growth and is increasingly expected to do so in a way that is inclusive and sustainable.
There are a number of ways in which businesses, foundations, governments and development organisations work to support private sector development. These include developing inclusive market systems; supporting the creation of quality jobs; developing value chains and access to markets for businesses; development of the financial sector and supporting access to finance; MSME development; capital markets development; and overall business enabling environment.
Health
We work with our clients to develop solutions aimed at improving the health of populations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our region faces the challenges of the quadruple burden of disease, which includes both communicable and non-communicable diseases, as well as violence and injury.
Coupled with this are relatively weak health systems, heavy reliance on donor funding and inequitable public and private sectors. Within this context, we provide experts with decades of experience in the design, implementation, costing and evaluation of health programmes, and strengthening of sustainable health systems.
Shared value and impact
A revolution is taking place in business. In the Shared Value and Impact practice our purpose is to reshape capitalism to serve the world. We put flourishing societies and ecosystems at the centre of the economy, not as afterthoughts.
We regard the company as the most powerful economic engine ever invented - and when companies start to think beyond narrow shareholder value to the creation of impact, they can also become potent drivers of development, social progress, inclusion and sustainability.