He was speaking during the opening of the 2019 Innovation Week under theme “Scaling and Sustaining Innovations for Human Development”.
Mr McGinty said HDIF has learnt a lot from running the largest innovation programme in Tanzania, supported by almost £40 million from UKAid to innovative ideas to pilot and scale in Education, Health and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash).
“HDIF is very excited to keep supporting innovation in Tanzania and sharing its recommendations through its five-year report which will give all players in innovation some insights as they invest in, design or implementing projects.”
The report titled ‘Investing in Social Innovation and Technology in Tanzania’, which looks back at the growth of the Innovation Ecosystem over the past five years that HDIF has been running, was launched yesterday.
He said HDIF had been working closely with the government through Costech and other partners to ensure that innovations that have been funded are scaled up and sustained for the development of the country.
Costech director general Amos Nungu said the HDIF awards would be spent on funding 30 projects.
Fifteen of them are dedicated to grassroots innovations and the rest are for supporting the growth of innovation hubs.
The deputy minister for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Mr William ole Nasha, said the government had given priority to innovations.
He said the Second Five-Year Development Plan stresses on industrialisation as a catalyst to achieving the middle-income economy.
He also hinted that apart from supporting innovators, the government was at an advanced stage in preparing the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy to take innovation to the next level.
