#cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL 2021
Mon Sep 20, 09:00 - Thu Sep 23, 16:00
The Old Biscuit Mill
ABOUT
An initiative of the Mission Network of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa, the #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL celebrates and examines the power of design to tackle current socio-economic and environmental challenges within an African context.
The festival is organised in collaboration with the Craft and Design Institute (CDI) and draws on a range of subject experts who have provided guidance and input into form and content.
The programme for this year’s festival has been developed through five conversations we have facilitated in a monthly Creative Exchange held each month since March 2021. These conversations have served to start the conversation and exploration of very complex issues and have thrown up more focused discussions that we need to have at the festival. The Creative Exchanges have acted as a bridge to the #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL 2021 and means that we will be able to explore our thematic areas in more detail over the four days.
*Please note that tickets to attend in person are limited, with strict COVID-19 protocols observed.
FESTIVAL DATES:
In its fourth iteration, #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL will take place from 20-23 September 2021. The festival will take participants on a deep dive into four thematic areas that we have identified as the major fault lines in South Africa – brutally exposed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mitigating measures – in order to stimulate ideas and action that result in inclusion and change in our world.
HEAR FROM ERICA ELK, GROUP CEO OF THE CDI + SEBASTIAAN MESSERSCHMIDT, CONSUL GENERAL AT THE NETHERLANDS CONSULATE GENERAL IN CAPE TOWN
OUR EXPERT PANEL SPEAKERS AND FACILITATORS
WHY?
The last festival was in February 2020, just as the COVID-19 crisis was unfolding. Pre-pandemic, we spoke of a “context of a global climate emergency, rising nationalism and the deepening divide between rich and poor alongside South Africa’s own emergencies of a stagnant economy, youth unemployment and rampant corruption”.
And, while it’s not our focus, this year’s festival has to consider the impact and implications of the pandemic.
Covid has further exposed the fault lines of SA for all to see, and made hugely visible the inadequacies and inefficiencies in our food, health and sanitation systems, and how these are further impacted by the state of our economy and high levels of unemployment.
Last year we focused on digital inclusion as a cross-cutting priority. This year, through this lens of digital inclusion, we grapple with the lessons we have learnt over the last 18 months and the ways in which technology can be used to create or enhance access to a resilient economy, healthcare, food security and safe water and sanitation.
We need to act in very meaningful ways to address these issues. But we are also drowning in opinions masquerading as facts; not to mention the politics.
So, we pursue these issues not to dwell on them but to shine a light on them so as to understand why they exist in the first instance – in the desire to stimulate new thinking and fresh ideas from the many thinkers and doers who relentlessly seek solutions to poverty, hunger and inequality in our world.
The #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL 2021 aims firstly to create a conscious space that gathers together a diverse range of people, who may not often or easily come together, to have the difficult and uncomfortable conversations about pressing local and global issues. Secondly, it aims to support innovators and entrepreneurs into actioning their solutions to these issues.
The point of the sessions and the festival is to expose the broader ‘design and innovation’ community to thought-leaders, innovators and inspiring makers and doers …to inspire and catalyse more thought and solutions…and build a ‘community of practice’ in the process.
HOW?
The #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL 2021 will provide us with a platform to create awareness of and showcase the application of innovation and design-led approaches in various contexts that connects stakeholders, builds collaboration and solution seeking efforts and in so doing supports inclusive digital development. This annual happening will be a stimulus that unlocks hope and inspiration; bolsters purpose; fuels action; and ignites change while building community, collaboration and partnerships – opening possibilities beyond the event itself.
The thematic strands of the programme are styled around a few big questions or hypotheses which are aimed at stimulating conversation and debates. The ‘unconference’ style of the festival will this year take the form of a hybrid event – with small physical gatherings and site visits, online conversations, and facilitated design thinking sprints aimed at supporting innovators to start to bed down their ideas.
This year we will also be launching the RE:SOLVE Design Innovation Challenge – an eight-month design thinking process programme driven by the CDI, with funding from the City of Cape Town, aimed at turning good ideas into reality.
FOR WHO?
It is in this spirit that we invite private sector businesses, communities, designers, thinkers, do-ers, visionaries and policy makers to the third edition of this collaborative public design festival. #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL 2021 will spotlight the ordinary everyday activities, host the necessary conversations and provide skills and information to build stronger and smarter communities that are able to participate in enabling digital inclusion and drive the action needed to facilitate access.
THE PROGRAMME:
With the broad theme: “Designing a brave post Covid world”, the underpinning question of the #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL is “how might we design solutions for increased inclusivity and access?”
The programme is structured against four key topic pillars. Particular focus is on inclusive digital innovation and creative solutions to address what COVID-19 has left even more vulnerable. We are inviting subject experts to talk on a range of topics under the following pillars:
- Our economy is in trouble and we need to prioritise public and private sector investment in new and existing sectors that have opportunities for job creating growth. In this context, how do we focus on the future – what is our post Covid world likely to look like and where do new opportunities lie? If SMMEs are a major factor in our resilient economy, how do we really support micro and small businesses from the ground up; the self-employed, family businesses, micro businesses transition from informal to sustainable? And when all is said and done, what is the role of the public sector as an enabler and building the confidence of the private sector to invest in job creating growth.
- The pandemic has exposed how vital our healthcare system is in supporting a healthy and productive nation. What lessons have we learnt during Covid that we can use to build a robust and equitable healthcare system? How can healthtech advance equal access to specialist and emergency services? How would investment in R&D build homegrown resilience on the continent? And most importantly, how do we build a healthy nation in the first instance?
- Our food system is broken for millions of South Africans who struggle to access, on a daily basis, affordable, nutritious and good quality food – yet vast quantities of food are wasted each day. How do we solve the food waste problem, at source? Can urban food production reduce hunger and how do we support better nutrition and health. And the big question: who is actually responsible for making sure our food system works?
- Our water and sanitation system is under huge pressure with the pandemic highlighting how important access is to reducing the spread of the virus and keeping people healthy. In South Africa we face a double whammy of increasing demand for water with reducing supply. We need to find creative solutions now, before we run out of this precious resource.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare so many of our challenges as a country. If we can start with understanding and processing, we can find new ways of designing solutions together that will lead to better access and real change.” - Erica Elk, CEO of CDI
“We aim to explore these pressing challenges experienced by South Africans, but also, and importantly, showcase the application of innovation and design-led approaches to serve as inspiration. This we hope will spark many more new ideas. Connecting it all is design; we want to stimulate the design of better systems, products and services.” - Sebastiaan Messerschmidt, Consul General at the Netherlands Consulate General in Cape Town
The #cocreateDESIGN FESTIVAL will take place online with only small in-person gatherings (places are limited). Please register and save the dates - more event details and speaker information to follow soon.
https://twitter.com/cocreatesanl
MEET OUR MC
More on the CDI and #COCREATESANL
The Craft and Design Institute (CDI) is a non-profit company with over 20 years of success in developing creative people, small businesses and the craft and design sector at large in South Africa.
The Netherlands’ #cocreateSANL platform has for over eight years been bringing diverse people to the table to exchange ideas and innovations for a sustainable future.
All proceeds from ticket sales will go to non-profit organisations working to solve these challenges in SA.
Your privacy is important to us as the organizer of this event. If you would like to be removed from our database after this event, please email [email protected]. The NL Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ privacy statement can be read here.
About Cape Town as a UNESCO City of Design
Cape Town is the first African city to be designated a UNESCO City of Design. Cape Town achieved its UNESCO City of Design designation in 2017, and works closely with cities in the network to share ideas, challenges and successes related to the use of design in building sustainable and resilient cities.
DAY 1
Day One: Access to a resilient economy - Monday, 20 September 2021
10am – 12pm
On the couch
If SMMEs are a major factor in our resilient economy, how do we really support micro and small businesses from the ground up; the self-employed, family businesses, micro businesses transition from informal to sustainable? What is the role of the public sector as an enabler and building the confidence of the private sector to invest in job creating growth? Let’s ask the experts – join the discussion with a line-up of guest speakers who will tackle the issues.
What are the future growth sectors and where are the new opportunities is going to be explored by Dr Yacoob Abba Omar, from the Mapungubwe Institute of Strategic Reflection while S’onqoba Vuba, of the Presidential Commission on 4IR will be looking at the skills and jobs we will need for the future – and how we can start preparing now. If SMMEs are a major factor in growing our economy, we’ve asked Dr Fidelis Hove, Team Lead for the Jobs Fund at Treasury, to talk about how we really support them from the ground up, with needs and demand driven services. And strategist Jenny Cargill of Strategy Execution Advisors SA, will attempt to crack the nut of how government can play an enabling role that unlocks private sector investment in job-creating growth.
12pm – 1pm
Lunch
1pm – 2:30pm
In the field
Join us online or book to attend the tour on site, where we’ll meet people contributing to positive change in unique ways on the path to growing our country’s economy. We'll be touring Khaltsha Cycles, Khayelitsha's first bicycle shop founded by Juma Mkwela , Sindile Mavundla and Divinia Stevens. They sell quality affordable brand new / used bicycles, as well as spares, and accessories. They also offer cycling experience and lessons for beginners. Join us and discover how these South Africans are making a difference and creating a sustainable business.
3pm – 5pm
Around the table
Calling all entrepreneurs and innovators: Join a facilitated workshop on developing innovative solutions to some of the key challenges presented. We'll be offering ideation support for those with existing ideas and for those inspired by the day’s proceedings.
Human centred design helps us understand problems more comprehensively, gaining new insights, and identify new solutions using those insights.
Design thinking helps us be more creative by pushing beyond our pre-defined mental models and into new spaces, where we may have new ideas. In this facilitated workshop we will run you through exercises that will:
- Focus you on the problem more deeply, leveraging what you have learned
- Reframe the problem to improve the quality of questions you are asking (better questions lead to better answers)
- Force you to produce lots of possible solutions and narrow down options/clusters
Meet our facilitators for the workshop - click on the video to hear more on what you can look forward to:
DAY 2
Day Two: Access to healthcare - Tuesday, 21 September 2021
The pandemic has exposed how vital our healthcare system is in supporting a healthy and productive nation. What lessons have we learnt during Covid that we can use to build a robust and equitable healthcare system?
10am – 12pm
On the couch
The pandemic has taught us how vital our healthcare system is in supporting a healthy and productive nation. It’s also shown us how important investment in research and development is and how health tech could be a great equaliser. Gaurang Tanna, Head of Policy Co-ordination and Integrated Planning at the National Department of Health, will share insights on the lessons from Covid, while healthcare systems advocate Russell Rensburg will reflect on how our health problems start way before the health system and how we need to shift mindsets and build a healthy nation. Dr Simona Rocchi from Dutch giant Philips will be dialling in from the Netherlands to talk about the latest innovations in health tech and what we can expect from our healthcare providers in the future with Dr Michelle Mulder giving us the lowdown on exciting medical research programmes supported by the Medical Research Council.
10:10am - 10:20am
Bridging the divide in healthcare: the scene setter
The pandemic has exposed how vital our healthcare system is in supporting a healthy and productive nation. What lessons have we learnt during Covid that we can use to build a robust and equitable healthcare system and how do we repurpose those learnings? How do we design systems to help bridge the divide between private and public healthcare needs? Speaker: Gaurang Tanna, Head of Policy Co-ordination and Integrated Planning at the National Department of Health
10:30am – 10:45am
Innovating for Inclusive Healthcare
To ensure inclusive healthcare for all is a complex challenge that cannot be achieved by cutting-edge technology alone. It requires a systemic approach which embraces technological innovation, social transformation, and healthcare system optimization to achieve a desired healthcare outcome that is affordable and sustainable over time. Let’s dive into a few cases that illustrate this approach. Speaker: Simona Rocchi, Philips, The Netherlands
10:55am – 11:10am
Investing in R+D
Localising research and production within our healthcare systems would create the potential to build capacity and open doors to opportunities. Therefore, investments in research and development is key. Join us as we discuss how investment in R&D would build homegrown resilience on the continent. Speaker: Dr Michelle Mulder, South African Medical Research Council
11:20am – 11:35am
Building a healthy nation
As the country experienced wave after Covid wave during the pandemic, a light was shone on our frontline workers, our healthcare infrastructure and systems. About 80% of our most important critical challenges like poverty and inequality manifests within our healthcare system. What don’t we know, how can we, as South African citizens contribute to the solutions; and how can we design systems that will get us to where we want to be? Speaker: Russell Rensburg, Rural Health Advocacy Project
12pm – 1pm
Lunch
1pm – 2:30pm
In the field
Join us online or book to attend the tour on site, where we’ll meet people contributing to positive change in unique ways on the path to building a robust and equitable healthcare system.
Join us as we visit the Athlone Stadium vaccination site in Cape Town, one of the biggest vaccination sites in the Western Cape province, with walk-in and drive-through options for the public. At full capacity the site will administer over 4000 vaccines a day through both its walk-in and drive-through sections. We’ll find out more about the ramp-up of delivery to benefit residents and how this massive scale of delivery has been made possible.
3pm – 5pm
Around the table
Calling all entrepreneurs and innovators: Join a facilitated workshop on developing innovative solutions - ideation support for those with existing ideas and for those inspired by the day’s proceedings.
Human centred design helps us understand problems more comprehensively, gaining new insights, and identify new solutions using those insights.
Design thinking helps us be more creative by pushing beyond our pre-defined mental models and into new spaces, where we may have new ideas. In this facilitated workshop we will run you through exercises that will:
- Focus you on the problem more deeply, leveraging what you have learned
- Reframe the problem to improve the quality of questions you are asking (better questions lead to better answers)
- Force you to produce lots of possible solutions and narrow down options/clusters
Meet our facilitators for the workshop - click on the video to hear more on what you can look forward to:
DAY 3
Day Three: Access to food security - Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Our food system is broken for millions of South Africans who struggle to access, on a daily basis, affordable, nutritious and good quality food – yet vast quantities of food are wasted each day. How do we solve the food waste problem, at source?
10am – 12pm
On the couch
We focus on food on Wednesday 22nd September and ask the question: “Would a Department of Food solve our food security crisis?” Andrew Boraine, Western Cape Economic Development Partnership CEO, will engage with this provocation while agricultural economist, Lindie Stroebel, will paint the picture of our food value and supply chain and where and why it is broken. Karin Kleinbooi of Solidaridad SA will focus on urban food production as a solution to the reduction of hunger in local communities, and Petrina Pakoe will unpack the feeding schemes and the critical role they play for the health and development of the future in the present.
12pm – 1pm
Lunch
1pm – 2:30pm
In the field
Join us online or book to attend the tour on site, where we’ll meet people contributing to positive change in unique ways on the path to addressing our broken food system.
We’ll be touring the Cape Town Market in Epping, the biggest and oldest Fresh Produce Market for fruit and vegetables in the Western Cape. From farmer to wholesaler to stores, find out how the system works to get food to the people. Farmers are sourced from all over Southern Africa, deliver 24/7 in huge trucks onto the trading floor to their individual agents where the pallets are labelled, graded and priced. It is the only commissioned market in the Western Cape.
3pm – 5pm
Around the table
Calling all entrepreneurs and innovators: Join a facilitated workshop on developing innovative solutions. We'll be offering ideation support for those with existing ideas and for those inspired by the day’s proceedings.
Human centred design helps us understand problems more comprehensively, gaining new insights, and identify new solutions using those insights.
Design thinking helps us be more creative by pushing beyond our pre-defined mental models and into new spaces, where we may have new ideas. In this facilitated workshop we will run you through exercises that will:
- Focus you on the problem more deeply, leveraging what you have learned
- Reframe the problem to improve the quality of questions you are asking (better questions lead to better answers)
- Force you to produce lots of possible solutions and narrow down options/clusters
Meet our lead facilitator for the workshop - click on the video to hear more on what you can look forward to:
DAY 4
Day Four: Access to water and sanitation - 23 September 2021
Our water and sanitation system is under huge pressure with the pandemic highlighting how important access is to reducing the spread of the virus and keeping people healthy. In South Africa we face a double whammy of increasing demand for water with reducing supply. We need to find creative solutions now, before we run out of this precious resource.
10am – 12pm
On the couch
When water works is the title of the talk by Dr Kevin Winter who will focus on water and sanitation and the imperative for creative solutions to the wise use of this precious resource. A panel from the City of Cape Town’s Roads and Transport and Water and Sanitation Department will share how the system is leaking and where we need to plug the holes. And a few water and enviro-preneurs will share their innovations with us.
12pm – 1pm
Lunch
1pm – 2:30pm
In the field
Join us as we visit the Franschhoek Water Hub, an exciting new project that will inspire a new generation of leaders in water management in the context of rapid urbanisation and limited financial resources. While there are other similar projects around the globe, it will be the first of its kind to demonstrate state-of-the-art techniques and technologies suitable for the African context. Billed to be a centre of knowledge and learning, the Franschhoek Water Hub will connect multiple elements of the urban and regional water cycle and will explore new options for the treatment of contaminated water, including the use of natural systems and bioprocesses.
3pm – 5pm
Around the table
Calling all entrepreneurs and innovators: Join a facilitated workshop on developing innovative solutions. We'll be offering ideation support for those with existing ideas and for those inspired by the day’s proceedings.
Human centred design helps us understand problems more comprehensively, gaining new insights, and identify new solutions using those insights.
Design thinking helps us be more creative by pushing beyond our pre-defined mental models and into new spaces, where we may have new ideas. In this facilitated workshop we will run you through exercises that will:
- Focus you on the problem more deeply, leveraging what you have learned
- Reframe the problem to improve the quality of questions you are asking (better questions lead to better answers)
- Force you to produce lots of possible solutions and narrow down options/clusters.
Meet our facilitators for the workshop - click on the video to hear more on what you can look forward to:
MEET OUR PRESENTERS
Morning Sessions:
Site Tours:
MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Day One: Access to a resilient economy
Day Two: Access to healthcare
Day Three: Access to food security
Day Four: Access to water and sanitation
