Pioneering Digital Solutions for Africa's COVID-19 Response
AfricaVsVirus was a 72-hour global hackathon hosted by the African Development Bank Group to develop innovative solutions for the coronavirus pandemic in Africa. This event brought together 25,000 participants from diverse backgrounds—coders, analysts, designers, and business strategists—to tackle predefined challenges and create prototypes addressing urgent needs.
The brief: Develop a large-scale collaboration platform in record time
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, WAAT was tasked with designing and developing a platform to manage participant registration, communication, and collaboration for the hackathon in less than three weeks. This included creating a robust digital infrastructure and an effective communication strategy to support the rapid-scale event.
Digital solutions: Out-of-the-box tools and scalable implementation
Outcome
The AfricaVsVirus Challenge became the second-largest online hackathon in history, with 3,000 ideas generated by 25,000 participants from all 54 African countries. The event produced 750 viable solutions, providing critical insights and innovative approaches to the pandemic response. WAAT’s agile approach and quick execution enabled the entire platform to be delivered in just 2.5 weeks, meeting the client’s urgent needs and helping achieve significant impact.
What we did:
Comms strategy
Web Design
Web Development
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