Young Zimbabwean innovator to showcase digital solutions at UN Summit

Sifelani Tsiko

Innovations Editor

A young Zimbabwean digital start-up innovator has been chosen to be among 10 young leaders who will showcase their digital solutions at the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York next month.
The event will be held from September 22 to 23, 2024. Co-founder and chief technology officer of start-up Fixa, Tafara Makaza leads an engineering team building solutions to improve the lives of informal workers.

The app they developed aims to empower workers with digital career identities that they can use to access jobs, financial services and the formal economy.

To date, Fixa has digitised more than 5 000 workers, connecting them to 200 000 jobs.

In a report, the UN said it will feature 10 ways young people are harnessing digitalisation to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the sidelines of the main UN General Assembly dubbed the Summit of the Future.

“Taking place during the UN General Assembly high-level week, the Summit aims to forge a new global consensus to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” the UN said.

“Among the expected outcomes, member states will adopt a ‘Pact for the Future’, including a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations.”

Most countries across the world are working to get back on track, harnessing digitalisation and other innovations to support the attainment of the SDGs ahead of the 2030 deadline.

“Youth are the largest stakeholders in the SDGs. They have the most to gain from the world coming together to achieve the Goals – and the most to lose if we fall short,” the UN said.

“These young people were born in the digital age and have never experienced a world without the internet. As digital natives, it is no surprise they are leading the way on technology and innovation to achieve the Goals.”

Makaza is excited about his innovations.

“Wherever the biggest problems are, you have the biggest opportunities,” he said.

“I chose business as a way to create change because I always wanted to make an impact. And for me, the challenges that I wanted to tackle happened to be challenges that are aligned with SDGs.”