The two-day Conference, which would be on the theme: “Next Level” would also discuss issues, including how to improve the conditions for sustainable management and disposal of electronic waste in Ghana.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the Conference would bring together about 1000 national and international participants to deliberate on issues relating to digital activism, health, journalism, art, business, data, access, future technologies and women in technology.

This is the first time the event is being held on the continent.

It would host a panel discussion on the topic: “Agbogbloshie – Discovering Value of E-waste through Innovation”, where a distinct group of stakeholders with years of experience in Agbogbloshie and backgrounds such as Innovation, Urban Mining and Anthropology would discuss e-waste as a resource.

This would focus on the future scenarios that promote digital solutions with social added value and the role of the Old Fadama scrap yard as a place of resource-mining. The statement explained that, there would be dedicated spaces to explore issues around health innovation, content creation, maker technologies and digital rights issues.

There would be more than 100 sessions and speakers from about 22 African countries including more than 80 from Ghana. The Environmentally Sound Disposal and Recycling of E-Waste (E-Waste Programme) is being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI).

“The panellists would give valuable impulses about how we can turn the challenges related to recycling activities in the informal sector into potentials for social development and innovation,” the statement said.

“Furthermore, several e-waste related contributions would be presented by other partners of the E-Waste Programme”. The sessions by partners of the E-Waste Programme would include an entire bar and lounge created from e-waste, as well as an e-waste collection container that would function throughout the entire event.

 Speaking about the conference, Dr. Gerd Müller, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) said, “We don’t want to talk about Africa, but have a dialogue with Africa. That’s why representatives from the digital community in Western Africa and Germany would come together at the re: publica Accra – to discuss and network with each other.

 The statement said this would help “all to learn from each other – in both directions! Digitalization enables big steps in development; progress we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago.

“We have to bridge the digital gap between rich and poor and between the continents. Bringing the re: publica to Africa marks an important step in this direction“.Andreas Gebhard, co-founder and CEO of re: publica GmbH said, “The re: publica is an event for digital society. It’s global and thus international! But I say that without wishing to ignore regional differences.

 “How can we work together to shape and design the digital society when regional differences create very different framework conditions for it? Whether in Berlin, Los Angeles or Accra, re:publica creates space for dialogue and exchange between equals. I’m very pleased that we can now create these spaces on three continents”.