Helping fight Covid-19 across the Middle East and Africa together

As our region and the rest of the world responds to the outbreak, our thoughts are with the people affected and the medical professionals working around the clock to help those most in need. At Microsoft, we’re working to do our part by ensuring the safety of our employees. We’re striving to protect the health and well-being of the communities in which we operate. And we’re providing technology, solutions, tips, and resources to help people work and learn remotely while they stay safe and connected.

Human ingenuity and technology are forging a new way forward for the Middle East and Africa

The new decade has got off to a challenging start, pushing humanity to the limit. And amidst navigating this uncharted landscape, it is all the more vital that we remain committed to the region, and deliver tailored technology solutions to help our customers and communities.

06 January 2020; Kuwait City, Kuwait – Al Rayan schools and Microsoft are working together to ensure full continuity of education in Kuwait, as they team up to ensure the delivery of remote e-learning for more than 13,000 students from five schools.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 4 March 2021 Microsoft, through its Microsoft 4Afrika initiative, and the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) have signed a memorandum of understanding to support women

In a joint announcement with the Government of Nigeria, Microsoft has detailed several projects aimed at intensifying the nation’s move to become a more digital economy.

Microsoft is announcing a partnership with the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA) and Afrika Tikkun to extend the Global Skilling Initiative that was launched last year to provide at least 20 000 young people with critical digital skills.

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating – the Covid-19 pandemic offers Africa the chance to leapfrog development through digitisation

Agriculture’s role as a critical sector, driving growth and job creation in the South African economy has come back under the spotlight, particularly as the world marks Earth Day, and other industries continue to feel the effects of the uncertainty of the past year.

Nairobi, Kenya, 28 April 2021Microsoft East Africa, through the support of its 4Afrika initiative, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU)

13 March 2021; Dubai, United Arab Emirates – New revenues reaching around USD$27 billion will be generated in the UAE over the next four years by Microsoft, its partners and cloud-using customers.

8 March 2021 To mark International Women’s Day, women’s mentorship organisation Wentors, in collaboration with Microsoft, through its Microsoft 4Afrika initiative.

31 March, 2021; Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Microsoft today announced that a global digital-skilling initiative launched in partnership with LinkedIn has allowed more than a quarter million people in the United Arab Emirates to acquire digital skills during the COVID-19 crisis.

16 February, 2021; Muscat, Sultanate of Oman – Microsoft today announced that its Compliance Manager tool, part of Microsoft 365, will now empower Omani businesses to adhere to their legal obligations more easily while continuing to innovate at a time when remote working is inducing rapid changes across industries.

8 March – Microsoft and non-profit social enterprise, Tech4Dev have partnered on the Women Techsters Initiative to train girls and women across Africa in coding and deep tech skills, aiming to bridge the digital and technology divide and ensure equal access to opportunities across the continent.

Cairo, Egypt- 10 February 2021; Mantrac Group, the authorized dealer for CAT products in Egypt, has recently announced its ‘Virtual Work Place’ initiative to accelerate remote working.

KEO International Consultants, the region’s renowned creative enterprise of planning, design, engineering and project management, has partnered with Microsoft to reimagine its workplace by adopting its cloud and productivity solutions.

Our world has changed dramatically over the last couple of months and in an effort to keep the wheels turning, companies across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are switching to remote work. Microsoft is no different.

Four months in to Microsoft’s global skills initiative, the tech company has given training to more than 13 million people, partly by partnering with nonprofit organizations that are helping job seekers.

Microsoft South Africa announced the winners of the Safe@Home Hackathon to address gender-based violence in South Africa. The winners, Combat against GBV, developed a fit-for-purpose, technology-based solution designed to protect vulnerable women and children.

No-one could have predicted the catastrophic consequences COVID-19 would have across the world. South Africa’s wine sector acutely felt the impact with Wines of South Africa reporting the sector is running at a R7.5 billion loss.

Four months ago, Microsoft with LinkedIn announced its commitment to helping 25 million people around the globe, particularly those economically impacted by COVID-19, gain new digital skills before the end of March 2021.

In a move to enrich the smart learning ecosystem in Kuwait, the Ministry of Education of Kuwait join forces with Microsoft to empower over 400,000 educators and students with Office 365 and Teams across Kuwait.

For Africa, digital transformation will be an enabler of rapid development across the continent, positively impacting the most vulnerable communities. Public-private partnerships will play a critical role in accelerating transformation.

The impact of Covid-19 on Africa’s development can be either a massive barrier to advancement, or the spark that lights the fire of innovation and digital investment across the continent.

Microsoft, together with the 1000 Women Trust and TEARS Foundation, have launched the Safe@Home Hackathon to address gender-based violence in South Africa. The virtual hackathon invites South African developers to create solutions to help victims of gender-based violence.

Supported by Microsoft 4Afrika, CPGR, with Thasa Technologies, developed a Covid-19 testing solution suitable for rapid production and roll-out in South Africa and across the continent, enabled by Microsoft Azure.

COVID-19 has hit the youth hardest – according to the International Labor Organization more than one in six young people are no longer working. Even those still employed have lost around a quarter of working hours.

Microsoft has announced the expansion of its award-winning Surface device range into South Africa, with the introduction of the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 for both commercial and consumer customers.

Anticipating and mitigating for the impact of unforeseen global events on supply chain management is crucial if SMEs who are reliant on goods from an affected area are to survive.

Vodacom Business and Microsoft South Africa have partnered to provide access to continuous, connected digital learning for South Africa’s education institutions, educators and learners through their Connected Digital Education initiative.

Microsoft Corp. announced a new global skills initiative aimed at bringing more digital skills to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year. The announcement comes in response to the global economic crisis caused by COVID-19.

Microsoft held its first ‘Imagining the Future: Microsoft AI Virtual Summit’ to address how technologies like AI will play an important role to enable governments, businesses and communities navigate through unprecedented times, and build the new normal.

What started as a pilot project two years ago with the ADvTECH Group to test the potential of remote learning at its South African schools, has evolved into a full-scale rollout to transform primary and high school education.

To accelerate remote learning in a safe and secure environment, Microsoft is supporting the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan by deploying Teams for official online and remote learning interactions across more than 100 ublic and private universities.

Now is the time for Africa to actively promote socially-led enterprise to drive innovation, create a dynamic business ecosystem, and solve for the continent’s pressing social needs.

As more and more people across Africa are required to stay home, we are seeing a massive shift towards remote learning. This has meant the growth in the usage of collaborative tools such as Microsoft’s Teams.

Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts across the Middle East and Africa agree online learning is helping students understand more about how they learn, what they’re interested in learning and the support they need to achieve.

Now that we’re all working from home more often, it’s more important than ever to be aware of you and your team’s different work styles

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Partnerships in Times of Crisis

4Afrika healthcare partners quickly adapted to confront the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. We support our partners to harness technology for good to provide healthcare solutions with a big impact.

One of the largest NHS trusts in England is using Microsoft HoloLens on its Covid-19 wards to keep doctors safe as they help patients with the virus.

With more people working from home than ever before, the need for seamless communication has never been greater. In regions such as the Middle East and Africa

Bahrain’s Ministry of Education joined forces with Microsoft to accelerate its E-learning strategy and make the transition to remote education in the Kingdom. The effort has enabled public schools with free access to Office 365.

IDC and Microsoft today hosted an exclusive webinar featuring industry experts to discuss business continuity and its challenges, as organizations in the region and around the world maintain the remote working norm.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Lebanon has announced the roll out of a Covid-19 Health bot solution for citizens. Powered by Microsoft Azure, the Bot has an inbuilt symptom checker.

With the world’s swift transition to living much of our daily lives online, cybercriminals are looking to take advantage. In a time of great uncertainty, these malicious actors are exploiting our fears with socially engineered scams.

Research shows businesses across the Middle East and Africa are battling to acquire the digital skills they need, and yet, many countries across the region have a remarkably low number of STEM graduates who are women.

Many teams within Microsoft have worked in an entirely virtual way for years. The leaders of some of these teams share key learnings as they’ve adapted to best support their people during this challenging time.

As countries and companies focus on technologies to fight the pandemic, it’s critical we also protect people’s privacy. We’re offering seven ideas to consider as we move into the next phases of fighting this pandemic.

With more than 1.5 billion students and youth affected globally by closures of schools and universities, the COVID-19 crisis has prompted institutions to switch to remote learning at unprecedented scale.

Microsoft is joining forces with its partners to give academic institutions in South Africa free half-day training in Teams to help them effectively use the technology and enable more seamless remote learning within the country.

The Ministry of Education has enriched their smart learning ecosystem with Microsoft Teams. The program aims to enhance safety for students and society at large while ensuring smooth flow and completion of the curriculums.

Jacaranda College in Gauteng needs technology that is able to improve school efficiencies from both a teaching, learning and administrative perspective. It’s important for the school to balance its business operations with its educational responsibilities.

As businesses across the Middle East and Africa send their employees home to work, the need to guard against cyberattacks is greater than ever. These simple measures can help keep your workforce secure.

Though many people prefer the traditional way of working, there are times when it is necessary to work remotely. The spread of Covid-19 has changed the way people in South Africa – and globally – live and work.

Bryandale Primary School in Bryanston, Johannesburg had to physically close its doors – like all other South African schools – on Wednesday 18 March. But just because the school is not open does not mean learning has stopped.

Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) will implement remote working solutions by leveraging secure platforms such as Microsoft 365. The move will enable KOTC to run mission critical operations while ensuring the health and safety of its workforce.

When the COVID-19 virus reached pandemic levels, shuttering schools the world over, it left educators facing a massive challenge: How to keep students learning and engaged without the face-to-face closeness and comfortable daily routine of a classroom.

For those educational institutions whose bread and butter has always been online learning, the recent surge in demand for remote learning is a good opportunity to ensure that they have the optimal resources in place.

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