Zoohackathon 2019: UWEC to host Wildlife conservation technology competition

The Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) in Entebbe has been chosen to host this year’s Zoohackathon competition.

Organised by the US Mission in Uganda, Zoohackathon is a wildlife based technology competition that involves putting wildlife coders, software developers, graphic designers, and wildlife enthusiasts in one room where they develop solutions geared to combating wildlife trafficking.

The two day event will run from 16-17 November 2019  and all  countries across Africa will take part.

During a media brief on Friday at the Embassy Plaza in Kampala, UWEC Executive Director James Musinguzi said the grant they have received from the United States Department of State (DOS) is going to help them work hard to deliver a great event where they are going to come up with problem statements regarding wildlife trafficking and float them out to people to develop solutions.

“UWEC did host this same competition last year and it was very successful, in fact the Ugandan team came second overall in the whole world so basing on that the American Embassy found it fit to select the center popularly known as Entebbe Zoo as the same venue to host the event this year,” said Mr Musinguzi.

“We are very privileged to be able to partner with the American Embassy to have this event delivered as planned.”

On his part, Colleen O’ Donnell, the USAID Biodiversity Specialist said wildlife trafficking is a serious transnational crime that threatens security, undermines the rule of law, fuels corruption, robs communities of legitimate economic livelihoods, and pushes species to the brink of extinction and that is why they came up with the technological competition to find solutions for the vice as well as support innovative conservation efforts at UWEC and the African continent as large.

“Zoohackathon promotes technology solutions, builds cross-sector collaboration, raises awareness, and empowers communities to combat wildlife trafficking,” said Mr Donell.