Flow Communications’ relationship with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – German Development Cooperation – and, through GIZ, the African Union (AU), saw Flowstar Nontobeko Zuma off on an adventure to Rwanda.
Nontobeko headed to Kigali to lend support to the two organisations at the 21st Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform, a conference that ran from 29 to 31 October, alongside the 16th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security.
The event focused on how Africa can accelerate the development of resilient agrifood systems at a time when climate change is ravaging large parts of the continent.
It’s vital that Africa comes up with solutions – more than 110-million people on the continent, which has a population of about 1.5-billion, were directly affected by weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2022, with approximately 5 000 deaths, nearly half of which were associated with drought (48%) and 43% of which were associated with flooding, according to the World Meteorological Association (WMO).
Even before the conference began, Flow worked with the AU and GIZ to design and develop a website for the event that included an online registration system. We also designed “save the date” graphics for the website and social media, and we handpicked four African social media influencers to cover the three-day event on their preferred platforms.
The four, all agricultural sector influencers, who agreed to work with GIZ and the AU were Che Glen Akongui (Cameroon), Ndeye Marie Aïda Ndieguene (Senegal), Ncumisa Mkabile (South Africa) and Rodgers Kipchirchir Kirwa (Kenya). Their travel to Kigali and accommodation in the capital city during the conference was covered, and they were tasked with showcasing the event in their own way.
The CAADP website was built using Webflow with a purchased template that was customised for the conference’s needs because of the tight timeline given – the site needed to go live as soon as possible to enable registrations for an event that was just two weeks away.
After selecting a template with an appropriate structure, the Flow team customised it with a colour scheme to match CAADP’s brand and incorporated the programme’s logo and other brand elements, says Flow developer Kamogelo Seperepere.
“Given the urgency, we prioritised what was essential for launch versus what could be added later, hiding non-essential panels and focusing on registration functionality,” Kamo says.
The website’s main features are an embedded Formstack form for conference registration, responsive design ensuring mobile and desktop optimisation, an image gallery section and clean navigation elements such as a streamlined menu
“The project demonstrated how a well-chosen template combined with focused customisation can deliver a professional conference website under extreme time pressure, while maintaining brand consistency and prioritising critical user journeys, such as registration,” Kamo says.
Working with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Flow also arranged for a full news team – camera operator, news reporter and radio broadcaster – to attend the event. Stories were broadcast on SABC News (DStv 404), YouTube, Channel Africa and an ECOWAS radio station. ECOWAS – the Economic Community of West African States – is an economic community of more than 300-million people.
“It’s always a pleasure working with GIZ and the AU. The CAADP conference project was engaging and rewarding. I loved how it provided young entrepreneurs in the food and agricultural sector with a valuable platform to showcase their work and exchange innovative ideas,” says Nontobeko.
“I was busy all the time, so I didn’t really get to explore Kigali, but I noticed how clean and safe it is. That was striking. Also, Rwanda is very advanced technologically.”
