The Economist Events has announced two summits to be held in Nairobi on February 2, 2017.

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The summit will explore the twin themes of Innovation and Health care and how these two aspects will play a critical role in economic and social development in Africa.

The Innovating Economies Summit to be held on February 1, 2017 will focus on “Diversifying, investing and working for Africa’s tomorrow” and will explore how African economies can move from the existing resource-based model to knowledge-based economies, in light of shrinking economic growth due to the global slowdown and unfavourable commodity markets.

“Falling prices of natural resources have shown the need for African economies to explore alternative and more sustainable revenue sources. Innovation is an effective tool for some of the continent’s challenges including rapid urbanisation and youth unemployment,” said Jonathan Rosenthal, Africa Editor, The Economist.

Kenya was chosen as the venue for the Summit as it has already gained prominence as an innovation hub and is setting the pace for other countries in Sub Saharan Africa. 

The Innovation Summit is expected to catalyse an exchange of ideas among key players who can direct the course of Innovation for economic growth in the region.

Themed “Rising to Challenges”, the Summit will address what Africa can do to deliver health and well-being to its fast growing population.

Africa is expected to record one of the fastest increases in health care spending over the next four years but despite the rapid growth, the continent still lags behind other regions in providing access to quality and affordable health care. 

Epidemics such as Ebola and HIV have far reaching consequences and Sub-Saharan Africa still lags behind the rest of the world in relation to the under-5 and maternal mortality rates.

The Health Care Africa Summit is expected to bring together policy-makers, regulators, health care practitioners, donors, businesses, NGOs, and patient groups to discuss how to meet the increased health care demand across Africa and overcome the challenges facing the continent.