Durban, South Africa

The influence of innovation on African countries’ developmental progress continues to be one of the most frequently discussed topics at high-powered meetings like this year’s World Economic Forum Africa.

Many of the discussions on panels or in private conversations with presidents and captains of industry and leaders of social causes often come down to finding new approaches and principles to tackle many of the intractable challenges faced on the continent.

Such new approaches underlie our philosophy in picking people for Quartz’s third edition of the Africa Innovators list. The word innovation is often linked with technology alone, but since our inaugural list our innovators have always been people with “big ideas, creative vision, entrepreneurship and homegrown, globally scalable problem-solving.” This year is no different.

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