Free, relevant and inclusive – E-learning offerings from atingi

Wednesday morning on a soybean plantation in the heart of Benin - harvest time. Farmer Akono and his 15-member team wash the harvested beans in large wooden barrels. Akono is proud: three years ago, he almost had to abandon the farm due to a long drought. The outdated cultivation methods hardly produced any yields. However, things have changed when he got to know atingi.

"atingi" is a term from the world language Esperanto and means "to achieve something". A fitting name, for a German international cooperation project that helps young people from partner countries achieve a successful professional future. To achieve this goal, the innovative e-learning platform atingi provides free learning content that meets people's economic and local needs. Using a computer, tablet or smartphone, they can access atingi and significantly improve their chances on the local labor market. Particularly on the African continent, but also in other partner regions of German international cooperation, the number of people with access to the Internet is steadily increasing. atingi thus enables them to "achieve something". Farmer Akono uses the atingi app to learn more about innovative farming methods for his farm in Benin. atingi's open and modular system also lets him acquire knowledge in management. This new knowledge enables him to organize operations on his farm more economically. Courses such as "Sustainable energy resources for cultivation" bring topics such as sustainability into focus. This benefits not only Akono's farm, but also the land he cultivates.

The learning content is created in cooperation with local partners from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The atingi developers of the global project "Digital Transformation" cooperate with many companies and organizations from business, civil society, science and politics, such as the Smart Africa Initiative of the African Union or the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Moodle-based platform supports more than 100 languages, which means that atingi can be used as an e-learning component almost anywhere in the world.

Through atingi, users like Akono receive a service that is tailored to their needs and living conditions. They also meet like-minded people, tutors and experts on the platform with whom they can consult or take action together. "We are constantly working to expand our course portfolio and enter into new partnerships to provide relevant learning content to our growing community," explained Jan-Gerrit Groeneveld, project manager of atingi. "Currently, we are also working more on course certificates and 'Open Badges' to further increase the added value of atingi for our users. Certificates and badges can help them prove their acquired qualifications in job application situations, for example."

Sector: Education
Region: Global
Technology: E-Learning platform
Project status: on-going (Launch November 2019)

Be it new cultivation methods in agriculture, knowledge transfer for political decision makers or skills in artificial intelligence - atingi, as a digital learning platform of the BMZ, offers a free and effective way to create and publish diverse learning content. It is aimed at learners over the age of 16, such as students, job seekers and entrepreneurs from various sectors. Since 2019, atingi has been helping to facilitate access to learning content in developing countries, including for disadvantaged groups such as girls and women and people in rural areas. GIZ projects and partners in German development cooperation countries can use atingi for digital learning free of charge and benefit from the existing partner network and freely accessible content.