HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world.
Fast growing economies - Growth Markets - represent a significant business opportunity for HP and will represent a major portion of HP's market growth in the coming years. The Growth Markets Organization (GMO) in HP is responsible for accelerating HP's revenue growth into 62 key countries through targeted commercial, infrastructure and people investments with increased customer relationship management.
OUR WORK IN AFRICA
Collaboration with universities
HP has signed Memorandums of Understanding with leading universities in the expansion countries, aimed at preparing local university students with the skills and experience required for a career in the IT industry. The agreements call for the creation of HP internships and post-graduate job opportunities for university students, and the creation of curricula to educate students about HP solutions and sales techniques.
The collaboration between HP and Africa’s top universities is designed to foster the development of a local workforce that has the right skills to lead Africa’s burgeoning IT industry in the future.
Innovation in African education
HP has created an Educational Experience Center for Africa in Casablanca, Morocco, to showcase how the latest technology can enhance the education experience. This facility is among the first of its kind in Africa, and the only such HP facility in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
The center is open for government officials, educators and students of any level from across Africa to see firsthand how technology can support and improve teaching methods and enhance interactive learning to boost the productivity of Africa’s education sector. The inauguration of the center is scheduled for next month.
Extending social innovation programs
HP has built on its social innovation strategy in Africa, which seeks to deploy cloud-based and mobile technologies through collaboration with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to reduce poverty, improve healthcare, and connect disparate communities and groups. The strategy has already supported significant work in Africa, such as a relationship with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to improve infant HIV testing in Kenya, and a collaboration with mothers2mothers in support of its mission of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Protecting consumers and the local economy
HP is extending its program to fight counterfeit products to the 10 expansion countries. The company will work with local law enforcement authorities to fight the availability of counterfeit products, which defraud customers, pose potential risks to consumers and bring negative economic impacts to the local economy.
Having already assisted authorities in seizing more than 30 million counterfeit products and components worldwide in the last four years, HP has recently supported seizures of counterfeit products in Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania. HP will share its best practices to help law enforcement authorities identify and seize counterfeit products, cut off routes of distribution and prosecute fraudsters. HP also will actively educate its customers and partners to be vigilant against fake printing supplies.
Developing sustainable e-waste systems
The lack of an overall sustainable e-waste management infrastructure in most African countries means that unsafe dismantling and recycling of used equipment pose serious threats to workers’ health and the environment. As part of HP’s commitment to a responsible, sustainable growth strategy in Africa, the company will continue to drive programs to address this issue in a manner that attends to local conditions and provides jobs and training while ensuring high environmental and health and safety standards are met.
In the first half of 2011, HP and Carmara Education opened the East African Computer Recycling (EACR) in Kenya, the first IT e-waste recycling facility on the continent outside of South Africa.
HP’s strategy for e-waste in Africa also includes programs such as educating workers handling waste electronic equipment in Nigeria, supporting feasibility studies to define local recycling schemes in Morocco, and contributing to the development of the South African e-waste recycling industry through the deployment of globally accepted standards. HP has provided free IT hardware recycling for customers in South Africa since 2008 and this year the service was introduced in Kenya.
