The innovation and entrepreneurship partnership was announced at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday...

Its programmes will include support from the non-profit Business Action for Africa, a network of businesses and development partners working together to support economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa.

African Development Bank, Microsoft, Nokia, infoDev, DEMO and the World Economic Forum have launched the LIONS@FRICA partnership that is hoping to promote a new phase of innovation and free enterprise in Africa...

The partnership aims to address the growing infrastructure needs of developing countries in the region, especially in terms of technology, which needs to take place alongside long-term health and social development progress.

Amazingly six of the world's ten fastest-growing economies over the past decade are in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, Internet usage across Africa has grown faster than on any other continent in the world...

The Liberalising Innovation Opportunity Nations (LIONS@FRICA) partners aim to develop African business start-ups and assist in the development progress that includes capacity building and training, and the promotion of access to capital, and mutually beneficial partnerships.

Plans in the pipeline include innovation conferences and start-up launch events in over 20 African cities...

The partnership is to receive support from networks and platforms from Business Action for Africa, as well as Startup Weekend and other organisations working to tackle poverty via wealth creation, including Business Fights Poverty.

The programme is also being supported by the US Agency for International Development and also infoDEV, a global partnership programme within the World Bank that focuses on innovation development, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Business start-up support is known to be a proven method of creating sustainable growth, employment creation and poverty reduction in poor communities.

The infoDEV agency works on policy development and helping to create proper regulatory environments for new business development in developing countries...

Valerie D'Costa, of infoDev, says it is supporting the initiative because: "it underlines our goals of enabling innovative entrepreneurship for sustainable, inclusive growth in Africa..."

Other partners include Global Entrepreneurship Week powered by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, an organisation that provides a partner network of 24,000 other organisations.

African Development Bank, another key partner, is already involved in developing SMEs across the continent working with financial services including microfinance institutions...

There are of course many international non-profits offering these vital services for business start-ups, including Opportunity International in the UK, a member of the global Opportunity International Network.

Others are Access Community Capital Fund, Canada; Accion International, United States; Anisha Microfin Association, India; Banca Etica Popolare, Italy; ECLOF, Switzerland; BeadforLife, Uganda and others...

Non-profits working in this field are purely focused on growth to support development...

And the fact is that the provision of business technology support and micro-finance support is a proven strategy for sustainable development.

As well as in Africa, there are many non-profit development organisations working to develop these aims the world over...

Along with others forms of development investment, i.e. in terms of health and social services, empowering entrepreneurs, both male and female, to start small and medium sized businesses to help their families and local communities is a proven means of supporting sustainable development in developing countries, as identified by Care International and many other leading development organisations...