Carrying African islands to the world stage: Inside the Ocean Hackathon Finals 2025

Excerpt from iucn.org

Carrying African islands to the world stage: Inside the Ocean Hackathon Finals 2025 On a crisp winter morning in Brest, France, African island innovation stood proudly on the global stage. What began months ago as a bold idea within the IslandPlas project — had now reached the world’s largest Ocean Hackathon arena.

By Genovefa Feksi

The Ocean Hackathon is a fast-paced innovation event where teams come together (usually over 48 hours) to solve real-world ocean challenges using data, technology, creativity, and entrepreneurship. This year, IUCN ESARO participated as a challenge owner, contributing data from the IslandPlas project.

IslandPlas is a regional initiative working across seven African island states to better understand plastic waste systems; from what types of plastic are being used, to where they leak into the environment, who is affected, and what solutions are already emerging locally. The project generates much-needed evidence to guide policy, innovation, and community-led circular economy solutions.

Representing IUCN as the Challenge Owner, I had the honour of supporting the Plasticity, the winning team using IUCN IslandPlas data from the Cape Town regional edition, as they presented at the Ocean Hackathon® Global Finals.

Supported by IUCN teams across Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO) and West and Central Africa (PACO) together with OceanHub Africa, the innovators refined a digital prototype designed to help island states track, verify, and repurpose PET waste using data, AI, and community engagement tools.

Walking into the venue alongside nine outstanding teams from around the world, I felt the pride of our islands with me — from Cabo Verde, São Tomé & Príncipe, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Zanzibar.