UNDP WACA Youth Innovation Challenge calls on young entrepreneurs and innovators

The United Nations Development Programme's Sub-Regional Centre for West and Central Africa (UNDP WACA) has launched the UNDP WACA 2022 Youth Innovation Challenge, calling on young entrepreneurs and innovators to come up with impactful solutions in West and Central Africa.

The UNDP WACA Youth Innovation Challenge is an initiative designed to identify and support transformative innovation and resilience among young people in West and Central Africa. It follows the inaugural 2021 Sahel Innovate Challenge, which provided 10 young people from across the Sahel region with funding ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 to strengthen their innovations.

Benefits

• 5 finalists will be fully funded to attend and present their solutions at the YouthConnekt Sahel 2022 Forum in N'Djamena, Chad and win funding of up to 50,000 $ (total prize money to be awarded to the top 5 innovators).
• Opportunities for young innovators to access funding and partnership opportunities.
• The evaluation committees will identify 30 young people shortlisted to join the WACA network of innovators and access peer-to-peer learning, coaching and training opportunities.

Eligibility criteria

• You must be aged between 18 and 35.
• A citizen (or diaspora citizen) of a country in West and Central Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon , Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
• The best existing solutions (with a tangible impact) in the following thematic areas: digital transformation, COVID-19 recovery, health, education, peace and security, cultural and creative arts, agroforestry and climate change.

Selection process

• Applications are accessed according to a standard set of criteria (thematic area, innovation, impact and reach, sustainability and opportunity for scaling up) and reviewed by UNDP and external experts.

Guidelines for submitting videos

• Recording should be done in a quiet place, without music or background noise (listen to your audio before uploading the video and make sure you are audible).
• The video should answer the question: What is the impact of your solution in your community, and what is its value and potential?
• Keep the camera stationary to avoid unstable recording.
• Make sure the image quality of your video is clear.
• Videos must be shot in landscape/widescreen mode.
• The recording must be no longer than 2 minutes and can be recorded in English, French or Portuguese.

For more information, please visit UNDP .