The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) calling on young entrepreneurs across Africa to participate in its Open Innovation Challenge.
The challenge will help implement a sustainable ‘African Youth (Especially Women) Entrepreneurship Online Portal’.
The UNDP, making the call on its website, said it has just created an “incredible online resource: ‘YAS! Youth for Africa and SDGs’”, which, if implemented innovatively, could be “at the very centre of facilitating the much-needed contribution by African youth towards SDG attainment – but UNDP does not have the financial resources or the expertise to directly implement this portal, ensuring that it is sustainable and remains relevant over time.”
To this end, the UN agency is asking entrepreneurs who have designed and implemented successful online portal[s] before and/or those who think they can implement an online portal in a sustainable manner, keeping it relevant in the very long run, to apply for the the $160,000 opportunity.
The UNDP said in the call, via its website that it would disburse up to $160,000.00 over the next two years directly to the innovator to “seed their operational and financial sustainability plan for the implementation of YAS!. Beyond that, the innovator will be expected to generate and mobilize resources to keep YAS! sustainable, hence the need for a five-year operational and sustainability plan.”
According to the agency, through YAS!, the host will be required to run and manage a minimum of $200,000.00 worth of Ecosystem and African Youth Entrepreneurship challenges for UNDP, in addition to the earlier commitment of $160,000 seed funding.
“This US$200,000 is over and above the $160,000.00 UNDP seed funding, or any other resources that the host will generate and mobilize for challenges on YAS!.
“These funds will be disbursed by UNDP directly to the winning enterprises and ecosystem support initiatives, under the auspices of the systems and procedures for awardee eligibility & selection criteria to be developed by UNDP and the innovator/YAS!
To apply, interested applicants are expected to download the detailed Terms of Reference and related background material for this open innovation challenge, develop their operational and financial sustainability plan, submit their operational and financial sustainability plan via an email later than 11.59 EAT, on May 31, 2017.
Upon the close of the applications, the UNDP will set up an evaluation committee, comprising mainly of UN staff, to review all proposals received using UNDP’s principles of fairness and integrity, to select the winners.
According to the agency, the criteria will guide the selection of the winning proposal: the expertise of the firm/organisation, the details of the operational sustainability plan and the details of the financial sustainability plan, among others.