Deadline: 3 October 2013
Open to: all individual citizens and civil society organisations in Macedonia
Prize: chance to develop a prototype at a cost of up to 1.500 USD. The selection panel’s favorite proposal will receive a 500 USD cash prize.
Description
The United Nations and the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in partnership with the Social Innovation Hub hosted by FINKI, is pleased to announce the Social Innovation Competition “Create change – make a positive impact”.
The competition is launched to mark the 20th Anniversary of Macedonia’s membership to the UN and seeks innovative solutions to three important development challenges.
- Gender equality: Create an innovative solution that places young people at the forefront of challenging gender stereotypes in private and public life.
- Improving health services in rural communities: Create and innovative way of bringing health services closer to rural communities.
- Environmental protection: Create an innovative way to improve household awareness about the importance of recycling electronic equipment.
The aim of this competition is to encourage individuals and civil society organisations to contribute their skills and time to solve social challenges and use technology for social impact. Solutions that draw on crowdsourcing, social networks and mobile technology or services are encouraged but other types of innovations are also welcome. The focus is on finding solutions that can improve the life of citizens in the country and reach out to vulnerable and harder to reach communities. Under each of the challenges, the UN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will award proposals that demonstrate potential visible results. Proposals that are scalable at the national level will be awarded special attention.
Prizes
Three winners will be selected – one under each challenge. Each of the winners will be awarded the chance to develop their proposal into a prototype in collaboration with the UN and the Social Innovation Hub and the cost of up to 1.500 USD will be covered. The selection panel’s favorite proposal will receive a 500 USD cash prize.
This support will include technological support, mentoring and support with networking to identify potential partners that could be interested in scaling-up and/or using the proposed solution.
The winners will be invited to the UN Day reception hosted by the United Nations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they will receive their awards. After this, they will be able to work with the UN and the Social Innovation Hub to develop the prototype of their proposed solution.
Eligibility
The Innovation Competition is open to all individual citizens and civil society organisations in Macedonia.
Application
The deadline for proposals is 3 October 2013.
Contestants should use the online application form HERE and provide clear answers to each of the questions. Each contestant will receive confirmation that their proposal has been received. The language of the competition is English and Macedonian.
You can pose your questions to the organizers’ contact person: Amanda Sundell, UN Coordination Officer at +389 2 3249 531.
For more details, see the official call for applications HERE and the application guidelines HERE or the official website HERE.
