What is
HackaDev?
HackaDev is an overarching programme, led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka that empowers Sri Lanka’s youth to be more innovative and entrepreneurial and take leadership in solving the most pressing development challenges in a sustainable manner, by providing them with a platform and the necessary next-generation skills.
HackaDev partners with a range of organisations ranging from the public sector, private sector, youth organisations, regional and global entities on social innovation, incubators and accelerators, development partners and others to mainstream and support new innovations and enterprises through a more integrated ecosystem approach.
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Why
HackaDev?
Meaningful engagement of its sizable youth population in the development process is key for Sri Lanka to accelerate efforts of realizing the ambitious 2030 agenda.
In a rapidly changing development landscape, the role of innovation and entrepreneurship is similarly central to achieving the same, with digital technology a key enabler in the process. If our nation is to find different solutions to the problems we have struggled to eliminate for decades on end, citizens and especially youth, a demographic with a significant stake in a country’s trajectory, need systems and platforms to utilize their many talents and make a lasting contribution to the development.
179+
Number of Programmes
76
Ideas
incubated
14,000+
Young people
engaged
100+
Number of experts engaged
43%
Female
participation
05
Years
HackaDev
programes
HackaDev offers a range of opportunities that are social innovation challenges that provide a platform for young people across the island to generate, present and develop their social innovation ideas, ultimately converting them into sustainable enterprises, aimed at solving crucial development challenges faced by their community or country as a whole.
These include flagship programmes such as the HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge, The Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge and other ad hoc innovation challenges such as the COVID-19 Innovation Challenge.
Identifying the increasing opportunity of imparting knowledge, building skills and changing mindsets of Sri Lanka’s youth population, HackaDev established its own ‘HackaDev Learning and Skills Academy’ building on the success of its first flagship initiative the ‘Technopreneurship for Social Change’.
It offers a package of next-generation learning and skills programmes ranging from Entrepreneurship, Media Literacy, Design Thinking, Innovation and many more.
Incubation and Seed Funding being significant elements of enterprise building, HackaDev programme is a shelter for a number of innovative ideas to be nurtured to enterprises under different areas of focus.
Through the enterprise incubation arm of HackaDev, a number of ideas/ enterprises generated through the different programmes of HackaDev are being incubated by providing necessary expertise, guidance and mentoring and financial assistance.
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Overall
project partners
