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UNDP introduces the ‘Green Innovation Challenge’ as part of UNDP Sri Lanka’s flagship initiative on Youth Leadership, Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship – ‘HackaDev’, to crowdsource innovative solutions to build a greener and sustainable economy in Sri Lanka. The process intends to make them sustainable ventures, thus empowering and enabling the youth of Sri Lanka to make significant contributions within the 2030 Development Agenda for better greener solutions.
Green Innovation Challenge invites all the young people in Sri Lanka to address the challenge of finding innovative solutions to support achieving the environment related Sustainable Development Goals while creating sustainable social enterprises to contribute towards both the environment and economy of the country.
The Green Innovation Challenge is also part of and supported by Youth Co Lab an initiative co led by UNDP and the Citi Foundation
What areas can you
contribute to?
The following are some guiding sub themes around which you can frame your thinking for an innovative solution. But that doesn’t limit you. Other ideas in the broader domain of green innovation are welcome for the challenge.
Promoting a circular
economy
Waste collection,disposal, segregation, recycling & upcycling, reducing waste generation
(SDG 12)
Sustainable Water Management
Access to water, addressing water stress, protecting waterways and related sustainable water management
(SDG 06)
Gearing up for the Green Economy
Building competencies for a green economy and capacity building to bridge the green skills gap
(SDG 12)
Eco-friendly production and consumption
Developing eco-friendly products and/or supporting entrepreneurship around eco-friendly goods and services
(SDG 12)
Sustainable and green urban living
Developing solutions that can support the development of green infrastructure - i.e., green public spaces, green transport solutions, urban gardens.
(SDG 11)
Biodiversity and
Conservation
Community-based awareness on Biodiversity and conservation of threatened ecosystems, environmentally sensitive areas and species of flora and fauna
(SDG 15)
Process
01
Call for Applications
A public call for applications to source applications island-wide.
The Public call for applications will be open for a period of a month (30 - 45 days) and the applicants (teams) may submit applications (in English, Sinhala or Tamil) through the HackaDev webpage.
02
Pre-Hack Programme
A series of knowledge sharing sessions will be available online detailing the exact programme expectations during the application period to provide a better understanding to the interested applicants and to widen their knowledge and understanding towards the green innovation aspects.
The themes mentioned above will be explained further through these sessions, where the participants can improve their understanding about different solutions that they can bring in.
03
Idea Auditions
Provincial-level idea pitching programmes
This phase includes virtual pitching programmes (provincial) for the shortlisted ideas following the public call for applications. Applicants are required to participate and pitch their idea in front of a panel of judges. A maximum of 20 teams with the best ideas will be selected for the next phase of Social Innovation Camps.
04
Social Innovation Camps
Five and half days residential design thinking boot camps on social innovation and social entrepreneurship.
Social Innovation Camps are a unique Design Thinking Bootcamp experience for the best 20 teams selected following the provincial level Idea Auditions. Teams will go through a five and half days unlearning process on design thinking which includes a comprehensive learning process on different steps of the Design Thinking process with the support of national and international mentors, coaches and domain experts.
The teams going through the camp will able to think through, re-think, improve or even pivot their ideas to arrive at a concept where it is desirable, feasible and viable, subject to iterative validation.
05
Incubation Support & Seed Funding
Seed grants and six months of intense incubation support for the selected teams to further develop the ideas and graduate as a social enterprise/venture.
Teams selected to this stage will be provided a Seed Grant to further develop their prototypes where a consultancy entity will manage the disbursement of the seed grants. Mentoring and guidance will be provided for a period of 6 months by a variety of experts from different industries where the seed grant will be disbursed on a milestone completion basis.
Rules and Regulations
Applications can be submitted via the official registration portal at hackadev.lk.
Deadline for submission is 11.59 PM on 19th September2022.
Individuals who have taken part in the Social Innovation Camps stage of the HackaDev National Youth Social Innovation Challenge in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are not eligible to apply for the HackaDev Green Innovation Challenge 2022.
Any submissions which do not relate to green innovation will not be considered for the next steps of the programme.
Submissions can be made in either English, Sinhala or Tamil.
Minimum of 3 members and maximum of 4 members can be in a team.
All the team members should not be exceeding 29 years of age at the closing date for applications.
Teams must consist of a minimum of one female team member.
To encourage diversity, teams with young people with disabilities and/or ethnic diversity and gender balanced representation will be given preference within the selection process.
The shortlisted teams must attend (virtually) their designated programme unless for unavoidable circumstances.
Teams will get a maximum of 5 minutes to further explain the idea that they have applied with/solution you are proposing.
Maximum of 5-7 minutes Q&A with the judges.
This phase is not to present a prototype.
Teams are not expected to do a ppt/other presentation for the audition (verbal explanation only)
Teams will be further short listed for the social innovation camps following the marks scored at the Idea Auditions.
It is compulsory for the selected teams to take part in the social innovation camps unless for unavoidable circumstances.
Selected Teams can start designing and creating the basic structure and do necessary research of the project from the day of announcement of selection but are not allowed to bring a finalised product/service to the competition.
All the teams need to demonstrate and pitch their solutions at the end of the social innovation camps.
Teams are free to use any technology, platform and tools they wish to.
The Social Innovation camp will be a five and half days residential, all-expense paid experience.
A maximum of 20 teams will be selected for the social innovation camp.
(Only one Social Innovation Camp will be conducted)
The ideas and the solutions generated will be owned by the teams themselves.
Teams will be evaluated based on the following criteria
x. The solution should be relevant to the problem specified
x. Creativity and Out of the box thinking
x. Simplicity and potential for scaling up and implementation
x. Team spirit and commitment
x. Impact
x. Design
Teams will be selected for each phase by a multi-stakeholder screening panel who will review the submissions based on the above criteria. The decisions of the screening panel and the panel of Judges will be final
A maximum of 05 ideas will be selected for the social enterprise incubation programme and will be eligible for seed funding
Seed fund disbursement and the incubation support will be commissioned and overseen by UNDP with the support of a selected consultancy agency with required incubation expertise and the teams will have to agree with the particular agency on the 06 months incubation work plan and take timely actions to develop, test and implement the solution.
Any type of plagiarism is strictly prohibited and the discovery of any type of plagiarism at any stage of the programme, will disqualify the applicants to continue in the process.
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