2020 marked the beginning of a Decade of Action towards the Sustainable Development Goals. But with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting millions of people and leading to the death of hundreds and thousands, societies are now in turmoil, and global economies are facing an unprecedented amount of uncertainty. The pandemic is moving like a wave—one that may have catastrophic effects on those least able to cope.

As COVID-19 has appeared in Sri Lanka, it has impacted on each and every individual and all the sectors of the country. There are more and more challenges faced by Sri Lankans everyday and the HackaDev Initiative of UNDP Sri Lanka wanted to explore the possibilities of overcoming these challenges while making the innovative minds a bridge to move forward. The HackaDev COVID-19 Innovation Challenge, introduced by UNDP Sri Lanka was a platform for the innovators in Sri Lanka to bring forward their solutions to support the country at this difficult moment.

The COVID-19 challenge called for applications for a period of one month, and considering the urgency of solutions within that period, the received applications were reviewed weekly on a rolling basis and the shortlisted ideas were evaluated by a panel of judges based on a virtual pitch. The challenge possessed a total prize allocation of LKR 1 million initially and each selected idea had the opportunity to receive a grant up to a maximum of LKR 100,000 to develop their innovative solutions.

Considering the feedback and comments of the panel of judges following the evaluation process a number of 16 ideas were selected to receive funding of LKR 100,000.00 each, to develop prototypes of the solutions and explore the possibility of implementation.