Winners announced for the 2020 ITU Innovation Challenge

EQUALS​ and INPUT Hungary hosted the second edition of the ITU Innovation Challenge and announced this year’s selected 20 winners. Innovators presented solutions that will accelerate national development priorities and ecosystem builders who have practices dedicated to nurturing innovators. Twelve women and eight men were chosen as top innovators in the three category challenges.

The winners were selected across three categories titled, Digital Change-maker challenge, Ecosystems Best Practice Challenge, and Women in Technology Challenge.

Twenty innovators win the 2020 ITU Innovation Challenge hosted by EQUALS​ and INPUT Hungary

The ITU Innovation Challenge had 12 members on the jury consisting of six external experts and six ITU experts. The challenge allowed entrepreneurs to participate in the Global Innovation Forum which ran during the last week of October, and a boot camp that featured 25 mentors from 18 countries.

The ITU Innovation Challenge received numerous submissions from 26 countries.

Challenge winners in each category

Digital Change-maker

The Digital Change-maker Challenge is for innovators who aim to make an impact on communities via digitisation. The winning innovations in this category are:

• Agro, created by Tafadzwa Ronald Chikwereti. This is used to encourage smallholder farmers to reduce waste and improve profitability.
• Guiding Sounds were created by Carlos Eduardo Mosquera Reyes with the intention of protecting and enabling visually impaired people to navigate their surroundings safely.
• Online interactive gallery for unestablished artists by Mojca Karin Rehar, was created to support emerging artists through an online interactive gallery.
• ​RaebConnect-Farmers E-Business Manager , presented by Ikechukwu Umezurumba, is a digital platform that gives insights and access to funding for farmers who do not have a bank account.
• Teleeza – Revolutionary Mobile Content Aggregation and Advertising Platform was developed by James Gachara Kiruri, who wanted to create a mobile content aggregation and advertising platform that will be used for a post-pandemic world.
• VISTA Destination Network Open Platform and Ecosystem, created by Thomas Müller, is a platform that allows public-private partnerships to transform the tourism sector digitally.

Ecosystem Best Practice Challenge

Ecosystem Best Practice Challenge is awarded to ecosystem builders that practices, protects, and nurtures the environment for innovators within their communities. The top innovators will attend a flagship ITU event to expand their knowledge, connect with innovators, network with experts, and scale-up. The winners in this category are:

• Changing the African narrative through Digital Media by Dominic Chidiebere Nwaogu. This platform is for aspiring artists and creatives to showcase their work digitally.
• Creative Environment for Talent Development created by Diana Artiom. The innovation aims to build an environment for talent development.
• ​EgyptInnovate Platform presented by Nahel Muhammad Amirah, is a one-stop-shop for innovators to locate resources and connect with other innovators.
• ​Health-tech ecosystems of developing countries by Ivana Kostić is an innovation aimed at building an ecosystem for health-techs.
• Innovation Guide developed by Galina Dremova, is an innovation platform that connects startups with corporates.
• Regopantes was created by Wilda Romadona to connect farmers to digital value chains and to set fair prices.
• Smart City Ambassadors, led by Laila Abdullah Khasib Al Hadhrami, is aimed at Smart City ambassadors navigating technology from the 4IR.
• Teach a Kid Make Individual Life (TAKMIL) created by Zainab Khan, provides digital literacy education to communities who are not exposed to online learning.
• ​UN Digital Academy, by William M Allen, provides ​knowledge and technological expertise in the hopes of accelerating digital transformation.

Women in Technology Challenge

Women in Technology Challenge is for individual women tech innovators and startups, that create digital projects, to positively impact women in the tech industry. The winning innovations are:

• BullyID Indonesia by Nindya Miesye Agita Pasaribu, raises the resilience and decreases the vulnerability of victims who experience cyberbullying.
• CYBERDADA TZ was created by Calister Apollonary Simba, to prioritise the gender gap in cybersecurity.
• Empowering girls and women through technology and making them financially empowered through mobile internet was the aim of Achia Khaleda Nila’s innovation. Women and girls are financially guided through mobile financial technology.
• ​Empowering Women Through Information and Communication Technology Especially in Irrigated Agricultural Location is the innovation created by Rani Mutiarawati, which aims to improve the lives of rural farmers by providing access to real-time data on land canal irrigation.
• SCAN 4 PADS, led by Nabuyuni Ann Sankan, is an innovation that provides access to low-cost menstrual products.

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Featured image: Giorgio Trovato via Unsplash