UN launches open call for climate tech innovators in Africa

Young African innovators creating climate technology solutions are invited to join a three-day launchpad where the best projects will be invited to a further Climate Innovation Academy programme to help build their start-ups.

This call was made by the Youth Climate Innovation Lab. Applications are invited from start-ups across Africa and the Middle East. Organisers confirm that entries will close on Sunday, 4 September 2022.

The Youth Climate Innovation Lab – a collaboration between the UN Climate Technology Centre and Network, the Swiss Association for Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets (SAFEEM), and Seedstars – is described as a fast-paced event.

Youth innovators, with the support of climate technology, entrepreneurship, and business experts, will explore design thinking tools to ideate and validate innovative solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation within selected sectors and technology fields.

The programme vows to help participants flex their entrepreneurial muscles, and by the end create business solutions for enhanced climate action in response to climate change threats to the MENA region.

“With governments across the MENA region leapfrogging their nations towards oil-independent economies, it is time to equip our youth with the knowledge and tools to drive climate action initiatives,” shared Mohamad Fanous, Seedstars programme manager in Africa and the Middle East.

Supported by private sector experts, entrepreneurs, and innovation facilitators, the participants will be challenged to think outside of the box and co-create timely solutions and business ideas to address pressing challenges in climate change.

This programme will provide a hands-on learning space in which participants explore and implement frameworks for ideation and validation to solve common and critical problems in innovative, viable, and sustainable ways.

The launchpad comes as the third edition of its global series, bringing together climate tech innovators from Africa and Asia-Pacific as well as Latin America.

The programme accepts individuals (to be grouped into teams later on) or groups with a minimum of two members. Participants must fit the following criteria to be eligible for the programme:

• must be between the ages of 20 and 30 years old;
• attended or completed higher education;
• must be an aspiring or early-stage entrepreneur or a student interested in launching an idea on climate change and building entrepreneurial muscle; and,
• must be passionate about solving climate technology needs and challenges in the Middle East or Africa.

Innovators must preferably focus on challenges in the following fields: renewable energy and hybrid energy systems; circularity and waste management; agritech and foodtech; ecology and reforestation; transportation; and urban planning, smart cities, and construction.

At the end of the Climate Innovation Lab, the regional winners will participate in the six- to eight-week Climate Innovation Academy programme delivered by Seedstars. They will receive follow-on support to implement and scale their solutions.

The top three teams will receive a cash prize of $1 800 and the chance to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) happening in Egypt this November 2022. Entries can be summitted online.

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