Youth-led Innovation Challenge for Social Impact, Somaliland

Locally-led innovative action has the potential to address numerous socio-economic challenges including those related to Covid-19, unemployment, high energy costs, limited agricultural development, and technological constraints.

Are you motivated to address these challenges in creative ways that can help your community, customers, suppliers and business model?

If yes, then please apply to the Youth-led Innovation Challenge for Social Impact.

Have you built, created or thought of innovative solutions to various socio-economic challenges affecting your community, then we want to hear from you? Whether you are an impact driven startup, SME or an energetic individual in Somaliland, you can apply to the Youth-led Innovation Challenge and receive support for your ideas. Read on for more information!

The Work in Progress! Alliance is an initiative that seeks to enable young people from diverse backgrounds to generate sustainable living wages and create optimism about their future in Egypt, Nigeria and Somaliland. The Work in Progress! team believes that locally-led innovations should be harnessed and supported to solve various challenges affecting communities.

The Social Impact Innovation Challenge is a competition that the Work in Progress! project is launching in Egypt, Nigeria and Somalia. It will provide two €10,000 awards in each country.

Additionally, the winners of the Challenge will be eligible for technical support from our partners including the possibility of mentorship from Innovation Challenge participants in the other project countries. The award is meant to assist each winner to develop, implement and put in full operation an innovative solution to help alleviate their community or business from the impact of the Coronavirus or other socio-economic challenges.

Through this innovation challenge, The Work in Progress! project aims to support and learn from youth-initiated innovative action that addresses a common challenge across all three project countries. Successful project experiences and lessons learned will be shared through the Work in Progress! and Oxfam networks.

Planning

• The deadline for applications is 28 September, 2020.
• Applicants will be invited to present their pitches via a video link after the shortlisting is done by the judges.
• Winners will be notified shortly thereafter, following which grant contracts will be processed.
• The innovation projects will be implemented from October 2020 – February 2021.

Selection process

This Innovation Challenge is for promising concepts from young people, startups and small businesses founded or registered in Somaliland. Candidates will apply online by completing an application form, elaborating plans for the innovation project and presenting a budget. A panel of judges will review and score all applications and invite the best applicants to pitch their ideas and proposals. The panel will then select two winners for the award.

Eligibility criteria

• The principal applicant should be under 35 years of age. Both men and women are open to apply but preference will be given to female-led innovators.
• In case of a startup or SME, the applicant must be a registered company in Somaliland.
• The applicant confirms that the individual or company is not in any way involved in activities such as arms, tobacco, alcohol and gambling industries, registered in so-called tax-havens, or involved in environmental or human rights abuses or corruption.
• The proposed innovation project can be implemented in the period of Oct 2020 – Feb 2021.
• Only applications around renewable energy, agriculture, COVID-19 response, youth employment initiatives and technology led solutions will be preferred (do we really want to restrict to these sectors?)

Assessment criteria

1. Creative and innovative solution (25%): The project idea clearly demonstrates a new or innovative approach to tackling social issues affecting communities we live in. The project identifies a specific challenge and applies a creative, social or technical solution that is not widely being applied elsewhere. The idea does not have to be original, but it should be creative (a fresh take on an old idea can be worth as much as a brand new idea). The impact focus on youth and women is important.
2. Viability of proposal (25%): The proposed project is described clearly and is relevant to addressing the problem or need identified. It is viable and feasible to implement the project in a short time frame. The budget is realistic considering the proposed activities and timeframe. The applicant’s own contribution (financial or material) will be considered a plus.
3. Strength of team entrepreneur (25%): The team has the qualifications and experience to implement the business project successfully. Motivation and ideas are clearly communicated. The team has unquestionable integrity. Having women on the team is considered a plus.
4. Potential for sustainability (25%): The ability to recreate the innovation/approach is crucial to helping other affected regions or communities. The innovative proposal should, therefore, be potentially replicable or scalable either through effective demonstration or documentation. In the case of applications by business enterprises, the innovation should show a clear business model with a realistic growth strategy.

Non-eligible costs

• Purchasing and rent/leasing of land or buildings/facilities;
• Bank charges, cost of guarantees and similar charges;
• Overhead costs such as office supplies, support staff, management;
• Value and registration costs of intellectual property rights.

Apply now

We are accepting applications from both individual candidates with a mature idea addressing the above-mentioned challenges, as well as from eligible startups and SMEs. Please fill in the application form from the link below.

Deadline for receiving applications is 28 September 2020.

If you face technical challenges in the application process, please send an email to: khadar.ibrahim@oxfam.org

I’m applying as a startup or SME       I’m applying as an individual