UNDP Open Innovation Challenge To Implement a Sustainable African Youth Entrepreneurship Portal

by | May 21, 2017 | African Innovation, The Digital World | 0 comments

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has created an incredible online resource: ‘YAS! Youth for Africa and SDGs’.YAS! is an online portal for African Youth Entrepreneurship. The portal aims to support the development and growth of youth entrepreneurship in Africa by providing the following services:

  • Help entrepreneurs begin their entrepreneurship journey by providing the answers that help them understand basic but key concepts relevant for enterprise development (browse our knowledge centre)
  • Serve as a Pan-African “one-stop solution” to navigate the support services available in the African youth entrepreneurship ecosystem (navigate our ecosystem map)
  • Run challenges and award financing directly to youth to develop SDG related business ideas and for youth ecosystem catalyzers to implement their local ecosystem building initiatives (apply to our challenges)

  • If implemented innovatively, this online portal can be at the very centre of facilitating the much-needed contribution by African youth towards SDG attainment – but UNDP does not have the financial resources or the expertise to directly implement this portal, ensuring that it is sustainable and remains relevant over time.

    The challenge? How to sustainably implement YAS! in the very long run.

    Have you designed and implemented successful online portal[s] before?

    Or

    Do you think you can implement an online portal in a sustainable manner, keeping it relevant in the very long run?

    UNDP is inviting proposals from interested hosts who can implement YAS! in a sustainable manner, keeping it relevant over time. All proposals must present a clear operational and financial sustainability model and business plan for implementing YAS! over a 5-year period.

    The Prize
    UNDP will disburse up to US$160,000.00 (One Hundred Sixty Thousand US Dollars) over the next 2 years directly to the Innovator to seed their operational and financial sustainability plan for the implementation of YAS!. Beyond that, the innovator will be expected to generate and mobilize resources to keep YAS! sustainable, hence the need for a 5-year operational and sustainability plan.

    In addition, through YAS!, the host will be required to run and manage a minimum of US$200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand US Dollars) worth of Ecosystem and African Youth Entrepreneurship challenges for UNDP. This US$200,000.00 is over and above the US$160,000.00 UNDP seed funding, or any other resources that the host will generate and mobilize for challenges on YAS!. These funds will be disbursed by UNDP directly to the winning enterprises and ecosystem support initiatives, under the auspices of the systems and procedures for awardee eligibility & selection criteria to be developed by UNDP and the innovator/YAS! host.

    See full details on how to apply,entries close on May 31,2017

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