ITU Innovation challenge 2020 now accepting applications

The International Telecoms Union (ITU, the UN agency for information and communication technology) has released details of its Innovation Challenges 2020, an open global competition platform for innovators and ecosystem builders to present their ideas and projects, empowering them to transform their communities into thriving digital societies.

The 2020 edition of the ITU Innovation Challenge will be taking place amid a global pandemic; Covid-19, a pandemic that has resulted in stress on value chains and countries’ readiness for a digital economy, significantly affecting social conditions worldwide.

Global supply, production, consumption and delivery chains have been disrupted. Traditional economies are struggling, as industries have not been digitalized and infrastructure is inadequate to cope with current stress levels.

Policy-makers and innovators worldwide are under pressure. Their communities must embrace a digital economy so that a semblance of normalcy can be maintained in these uncertain conditions.

Therefore, the overall theme of this year’s challenges is Rethinking the digital economy’s value chains during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The challenge is a global open competition platform for innovators and ecosystem builders to present their ideas and projects, empowering them to transform their communities into thriving digital societies.

This year’s competition seeks entries designed to nurture an inclusive digital world. The competition supports the ITU’s drive for countries to have policies and strategies for ICT-centric innovation and calls on innovators, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, leaders and change-makers to bridge the innovation divide”

There are three challenges to choose from:

• The Digital Change-maker Challenge covers a wide range of topics from cybersecurity and regulation, to digital inclusion and climate change, and calls for participants to provide innovative solutions to real-life problems faced by stakeholders in their communities, especially considering value chain competitiveness and global disruption due to COVID-19.
• The Ecosystem Best Practice Challenge looks for ecosystem builders to identify best practices that allow innovators to develop sustainable and resilient solutions to navigate technological change and bridge the digital divide.
• The Women in Tech Challenge, in cooperation with the EQUALS Global Partnership, invites tech innovators to help and empower women in various sectors, including agriculture, fashion, and health.

Applicants should submit their ideas and innovations via the Co-Create Portal by 31 July 2020.

The winners will be invited to an ITU event to pitch their proposals, connect with mentors and expert to scale-up their project and become a member of a network of past winners.