WASHINGTON, July 8, 2016 – The World Bank Group and the Wharton School of Business announced the winners of its 2nd annual global youth development finance competition, entitled Ideas for Action (I4A). This innovation competition is organized in partnership with Y2Y and the Young Americas Business Trust (OAS).
Hundreds of young people aged 18 to 35 around the world worked in teams to develop and share their ideas for financing solutions to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of 17 global goals which seek to end poverty by 2030, promote peace, and preserve the planet for future generations.
“The I4A competition values the ideas, inspiration, and leadership of those who will soon assume global and local responsibility for sustainable development,” said World Bank Group Senior Vice President Mahmoud Mohieldin. “Youth engagement throughout the design and implementation of the SDGs is critical for success and have demonstrated the importance for young professionals and academics to take ownership of this ambitious development agenda,” he said.
The 2016 annual I4A competition was concluded after completing three rounds of reviews by panels of development experts. The announced winners for 2015-2016 include:
First place winner: Team DLVR (Nigeria). DLVR proposes a peer-to-peer service for local communities in Nigeria that seeks to tackle logistical challenges for low-income people in emerging market nations. It would create an online technology platform that connects transporter to senders, to enable them complete scheduled and on-demand deliveries. This service focuses on logistics and supply chain bottle-necks, harnessing the knowledge of local communities to build an innovative distribution network at the “last mile” of the supply chain. It has numerous applications, from e-commerce, to agriculture, and medical service delivery.
Second place winner: OINCS (Uruguay). OINCS is a mobile crowdsourcing platform that enables users to report and share in real time information about crimes and vehicle traffic in their cities. OINCS promotes a better city life experience by helping people travel places faster and more safely. Community users inform and alert others of any adverse event or information that could be relevant in terms of traffic and citizen security, to allow them to react to events going on around them.
Third place winner: Naukri Search (United States). This is a dual platform employment service aimed at increasing transparency in the slum labor market of Mumbai by improving access to employment information and opportunities. Naukri Search emphasizes the readily available technologies of each segment of the labor market. The system enables slum residents to receive accurate, up-to-date information concerning potential employment opportunities within their region.
The 2016 Ideas for Action competition was announced in Lima, Peru at the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in October, 2015. This is the second year of this initiative, following a very successful year in 2015. The first round of the competition drew global interest, with the highest representation from India, Nigeria, and Peru. Participants from 130 countries formed 330 teams to submit proposals to the inaugural Ideas for Action competition.
This year, the competition drew participants from 125 countries, who formed 492 teams and submitted 309 proposals. About 11% of participants were from Europe, 13% from North America, 21% Africa, 12% Asia, and 42% from Latin America.
The competition offers the winners a platform to share their ideas and encourages young people to take ownership over implementation of the SDGs. It also provides them access to some of the leading professionals in the global development industry and the private sector. “These young adults have to be the ones formulating and planning to reach the goals like the SDGs, since their generation will be the most affected. We hope our competition will foster a sense of ownership while incubating some exciting ideas that can shape our future for the better,” said Djordjija Petkoski, Lecturer and Senior Fellow at Wharton Business School.
The three winning proposals, the three runners-up, as well as the four honorable mentions will be compiled in the 2016 Ideas for Action book, which will be launched at the sidelines of the 2016 IMF-WBG Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. Click here to see the 2015 winners.
