9 global startups have been selected to be part of a competition to seek support for their proposed solutions to one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and be selected to present their ideas to decision makers at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City in the margins of the STI Forum in May 2017.
On March 10-12th 800 participants from nine cities and five continents connected and collaborated during the Influx Trust #Connect2Effect 48-hour global hackathon (an intense 48hr start up idea prototyping session) organised with the support of the UN SDG Action Campaign around three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 9, Goal 10 and Goal 12. These 17 Goals are the world’s greatest challenges as agreed by 193 member states. Influx Trust and its organising partner Adpreneurs have created a compelling and innovative way for people and organisations to get involved in the effort to pursue these goals
The hackathon kicked off in each region with a unique message from H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson, President of the United Nations General Assembly: “Throughout the tenure of my Presidency, my office and I will remain firmly committed to fostering new methods of increasing awareness about the new agenda, and ways of working across sectors to achieve its implementation. As such, we look forward to closely following the outcomes of the hackathon, and will warmly welcome the winners to the United Nations Headquarters.”
WHY THIS IS WORTH SHOUTING ABOUT?
In just one weekend the event generated 90+ world-changing startup ideas, 20K Facebook followers, 3 million impressions of #Connect2Effect and 200K views of H.E. Thomson’s, public endorsement video.
The nine #Connect2Effect winners will now spend the following month honing and marketing their idea, competing for the chance to pitch their ideas at the New York UN Headquarters in the margins of the second annual Science, Technology and Innovation Forum on May 15-16th 2017.
In the lead up, Influx Trust are launching a crowdfunding platform (crowdfunding.connect2effect.com) for the wider public to support the winning teams as the projects develop and go beyond the hackathons and into the real world. The success of the crowdfunding campaigns will form a component of the evaluation for who will win. Once the competition has ended, this platform will launch to the public as a crowdfunding platform specifically for solving ideas for the SDGs.
WHAT ARE THE 2017 SELECTED SDG GOALS?
The UN’s 193 member states have agreed to 17 goals as priorities for the world to tackle by 2030. This year Influx Trust focused on 3 of them:
SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation Infrastructure
SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities
SDG 12 – Sustainable Consumption & Production
WHO ARE THE REGIONAL WINNERS?
- BAHRAIN (SDG 9): Paperless – E-receipts that cut down on paper waste
- BALI (SDG 12): Niskala – Educate and reduce waste generated from religious festivals that are a large contributor to the severe waste issues Indonesia is suffering with
- CHANDIGARH (SDG 9): Help aid the education of blind children with a paperless Braille tablet
- GENEVA (SDG 12): 24/7 – Access to Antiretroviral Treatment for people on the move
- LAGOS (SDG 9): Smart Transit – A culturally appropriate app to tackle poor transit in Nigeria by offering local transport information in real time
- LISBON (SDG 9): Lettuce Grow – An app that connects small scale farmers directly with consumers to boost agricultural industry and local economy
- LONDON (SDG 9): eQuality – A system that allows shoppers to educate themselves around the ethical, political & environmental impact of their product purchases
- NEW YORK (SDG 12): Kindred – The world’s first closed-loop marketplace for sustainable garments.
- RIO DE JANEIRO (SDG 10): Jardim DigitaL – An app that connects refugees with jobs open and available to them by fair and honest employers .
Overall the #Connect2Effect initiative has proven that there is a widespread desire for open innovation between the public and the UN on the Sustainable Development Goals and that this work can be expected to grow in terms of impact and scope. You can learn more about this project www.connect2effect.com
Check out the 9 SDG solutions and support your favourite idea. You can also follow the story on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @InfluxTrust #Connect2Effect to see things unfold in real-time.
