ITU Telecom World 2015 Young Innovators Competition: Conflict Challenge

Application Deadline: 15 June 2015

Open to: Participants must be between 18 and 30, and can have either an established startup or the concept for a new one.

Award: Two winners will be invited to join ITU Telecom World 2015 in Budapest, Hungary, October 12-15, 2015 to pitch their ideas, participate in workshops, benefit from a year of ongoing mentorship, and win seed funding.

The ITU Telecom World Young Innovators Competition is looking for entrepreneurs with innovative ideas on how ICTs can help keep people safe in conflicts. They could work on preventing conflict, improving safety and security in conflicts, rebuilding communities or peacebuilding, among other topics.

Eligibility:

• Participants must be between 18 and 30, and can have either an established startup or the concept for a new one.
• Eligible startups could work with many groups, civilians, especially vulnerable groups such as women, children, the elderly or disabled, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), soldiers, or police or anyone else. Conflicts could include warfare, terrorism, criminal violence, and rioting, among other forms of organized or collective violence.

At least 200,000 people died in 2014 due to armed conflict. This number may, in fact, be far higher as many reports omit civilian casualties which are notoriously hard to determine or estimate. Beyond direct casualties of conflict, impact on infrastructure, communities and families cause serious harm and threats to the security.

By working to protect individuals and prevent conflict, ICTs can help to make the world a safer and less violent place for everyone. The United Nations and many other international institutions are mandated to work on issues connected to armed conflicts, such as protection, prevention and resolution.

There are roles ICTs can play in conflicts. One is by restoring infrastructure to damaged regions. They can help improve the efficiency and efficacy of healthcare and other emergency responses. ICTs can provide resources for refugees and other vulnerable groups, connecting them with aid services or helping to facilitate and coordinate those services.

They can also be key in helping to rebuild and reunite communities damaged by conflict, working to build more peaceful and orderly societies. Any and all of these are among the topics that successful applications might work on, along with a range of other issues

Benefits:

• Two winners will be invited to join ITU Telecom World 2015 in Budapest, Hungary, October 12-15, 2015 to pitch their ideas, participate in workshops, benefit from a year of ongoing mentorship, and win seed funding.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the ITU Telecom World 2015 Young Innovators Competition: Conflict Challenge