SOCIAL GOOD SUMMIT 2020

Application Guidelines

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Affairs, National Youth Commission and other Partners hold an annual event dubbed the National Youth Innovation Awards. This event is the Sierra Leonean version of the global Social Good Summit (SGS) convened to help inspire more actions toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Awards showcase young people’s ideas, creativity and use of technology to solve local community development challenges.

This year’s event will be the 7^th edition held in Sierra Leone. The problems facing Africa’s youth cannot be over emphasized. Sierra Leone like most African countries has a youth bulge population, majority of whom are unemployed and confronted with varying levels of deprivation/marginalization. Indeed, in previous summits the participants showcased the realities of the development challenges they face as individuals and as communities. The results also attested to the diverse innovative talents waiting to be tapped amongst the youth in Sierra Leone. Moreover, the overwhelming response from applicants demonstrates the readiness of young people to take a steering position to solve their own problems and contribute to nation-building.

The Summit has always had a catalytic impact in Sierra Leone. Winners of the previous summit awards in Sierra Leone have gone on to contribute remarkably towards development in Sierra Leone. Among others, these contributions include, deploying an upgrade of the traditional water well that has an inbuilt water filtration system that provides safe water for domestic use in communities, another  is the auto irrigation system for agricultural farm land that can be remotely operated to reduce water wastage and labour constraints to name but a few.

In adjusting to the new normal, the final pitch for this 7^th edition will be a televised event to be held 2^nd week in December 2020.

National Theme: “Innovate 4 Betteh Salone”

This year’s event theme is ‘Innovate for a better Sierra Leone’, locally the theme will be ‘Inovate 4 Bette Salone’. This theme couldn’t be better suited to the current situation we find ourselves in the world today with the Covid-19 pandemic. We need innovators to think deep, think wide and think ahead to identify new ways to recover and improve government service delivery in health, education and finance, to ensure we build back better and see the country we want.

We hope that this event will inspire young people of all backgrounds to take the lead in coming up with ground-breaking innovations to improve the way we live and/do things.

A new structure will be experimented for this year’s edition to be more inclusive and is an attempt to improve on regional representation. The event will follow the below mentioned structure:

1. Like any competitions, a National Call will be announced for the submission of applications that will be open for 30 days.
2. The first phase of screening will be done at regional level by appointed technical judges where the 2 winners (Male and Female) will represent their regions at the national competition.
3. Winners from each region will be registered for a 3-day residential bootcamp to prep contestants for the final pitch + Q&A session with technical judges.
4. A televised pitch +Q&A session will be held which will be the final assessment stage for contestants.
5. A 2/3 days allowance will be provided after the final presentation for the public to cast their vote.
6. And finally, the tallied result will be announced and the winners (1Male, 1Female) will be awarded their prizes.

Selection Criteria (contestants/Idea)

Contestants should be 35 years or younger and reside in Sierra Leone.

The idea must: address a development challenge that we’re currently facing it can be in the area clean or green energy solutions/agriculture/ access to safe drinking water/

How winners will be selected

• Only completed registration forms will be considered in the long-list. A selection panel will short-list the 10 best innovative solutions
• Successful contestants are expected to be a part of a 3-day residential bootcamp to prepare for the final pitch
• All contestants will be given identification numbers throughout the contest. These numbers will be referred to during the selection process.
• Contestants are expected to prepare for a 5-minute recorded pitch at the close of the bootcamp that will be presented on the final stage pitch + Q&A session.
• A stopwatch will be used to time all contestants while they present their ideas to make sure the presentations fall within the allotted timeframe which will be set beforehand
• Scores for presenters at the final stage will be calculated from 3 sources: i) Tier 1 panel (Technical team) ii) Tier 2 panel (heads of selected partner institutions) iii) Public voting
• The winners will be announced 2/3 days after the final televised pitch and prizes will be awarded immediately.
• The organizers will be responsible for the transportation and lodging of the 10 short-listed finalists during their stay at the bootcamp.

Please apply with the form below or download the application form here and submit a hardcopy.