The
Global South COVID-19 Digital Innovation Challenge was launched jointly by the
United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in June 2021. The initiative aimed to identify Southern-led digital innovative solutions that can be scaled up to enable countries, societies, communities, institutions, and individuals from the Global South to deal with the cascading effects of the pandemic– across governance, economy, and social sectors and well-being.
The Global South COVID-19 Digital Innovation Challenge intends to build a network of champions in developing-country ecosystems to i) accelerate the response to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; ii) grasp the current innovation impetus and bring innovative digital solutions into international development, and reach out to entities which are usually in innovation's frontlines activities; iii) leverage South-South cooperation networks, platforms, and funding mechanisms to achieve impact at scale through sharing and replicating selected innovations; and iv) provide open access to resources from the international expert community and build entrepreneurship capabilities for innovators in governments, intergovernmental organizations, private sector and start-up companies, research institutions and academia, and CSOs.
From over 250 submissions received from 50 countries, 12 innovative projects from 10 countries were awarded during the
ITU's 2021 Global Innovation Forum, which focused on “building partnerships to mainstream entrepreneurship".
The projects are in the implementation phase with support from a dedicated mentorship network. This network of mentors brings on board experiences from 24 experts comprising leading policymakers, financiers, start-up accelerator/incubator programme managers and recognized ICT experts to train the winners to scale and enter new markets while improving lives and enhancing the capabilities of innovators.
