2019 was fascinating! All over the world, we witnessed a new wave of citizen participation and activism. We saw the youth and activists stand up at a global scale and demand stronger actions to solve complex social issues. They realized that these problems couldn’t be solved solely through traditional methods by conventional actors so they adopted a more innovative and bolder approach. Some of them are called social innovators, pioneers or social entrepreneurs.
This is why last year, Civil Society Academy (CSA) identified more than 30 social innovators and seasoned experts from across the globe and invited them for a 5 day design workshop in Delhi. During the workshop, they conceptualized their ideas into concrete solutions for the following challenges:
Challenge 1: How might we support rural women and their families to access public services that truly help them escape hunger and injustice?
Challenge 2: How might we support social activists and concerned citizens to become more powerful in combating hunger and injustice?
What has happened so far?
After more than a dozen pitches and a 3 month prototyping phase accompanied by one-on-one coaching and webinars, we invited the top 8 innovators to pitch their concepts again on October 4th, 2019. For the very first time, the final pitch and award ceremony took place entirely online. On the jury were Hans Rusinek (Associate Strategy Director at BrightHouse), Florian Landorff (Head of Innovation at Welthungerhilfe) and Vijay Mahajan (CEO at Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and BASIX).
After 2 nerve-wracking hours, we proudly announced the 4 winning teams to the public. You can re-watch all the wonderful pitches here:
Zero Injustice/ ORGADynamy – Adrien Roux (France)
Uganda’s Community Voices – Jonathan Tusubira (Uganda)
ReGrow - Tiffany Tong and Sonika Manandhar (Nepal)
Visit website: www.aeloi.com
Living University by Vaneshran Arumugam (South Africa)
What’s next?
Innovation takes time. Therefore, Civil Society Academy has committed to not only provide a one year stipend to each innovator but also other support systems such as training, coaching, and networking opportunities. Our goal is to prepare all innovations for scale by end of 2020.
Stay tuned for more!
Never miss an update! Subscribe to our Newsletter.
About the Author:
Trang Nguyen has a degree in Social Sciences and has worked in different development organisations, including a research institute, in Germany, Vietnam, and India. She is a full-time staff at CSA and her roles include marketing communication, IT, team and happiness, as well as facilitation. Trang is a young, creative and forward-thinking person who loves to learn, share and connect with like-minded and peers.
Want to know more about the Social Innovation Challenge?
Visit Website | Innovation Forum
Get in touch: innovation@civilsocietyacademy.org
Comments