Think fast, and especially digital: The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in cooperation with the EU Commission has announced its hackathon #smartdevelopmenthack. The two-day workshop strives to find innovative solutions to challenges arising from the Coronavirus pandemic in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which can be applied digitally. Persons who are interested should hand in solution approaches starting on April 20th with the “Call for Solutions”. The proposals will then be further developed during the hackathon. A jury will decide over which projects are deemed particularly valuable and sustainable for funding.

Participants of the hackathon are either offering solutions or partners for implementation. Those, who offer solutions have a tested and tried concept, which can be applied to challenges in development cooperation. Partners for implementation, on the other hand, are involved in organizations operating in partner countries of German development cooperation. They are searching for ideas which their countries can use in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

The ideas that are handed in will be adapted to the local context during the #smartdevelopmenthack, so that they can be applied as digital solutions on-site. Five Smart-Development approaches are particularly relevant for these concepts: digital platforms, local digital innovations, e-learning, GovTeach and big data/artificial intelligence. More information is available on the website of #smartdevelopmenthack.

Those who have questions or ideas can direct these via e-mail to hackathon@toolkit-digitalisierung.de.