To counteract the global pandemic, BMZ, together with the EU Commission, launched the global ideas competition #SmartDevelopmentHack in preparation for the German EU-Council Presidency. The ideas competition encompassed more than 30 partners as part of “Team Europe”. The common goal was to scale up existing digital solutions and to immediately deploy them against challenges related to the COVID-19 crisis in developing countries. On April 20th, the #SmartDevelopmentHack called for digital solutions in the four areas of a) equal opportunities, b) good governance and human rights, c) work and employment and d) data for development. The response was overwhelming: In only one week, more than 1000 digital solutions were submitted. 20 teams were invited to join the hack days, a two-day virtual workshop to refine the project ideas together with implementing partners and mentors. On May 20th, a high-ranking jury of BMZ, DG DEVCO, OACPS, Smart Africa, TU Munich, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GIZ and KfW determined the nine winnering projects. It is not overly enthusiastic to claim that the #SmartDevelopmentHack was a success in finding digital solutions against COVID-19. Moving forward, the nine winning projects will receive methodological support and funding to scale up their solutions. There is also the possibility to further develop the projects with the BMZ digital learning platform atingi.org. |