The Challenge aims to foster and nurture catalytic youth-led solutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Challenge forms part of activities under the Africa Youth Partnership to Advocate an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
YOTA (Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa) is supporting young innovators to drive change and contribute to post-pandemic recovery efforts through grassroots innovations and social action. This is to alleviate the negative consequences of the pandemic on young people and their communities while elevating the ideas, ingenuity, and creativity of young innovators working to address the effects of the global health crisis.
They are looking for the most talented young innovators from Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria to showcase their ideas on and proposed solutions for addressing the many challenges posed to the continent by the COVID-19 pandemic. They want to support youth innovation for the advancement of inclusive and equitable post-pandemic recovery efforts.
The thematic focus of the Youth Innovation Challenge cuts across several sectors, as long as a direct connection can be made to post-pandemic recovery potential. In particular, we are looking for youth-led solutions that address challenges in one or more of the following themes:
- Agriculture and Fisheries
- Biodiversity
- Digitalisation, AI, and Emerging Technologies
- Education and Skills
- Employment
- Energy and Industry
- Finance, Trade, and International Investment
- Gender
- Governance and Politics
- Health and Wellbeing, including Vaccines
- Housing and Infrastructure Development
- Local and Regional Development
- Migration
- Mobility and Transport
- Tourism