Agency for International Development

Description

Over the past year, USAID and Humanity United have jointly administered the Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention, a prize contest that sought innovative ideas for applying technology to five specific issues related to atrocity prevention. Discrete problems focused on by the Tech Challenge included: how to identify and spotlight intentional or unintentional “third party enablers” of atrocities; how to better model or forecast the likelihood of atrocity events; how to safely document and transmit evidence of atrocities; how to enable secure communication among and between at-risk communities; and how to better obtain and verify information in hard-to-access areas. The Tech Challenge utilized three different solver platforms (OpenIDEO, InnoCentive and TopCoder) to conduct each of the separate component challenges. Four of the five component challenges were ideation challenges, meaning they solicited ideas rather than prototypes, while one of the challenges sought and tested algorithms. External judges selected the winners for all of the contests. Cash prizes were disbursed to the winners of four of the five challenges via the platforms, usually for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, while the fifth challenge’s platform advised against monetary awards for winners.The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a “Seed Grants Program” to provide support for implementation of innovative technology applications for broader atrocity prevention or response efforts.

Who can apply

• Others

Contact

Ebony Fultz <br/>Agreement Specialist <br/>Phone 202-567-5034
efultz@usaid.gov