WorldBank Group Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize 2020 | APPLY NOW

The WorldBank Group Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize aims for sustainable, technology-based solutions which would facilitate portable contributions to social insurance programs, such as pensions and savings accounts, by workers in the informal sector in West Africa. Hence, the World Bank Group Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa prize 2020 edition has been open to all interested in applying and submitting their solution to the 2020 edition topic: “How can informal sector workers in West Africa more easily participate in social protection programs?”

WorldBank Group Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize 2020 | APPLY NOW

To this effect, WorldBank Group WURI is hosting the 2020 edition of the West Africa Prize of the Mission Billion Challenge to find solutions to these problems through the contribution made by the participants. The Mission Billion Challenge winners are qualified to receive a prize total of up to $150,000, receive support and mentorship from Google Developers Experts, and take part in a high-level event at the World Bank.

About the Worldbank Group Mission Billion Challenge Wuri West Africa Prize 2020

The World Bank has launched the Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize 2020 through its West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI) program which is funded by the Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative, the Disruptive Technologies for Development (DT4D) initiative and Rapid Social Response program, to surface technology-based and human-focused solutions that will strengthen the social protection or insurance system.

Program Overview

The 2020 Mission Billion Challenge offers a Global Prize and a West Africa Prize for solutions that address the inclusivity of Identification systems for vulnerable groups, that is, those whose jobs have no social protection and insurance system. The Challenge offers cash prizes of up to US$150,000 for the most promising solutions. The  Global Prize seeks solutions that address;

  • How countries can ensure that everyone, especially vulnerable groups are able to apply/register for an Identification that protects people’s health in a way that protects the integrity of the ID system.
  • How countries can ensure that digital authentication mechanisms which often require computers, smartphones, as well as internet access are user-friendly and accessible to marginalized and vulnerable populations to facilitate remote access to these protection or insurance services and benefits

This Mission Billion challenge looks to crowdsource solutions to make Identification systems more accessible and responsive to the needs of vulnerable persons, such as informal workers, particularly at a time of social distance requirements as countries seek to leverage digital platform and technologies in order to shift services to online channels.

Eligibility Requirements for the Program

All participating Individuals must be 18 years or older at time of entry. Individuals may form teams and submit entries on behalf of teams. However, these individuals must meet the eligibility requirements for Individual Contestants. As for Organizations eligibility requirements, they must be legally established entities (could be profit, non-profit or academic organization) in their respective countries.

How to Apply for the Program

The challenge seeks to provide a solution to making the social protection and insurance system accessible to workers in the informal sector. Below are the procedures to apply for the WorldBank Group Mission challenge in order to stand the chance of claiming the Global and WURI West African Prizes;

  • GO to the Mission Billion challenge online platform at https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/wuri-mission-billion-2020
  • You will be asked a number of questions about your solution; Participants can provide all their responses at once and submit their solution. However, you can save your work and complete it later if the solution is not quite ready for submission.
  • The required questions must be completed at a minimum to save your application.
  • Click on “Submit Solution” to apply to the Challenge.

Once a participant’s solution is submitted, it will be visible on the Mission Billion Challenge website. The WorldBank Group Mission Billion Challenge is open and eligible to individuals or organizations from member countries of WorldBank.

Application Deadline

It should be noted that the deadline date for submission of contributions to the topic in the Mission Billion Challenge WURI 2020 West Africa Prize 2020 edition is 14th of August, 2020.

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