UNCDF and partners are organizing hack4refugees to look for solutions to the challenges affecting refugees in Ugandan camps.
Uganda is the most welcoming country to refugees in the world. Neighboring countries like Rwanda, D.R. Congo, and South Sudan have relied on it in crises. Yet, this comes with challenges. Several refugee camps have challenges like agricultural productivity, distribution of items and goods.
"These solutions are able to boost their connectedness to the wider socio-economic system and restore their dignity so that they become agents of development of their own lives as well as their host communities," the official communication reads.
In 2016, Uganda took in more refugees than any other part of the world. Yet the numbers continue to grow. As of 30th June 2017, there are currently 977, 746 refugees and asylum seekers from South Sudan in Uganda. Bringing the number to a total of 1.25 million refugees.
The living conditions they are in are deplorable with lack of access to the basic essentials. These include education, food, and clean water. There's also limited access to financial capital for survival, health, and medical facilities. This affects young women in need of maternity care as well as children exposed to malnutrition, and sanitation-related diseases.
Filippo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees reported that Uganda is at a breaking point. This is in regards to the surging number of refugees fleeing war struck South Sudan. This influx implies tremendous pressure on the host communities and the Ugandan economy. Besides that, the available aid and relief do not match the needs nor scale of the crisis.
"The Innovation Village in partnership with UNCDF, DanChurchAid and Mercy Corps are seeking for innovators with a passion for developing sustainable digital solutions that will address the highlighted challenges," reads the call to action.
Using the principles of Human Centred Design, the selected teams will get immersed in the refugee community to co-create workable solutions with the refugees before prototyping and testing their solutions over a 3 month period.
There are three challenges; Information dissemination including delivery of education, training, and literacy, distribution of items and goods as well as agricultural services for increased productivity and marketing.
Successful ideas will get judged on 5 fronts; creativity, scalability, teamwork, financial sustainability and feasibility.
The process will kick off with the submission of applications (note deadline is 13th November 2017). Followed by a boot camp from 17 - 19 November 2017 at The Innovation Village in Ntinda.