UNLEASH Hacks are localized hackathons designed to address sustainability challenges in specific contexts around the world.
Through a collaborative 2-day event organized by UNLEASH alumni and their network, passionate talents work with local stakeholders and community leaders to collectively solve problems and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Each Hack focuses on one region and one sustainability challenge. For now, all Hacks in 2021 will take place online over two Satursdays.
In the context of the Amazon region, bioeconomy is a matrix of sustainable economic development based on knowledge of nature and the understanding that Amazonian biodiversity is the backbone of this transformative process.
The “Climathon: Bioeconomy Challenges of the Amazon region” calls for innovative bioeconomy solutions which contribute to the conservation, preservation, or restoration of the rainforest while also delivering social-economic benefits for local communities.
Teams will have the opportunity to win a 5000 USD grant sponsored by the Hempel Foundation.
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UNLEASH e Youth Climate Leaders uniram forças para realizar um programa sob medida com o objetivo principal de mobilizar e capacitar os jovens da região amazônica para liderar soluções que possam enfrentar os desafios bioeconômicos locais, promover a justiça e a conservação das florestas.
Por meio do programa, os jovens ganharão ferramentas e habilidades inovadoras, ao mesmo tempo em que desenvolvem iniciativas que podem ser apresentadas às partes interessadas relevantes e podem enfrentar os desafios da mudança climática e da biodiversidade.
Note that applicants should be from Brazil and speak Portuguese.
This Hack is co-organized by Youth Climate Leaders
Nepal’s vulnerability to climate change puts millions of Nepalese at risk from its impact, including reducing agricultural production and food security. This hack will address multidimensional aspects of SDG 2, and SDG 13, focusing specifically on improving food and nutritional security and strengthening the climate resilience of vulnerable populations in Nepal.
Contact: [email protected]
Air pollution is a concerning environmental issue in India, having killed nearly 1.7 million people in 2019 – 18% of all deaths. Air pollution significantly impacts public health, the environment, and the economy, causing India $36.8 billion in 2019. This hacks focuses on developing innovative solutions to inform practices and solutions to mitigate air pollution as a key catalyst to address SDG 11 and 13.
Contact: [email protected]
Bangladesh has nearly 40 million children enrolled in school. The complete shutdown of schools during COVID-19 significantly impacted the country. Previously, Bangladesh struggled with a severe educational crisis, including a high drop-out rate. The UNLEASH Bangladesh Hack focuses on developing forward-thinking ideas to bridge the gap between quality access to education and the future of learning and skills development.
Contact: [email protected]
Despite Brazil having one of the cleanest energy matrixes in the world, this sector has been undergoing transformations and its modernization is essential in a challenging pandemic context. This hack focuses on developing ideas that make energy more accessible, efficient, clean and diversified.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: IB2 Co.
IB2 Co. is building an off-grid electricity solution. People in rural places need cheap and accessible electricity due to power instability. The team will build and deploy solar farms in various locations, and for any area, they will figure out what kind of energy is needed and offer such services.
Japan’s legacy of peace and ICT leadership, offers an opportunity to reflect on the multi-faceted components of building and sustaining peaceful relations between countries and communities.This hack engages students and thinkers in international relations, sustainability studies, and peace from ICU, UNU-IAS, and the University of Tokyo to ideate for positive peace.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: TechEd
TechEd aims to strengthen relations among students and professors and improve the learning experience for students. Students are usually hesitant to ask other students or Professors during lectures as it can be seen as shameful and embarrassing. Cultural barriers and technology sometimes create an unhealthy relationship. The team is building a gaming platform where students and professors can interact to seek help and offer support where necessary.
Ulaanbaatar is one of the world’s most polluted capitals. Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts are home to about two-thirds of the capital’s population, where fossil fuels are burned, resulting in over 60 percent of the city’s overall air pollution. This hack focuses on advocating for creation of sustainable digital solutions to address air pollution in Ulaanbaatar for a healthy future generation.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Airnomads
Airnomads is creating a solution to transform the district’s massive pollution challenge by engaging the primary polluters, local citizens, who burn fossil fuel regularly. The team plans to help facilitate people into better housing to utilize better heating systems and sustainable ways of generating energy. The government and international organizations manage ongoing housing projects, but local citizens are unaware or uneducated to access them. 80% of the city’s air pollution is caused by citizens’ use of coal from living in low-grade homes. Airnomads is building a website to create access and simple-to-use processes for citizens to access housing projects.
Thirty-five million tons of food go to waste annually in China, especially in cities, which causes food insufficiency in impoverished areas and widening the regional disparities. China’s food loss can feed 30 to 50 million people. Food waste also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The UNLEASH China Hack focuses on using technology, like AI and image recognition, to prevent and reduce food waste.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Food Helper
Food Helper is building an app that will catalog and detect food expiration and suggest where economically advantaged citizens can donate food before they expire. Grocery shopping often ends up expiring, and many of such foods often go to waste.
In low-middle income countries, children below the age of 15 account for about 42% of the population. These school-going age children have the fewest touchpoints with the healthcare system if any. Mental and physical health problems have contributed significantly to education challenges, including increased missed school days and high drop-out rates.This hack focuses on creating solutions to improve health and education outcomes for Zambia.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Healthwiz
Healthwiz is building a social enterprise that will produce and sell snacks to middle- and high-income families and use the funds to create a school-feeding program to provide free meals and healthcare to students. Adolescent learners in Zambia need food intake, and improper nutrition can affect their learning outcomes.
In Liberia, the impact of climate change is severe due to the low levels of adaptive capacity in various sectors, emanating from low levels of human and institutional capacity, technology, and infrastructure. This hack focuses on improving Liberia’s adaptive capacity by integrating climate change and education across Liberia.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Chriskielkia
Chriskielkia plans to produce charcoal briquettes as an alternative means for charcoal production, which results in the cutting down of trees. Ninety-five percent of households use charcoal. Thousands of trees are cut down, producing carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas that affects citizens’ health and well-being. The team plans to use traditional coconut shells and palm kernels, among other available traditional technology products.
An estimated 90% of the on-site sewage systems in Lowndes County in Alabama’s Black Belt are failing or non-existent, resulting in the pooling of raw sewage in yards. Exposure results in negative health impacts, such as hookworm infections. Lack of sanitation perpetuates cycles of poverty and marginalization. This hack focuses on addressing wastewater and sanitation challenges in Alabama’s Black Belt.
Contact: [email protected]
Unemployment and underemployment are increasing among women in Ghana. The lack of job opportunities and limited support to entrepreneurship initiatives targeting women and the COVID-19 pandemic further amplify these challenges. This hack focuses on job creation solutions and economic opportunities for women, targeting the technology, WASH, hospitality and tourism sectors.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: LEASH
LEASH is building a storytelling platform that will partner with influential brands to sell the Ghanaian stories to the diaspora. In turn, the team will use proceeds for local empowerment projects. The team plans to partner with big brands and add their stories to their products for access.
Cities in developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization. The land is under enormous strain from road expansion. A total of 151,113 people were killed in 480,652 road accidents across India in 2019. This hack focuses on reducing economic strain and road fatalities, increasing access and equity across socio-economic groups, and decongesting tier-1 and tier-2 cities across India.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Drishti
Drishti is building a solution to prevent visually impaired citizens from fatal road accidents on buses. The mobile app will use a GPS tracking system to predict bus arrivals and stops, facilitating independent boarding and deboarding for visually impaired citizens.
90% of Jamaica’s GDP is produced within the coastal zone, comprising its key industries. Over half of the population is vulnerable to hurricanes, sea-level rise, and the loss of about 350 hectares of forest each year, leaving 40% of Jamaica’s Forest. This Hack focuses on increasing innovation around Biodiversity and Climate Change issues in Caribbean SIDS.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Carbonators
Carbonators is developing a solution to address the near-collapse of artisanal fishing by helping fishing communities grow, harvest, and collect seaweed to supply various industries.
Singapore launched a set of ambitious measures to accelerate the country’s aim toward net-zero emission. To achieve this goal by 2050, private sectors, local communities and regional collaborations are crucial. This hack focuses on empowering youth in the Growth Triangle region (Singapore-Malaysia-Indonesia) to innovate for Sustainable Living in Singapore and regional decarbonization efforts.
Contact: u[email protected]
Wining solution: AI-powered Cooling System
AI-powered cooling system is building a solution for businesses, targeting shopping mall retailers. About 60% of electricity bills in Singapore are spent on cooling. By cutting down the expenses, it will help businesses.
Internet and technology access remain a challenge in The Gambia, regardless of the ubiquitous age of technology. Lack of infrastructure, unaffordability, and interrupted power supply affect young people’s access. This challenge, among many issues, contributes more broadly to low-quality education and skills development for students to thrive. This hack focuses on creating solutions to expand internet access and improve learning outcomes for students.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Ndanaan
Ndanaan plans to set up an e-library system for solar tablets in schools during the academic year. The team will design the system to fit the individual student needs and local context and provide students free e-books for core academic subjects, supplemental learning materials, and vocational training for personal development.
Ghana’s youth unemployment is 12%, while underemployment is 50%, both higher than the overall unemployment rates among Sub-Saharan African countries. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this problem is expected to intensify. This hack focuses on increasing job creation opportunities for young people and discovering green startup ideas for a thriving Green Economy in Ghana.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Adroit
Adroit seeks to prevent youth illegal mining. By creating a company that equips young people with technical skills to produce and sell products, the team hopes to develop alternative employment opportunities.
Seventeen of Mexico’s 32 states are on the coast of the two largest oceans in the world. However, 41 of its 58 highly biodiverse coastal areas are currently threatened. Most of these regions’ economies are based only on tourism which are not adequately regulated or monitored. This hack focuses on creating solutions to protect coastal ecosystems while promoting responsible tourism to address SDG 15: Life on Land.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Biosoldiers
Biosoldiers is developing a web-based platform to inform tourists about verified eco-friendly tourism sites to book while encouraging all businesses to integrate sustainability into their business activities.
Good governance remains a major challenge for Pakistan, ranging from law and order, integrity, coordination, and cooperation among individuals and institutions. Combined with corruption and political instability, these issues impede progress towards the country’s sustainable development. This hack focuses on enhancing the legal capacity and equipping young people with the tools to create community solutions to Pakistan’s governance challenges.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: Team C
Team C is building an organization for transgender people. As a non-included and discriminated population, Team C wants to create awareness about transgender rights and provide opportunities to educate and equip transgender people with employment and economic empowerment skills.
One in every four Moroccan children is unwanted. About 450,000 people are infected by Sexually Transmitted Infections annually, 70% of whom are women. Hence, women still lack access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and information. This hack focuses on improving women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services and information.
Contact: [email protected]
Wining solution: SoutLoud
SoutLoud offers a playful approach to SexEd, anchored in Morocco’s reality and culture, using video games, anonymous identity, and other relevant tools
Gain new experiences, tools and skills to tackle the SDGs by working on a topic that is close to your heart, with dozens of other young people in your region, each with strong networks and proven drive.
Become an SDG pioneer and join the UNLEASH Community, getting access to a global network of talents and experts, as well as new programs and opportunities.
Solve important sustainability challenges in your community and create solutions that can create tangible impact to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
