EastCode 2021 National Contest of Innovative Solutions has started

Citizens from all over Ukraine and even abroad can take part in the contest. However, if winning, the suggested idea should be piloted in the communities of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and only then can be scaled to the whole of Ukraine.

The submitted projects and solutions must be relevant to one of the topics of the contest:

1. Good governance and civic engagement
2. Environmental protection, sustainable growth and responsible consumption
3. Public services, service delivery and access to services.

All applications submitted to the contest will be evaluated according to four main criteria:

• Innovation. Manufacturability and novelty of the suggested solutions
• Social impact. The ideas are aimed at solving current social problems and challenges for communities.
• Ideas have clear business plans, implementation strategies and measurable success rates.
• The suggested ideas have the opportunity to be disseminated or implemented in the communities of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Still, in the future, they can be scaled to Ukraine in its entirety.

Project evaluation will take place in several stages. Participants who pass the technical selection and semi-finals will present their projects to an honorary jury in the finals of the online event in early August.

The prize fund of the contest is 100,000 USD. Winners can receive up to 20,000 USD in grant support for implementing their ideas or rapid prototyping in specific communities from the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, grant application support, mentoring from organizers, and valuable prizes from partners.

Application deadline: July 15th, 2021.

Details and registration: https://eastcode.tech/ 

The National contest of innovative solutions for communities of eastern Ukraine EastCode 2021 is organized by the Center42 Innovation Agency and the Happy Monday career acceleration company within the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme and in partnership with the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast State Administrations with financial support of Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.

The United Nations Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme (UN RPP) is being implemented by four United Nations agencies: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Twelve international partners support the Programme: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, and the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden & Switzerland.