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Youth Blockchain Hackathon a first for Eastern Africa

Nairobi, 12 October 2020 - A six-week virtual hackathon was launched today to challenge young web developers in Eastern Africa to find innovative blockchain-based solutions to fight corruption. 

A first of its kind for Eastern Africa, the  East African Youth Block chain Hackathon is an initiative of UNODC, with the support of the Royal Norwegian government, alongside Celo Labs, Kotani Labs, the National Youth Council and the Ministry of the ICT, Innovation and Youth.

The challenge aims to promote youth awareness, engagement, and promotion of the implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) on the select thematic areas three major thematic areas i.e Whistle blower protection, Public Procurement and Financial Investigations. In this sense, the competition will provide a platform for young people to conceptualize, contextualize and innovate around anti-corruption challenges through the development of Blockchain based applications.

The principal secretary of the Ministry of ICT, innovation and youth, Hon. Julius Koriri, who was the chief guest and committed support to the project on behalf of the government. In his remarks he highlighted that “Block chain has the potential to be a game-changer in anti-corruption efforts and to promote the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that Governments all over the world are already embracing the technology to improve the efficacy of their service delivery”.

Hon Korir further emphasized that the event was a ” historic milestone as it was the first ever tech-based competition for anti-corruption solutions in Eastern Africa and most inspiring as it is led by the youth”.

Other guests present included the Deputy Regional Representative of UNODC, Ms Sylvie Bertrand, who highlighted that “the current This Decade of Action calls on governments, businesses, civil society and individuals everywhere to create an unstoppable force to reach the Goals by 2030 and that the application of new technologies such as Distributed Ledger Technology could revolutionize our work of UNODC and help members states achieve their anti-corruption objective”s.

Mr. David Robinson, UNODC’s regional anti-corruption advisor made comparative reference to the use of technology in fighting corruption in other jurisdictions and some of the best practices that Kenya could adopt. Mr. Roy Sasaka, the CEO of the National Youth Council emphasized the hackathon presented an opportunity for meaningful engagement of the youth in their countries’ development agenda and was also in line with the key priority areas of the Kenya Youth Development Policy 2020.

The launch also featured a panel discussions with key players in the tech sector including Prof. Bitange Ndemo, the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Blockchain and I, Ms. Bonyo the CEO Lawyers Hub, Mr. David Robinson and MS. Anca Rusu of Celo who joined the discussion via live link. 

The link to the recording of the event can be found here https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=679836809301521&ref=watch_permalink

Competition Details

This competition is open to all youths up to the age of 35 who may or may not be enrolled in colleges and universities across Eastern Africa, including those in innovation hubs, entrepreneurship and in employment.

The top participants will receive a prizes and various awards. The competition will run for six weeks from 12 October to 14 November 2020 virtually on the Devpost platform. The top youth innovators will also be profiled on the UNODC website and on partners’ websites.

The participants of the competition will be mentored in skills such as design, Prototyping, Software Engineering, business modelling, finance and marketing.  At the end of the hackathon, excellence awards will be offered to teams and individuals that exhibit extraordinary, innovative and entrepreneurial talent in their project concept, design and implementation. This will be under the categories of novelty of the proposed application, potential economic impact and potential social impact. The competition will set the basis for the formation of the UNODC Youth Tech-hub.

The launch also featured a panel discussions with key players in the tech sector including Prof. Bitange Ndemo, the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Blockchain and I, Ms. Bonyo the CEO Lawyers Hub, Mr. David Robinson and MS. Anca Rusu of Celo who joined the discussion via live link.

Visit the Blockchain Challenge page