Deadline: 29 February 2020
Applications are now open for the Rural Youth Innovation Award in Latin America and the Caribbean to identify, reward and disseminate innovative and sustainable initiatives carried out by youth from Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Award’s participating initiatives must be good practices and technologies already implemented. They must be effective in resolving issues related to the rural area, especially of small local farmers.
The Rural Youth Innovation Award in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the first initiatives of the Latin American South-South Knowledge and Cooperation Center of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and is co-financed by the government Chinese. Since 1977, IFAD operates throughout the world, encouraging the production of small farmers and fighting against poverty.
Categories
In addition, initiatives must be related with at least one of the categories below:
- Climate Action: Innovative initiatives that relieve or prevent climate crisis effects in rural areas, such as droughts, storms and floods. For example, they can be initiatives that focus on natural resources management, risk systems expansion, pasture management, erosion control, greenhouse emissions reduction, among others.
- Communications & technology: Initiatives that uses IT solutions or software or/and hardware (such as electronic devices, artificial intelligence, applications of all kinds, telecommunications networks, etc.) to promote positive and sustainable impact on the rural area and its needs.
- Conservation: Preservation initiatives fighting natural damage, loss or waste. They can be initiatives that manages and uses natural resources in a sustainable way, looking for optimal levels of performance and preservation of biological diversity, natural ecosystems, flora, fauna and microorganisms.
- Education: It includes initiatives that offer and / or promote greater or better access to educational products and services for the rural area, in all its modalities (formal, non-formal), levels (early childhood, primary, secondary, higher education) and types.
- Financial inclusion: Initiatives that promote greater and better access to financial institutions, either for people or companies. They must foster services and products use and/or promote offer’s quality and variety within rural areas. This category can also include the creation and supply of financial products and services towards the rural needs and reality.
- Food security: Initiatives that promote and / or guarantee the right of rural populations to regular and permanent access to high-quality food, in sufficient quantity, without compromising access to other essential needs. They must be based on food practices that promote health, that respect cultural diversity and that are environmentally, culturally, economically and socially sustainable.
- Income generation: Initiatives that promote or offer financial return opportunities for its beneficiaries. They must provide conditions for a more dignified life, by fostering financial autonomy through income increase.
- Sustainability: Initiatives towards economic, social and environmental sustainability. They must use natural assets and provide solutions to their or others needs without harming the natural environment, guaranteeing its use to future generations. To be sustainable, an action or project must cover the main pillars of sustainability: be economically viable; socially fair; ecologically correct; and culturally diversified.
What the Award considers as “innovation“?
Innovation is a concept that can take on many meanings. Innovation is the change that occurs when introducing or adapting a novelty to different contexts, it is the result of a problem-solving process, which includes technical, conception, development, management activities that can result in the commercialization of new products or services, or introduce the use of new processes. Innovation has different dimensions, that can be:
- New products introduction;
- Introduction of new production methods;
- New forms of socio-economic organisation;
- Development of new sources of supply for raw materials and others materials; and
- creation of new market structures.
Award Information
- The Award Committee will select a maximum of 10 Initiatives that best meet the requirements and purposes of the Award (the “Winning Initiatives”), which will be announced during the Award Ceremony. The Winning Initiatives will be eligible for their respective Prize.
- IFAD will organize an award ceremony (the “Award Ceremony”), which will take place in Bogota, Colombia on 4 June 2020. The Finalists may attend the Award Ceremony, to that end, they will receive a lump sum to cover for their transportation to and lodging in Bogota to attend the Award Ceremony, but they shall be solely responsible for obtaining their passport, visa (if any) and insurance. Should IFAD extend the deadline to carry out the Award Ceremony, the Finalists will be notified accordingly.
- During the Award Ceremony, the Award Committee will issue a certificate to the Finalists. The Award Committee will subsequently liaise, at its discretion, the Participants who submitted the Winning Initiative with the sponsor of the Award (the “Sponsors”) it deems appropriate. It shall be the sole responsibility of the Participant who submitted a Winning Initiative to arrange any communication, execution and/or any other matter related to the Prize with the Sponsors, but IFAD may provide support in facilitating these exchanges as appropriate.
Eligibility Criteria
- Youth aged 18 to 35 years old, nationals and residents of all countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Registration can be done individually or in groups. In case of groups and/or institutions, at least 80% of its participants must be youth from 18 to 35 years old.
- Applications are open to urban and rural residents as long as their initiatives innovate life in rural areas.
How to Apply
In order to submit a proposal for the Award, the Participant shall:
- Submit only one Initiative per individual or per group;
- Submit all information and supporting materials in English, Spanish or Portuguese; and
- Provide the required information and supporting materials in accordance with the Initiative’s Form in a complete and accurate manner.
The Participants shall submit the Initiative by completing the Form in its entirety via the given website.
For more information, visit https://premiojovenrural.org/en/eng-front-page/