Deadline: 20 January 2020
Applicants are invited to apply for the 2019/20 Generation Unlimited Youth Challenge that aims to inspire young people with brilliant ideas, but without the resources to bring them to life. This includes young refugees, those who face daily discrimination due to their ethnicity, religion, nationality, their gender or their disability and those who are disadvantaged by poverty.
The challenge in the State of Palestine is being implemented by UNFPA, UNDP and UNICEF, with support from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship & Empowerment, the Palestinian Scouts Association, Bank of Palestine, Flow, Save Youth Future Society, Gaza Sky Geeks, Al-Quds University and the Palestinian Techno Park.
The challenge calls on young innovators across the State of Palestine to design solutions to improve education, employment and civic engagement.
Prize Information
- The selected teams invited to participate in design workshops in February. Following these workshops, the five most promising ideas will be selected and will be awarded US$1,000 each, as well as mentors to support the implementation of their projects.
- By June 2020, the most promising two solutions in each country will be judged globally. These projects will receive additional funding of up to US$20,000, as well as a tailor-made global incubation program from Generation Unlimited partners, to support them on a large scale.
Objectives
The objectives of the Youth Challenge are the following:
- Engage youth from more disadvantaged/marginalized background as problem solvers (rather than just as beneficiaries).
- Generate youth-led solutions and enterprises at the local level that can contribute to Generation Unlimited strategic priorities globally.
- Showcase (on a global stage) inspirational young ‘solvers’, creating role models from disadvantaged communities.
- Build citizenship, employability and entrepreneurship skills, experience and networks for disadvantaged young people.
- Engage Youth Challenge participants within Generation Unlimited at country level, including as mentors for future Youth Challenges, in co-creating Global Breakthroughs and in GenU governance structures.
- Support and strengthen youth-led innovation activities and capacity across all partner organizations involved in delivering the Youth Challenge and connect them to new opportunities.
- Leverage the GenU partners network for policy insight, financial and technical resources to meaningfully support young people.
Strategic Priorities
- Education and training
- Transform the formal school experience to build skills young people need for productive lives and the future of work
- Provide young people outside formal schooling with opportunities for training, skill development, and additional education
- Employment
- Improve connections between young people and existing work opportunities
- Increase the number of quality work opportunities available to young people
- Entrepreneurship
- Foster entrepreneurship as a mindset and a livelihood
- Equity & Engagement
- Promote equitable access to quality education, training, employment, entrepreneurship, and civic participation
- Equip young people as problem-solvers and engaged members of civil society, helping to create a better world
Eligibility Criteria
Applicant’s team must have at least three members, including you, and no more than five members total.
- Every member of team must be aged between 14 and 24 on September 23rd 2019. They welcome diversity and also welcome teams of all genders or none and include diversity of all kinds of identity – gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, etc.
- Teams are eligible that are starting to work on a new idea or project. For example, for this particular challenge young people cannot apply if:
- They have already received funding to develop the idea.
- They are already a registered company or community organization.
- Every member of your team must be available to join all days of the boot camp and other workshops during February 2020.
- If selected for local seed funding and mentorship, you need to be able to commit to implementing your idea, which could last until at least July 2020.
- If selected for global seed funding, applicants need to be able to commit to ongoing implementation.
For more information, visit https://palestine.unfpa.org/en/news/GenU-youth-challenge-201920-launches-state-palestine
