Global South-South Development Expo 2022
Youth4South Entrepreneurship Competition
Advancing South-South & Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable COVID-19 Recovery: Towards a Smart & Resilient Future
Background
GSSD Expo is an annual event organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) designed to showcase evidence-based successful development solutions and initiatives. The GSSD Expo 2022 will be co-hosted by the Government of Thailand and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). In the lead up to the upcoming GSSD Expo, young entrepreneurs’ competition will be organized in line with the GSSD Expo theme to support recovery efforts, particularly in addressing extreme poverty, food insecurity, vaccination inequality, and other global challenges through South-South and triangular cooperation.
Objectives
Through this entrepreneurship competition, young talents from across developing countries will have an opportunity to gather, share knowledge and ideas, and collaborate to develop and scale-up innovative solutions. Everyone can play a role in the SDG decade of action, especially the passionate, innovative, and entrepreneurial young leaders who have demonstrated their capacities and commitment to make the world a more inclusive and sustainable place. The objective of this competition is to promote South-South cooperation by sharing, replicating, or scaling up entrepreneurs existing innovations with relevant partners, entrepreneurs and audiences from other developing countries
Structure and Plan
- Call for application and Source young entrepreneurs and talents (Jan 2022 onwards): working with trusted partners to source and select top talents and entrepreneurs with established enterprises and desire to create change. A call to select entrepreneurs was launched globally.
- Training for the entrepreneurs (March 2022): youth applicants to the competition offered capacity development opportunities such as the Online Training on South-South Cooperation in Cross-border E-Commerce for Poverty Eradication and Global Sustainable Development, wherein all the applicants were invited to register.
- 1st Entrepreneurship shark-style Competition (June 2022): shortlisted entrepreneurs (approx. 25) will have the opportunity to present their initiatives to expert panels. Their presentations and initiatives will be evaluated and those selected (up to 10) will qualify for the main “Match-making and Scaling-up of Youth-led Good Practices Competition” during GSSD Expo.
- Training and collaboration (August-September 2022): training opportunity on DRR and resilience, jointly organized with WHO, PAHO, UNDRR and UNOSSC. Selected youth will undergo training on entrepreneurship, innovation, business model, proposal development, marketing with a focus on how to scale-up to achieve SDGs during GSSD Expo. All the selected entrepreneurs will also be provided access to the online virtual GSSD Expo platform, Youth4South lounge to connect with other entrepreneurs, investors, and other participants.
- Final competition (14 September 2022): top selected entrepreneurs will attend the GSSD Expo 2022 in Bangkok from 12-14 September. They will also be given an opportunity to collaborate to unlock new ideas and perspectives with the Digital Innovation Challenge Winners. The final competition and pitching are proposed to take place on the 14 September in Bangkok and will be available to view online.
Key Thematic Focus areas for Entrepreneurs
The overall focus area will be the theme of the GSSD Expo “Advancing South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable COVID-19 Recovery: Towards a smart and resilient future” with the key sub-themes for entrepreneurs initiatives/projects to relate to the following areas:
- Poverty eradication and reduction of inequalities
- Digitalization and smart future
- Creative economy and sustainable tourism
- Green recovery, environment sustainability and climate action
- Food security and supply chain
- Disaster risk reduction and resilience building
- Reproductive, sexual health, demographic data
- Urbanization, local and city level development
- Cross border e-commerce
- vaccination inequality and COVID-19 response, recovery
- Clean energy
All entrepreneurs will indicate which of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) their project relates to.
Selection and Eligibility Criteria
- Eligibility Criteria for Entrepreneurs Applications
- Evaluation Criteria for Entrepreneurs Applications
About the Entrepreneurs
- Must be between 18 and 35 years old (as of the Conference date)
- Preference will be given to citizens of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), SIDS, and women
- Proficiency in English required.
About the Entrepreneurs’ Initiatives
- Must be operational or registered for at least 6 months with demonstrated results, a tested MVP: product or service prototype, tested with already measured or measurable results
- Must be in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, Linking and tangible social impact metrics in relation to the priority SDG.
- Preferably must be in line with one or more of the thematic tracks as indicated above:
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- Poverty eradication and reduction of inequalities
- Digitalization and smart future
- Creative economy and sustainable tourism
- Green recovery, environment sustainability and climate action
- Food security and supply chain
- Disaster risk reduction and resilience building
- Reproductive, sexual health, demographic data
- Urbanization, local and city level development
- Cross border e-commerce
- Vaccination inequality and COVID-19 response, recovery
- Clean energy
- Must be innovative solutions, sustainability-driven, with a new approach to solving problems
- Must either have demonstrated or have the potential to be replicable and technically feasible for other countries, territories, or regions
- Level of impact (stage of the initiative) and social impact of the initiative: no. of individuals impacted, no. of jobs created, income generated, with tangible results and indicators. (20%)
- Business innovation: how innovative and out of the box are the solutions, Degree of comparative disruptiveness/innovation in the sector (global level). (20%)
- Potential of Scalability: the potential to be replicable and technically feasible for other regions, territories and countries. (20%)
- Alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and South-South cooperation: how aligned are they with sustainable development and with south-south cooperation (20%)
- Cost and sustainability: proposed initiatives cost structure, and ability to sustain with a sustainable business model beyond aid/grants (10%)
- Communication and marketing ability: how multimedia savvy are the initiatives, quality of videos submitted, marketing ability (10%)