Build back smarter: digital solutions for liveable cities
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the inequalities and hardships faced by already vulnerable groups, particularly the poor, elderly, the disabled, and women and girls.
Women are at greater risk of exposure to the virus due to their relative high proportion in the healthcare system and as general caretakers in extended families. Rates of gender-based violence have been increasing around the world as restrictions on movement are imposed, economies are closed down and unemployment rises. People with disabilities already face multiple levels of exclusion. They will be particularly vulnerable as health and other social services are disrupted.
With the aim of moving towards building back a better and smarter city, that is “The Future We Want” and not the “The Future We Get”, we must act fast, join efforts, and come up with disruptive ideas to effectively achieve a global recovery.
ADB Smart Cities Datathon 2021
Cities around the world are still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovery will most likely be much longer and more challenging than initially expected, with vaccines only covering parts of the populations and new COVID-19 strains and other diseases emerging concurrently.
Consequently, many cities will have to develop new means of safeguarding citizens’ health and livelihoods in both the shorter- and longer-term, which takes into consideration the need for social distancing, online services, and protective measures for the most vulnerable groups.
Digitalization and online services have been crucial components in supporting healthcare systems and communication with citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitalization, online and touchless services, etc. are expected to remain crucial components of future-proofed, resilient societies and help them to “build back smarter.” To be truly resilient and smart, cities need to ensure that the accessibility and inclusivity of solutions are given the highest priority.
Open-source data has proven to be considerably valuable, particularly in the context of the pandemic and in light of the need to increase accessibility and transparency of data. Open-source data can be an important component for countries’ digital transformation to enhance their ability to respond to-, recover from- and transform in the wake of the current pandemic.
Problem Statement
With this Smart Cities Datathon, ADB is challenging innovators (startups, students, research organizations and independent researchers, corporate partners) around the world to tackle the following problem statement:
To build back smarter, how can digital solutions be used to make cities more livable with a focus on one or more of the following:
Access to urban services and amenities
How can we ensure that vulnerable groups get reliable access to urban services and amenities?
Participation and influxes in the decision-making process
How can we ensure that the voice of vulnerable groups will be heard and taken into consideration in policy discussions and decision-making?
Improving Financial Access
How can cities digitally enhance their financial mechanisms to provide better support to vulnerable groups (i.e. loans, fintech smart payments, etc.)?
Complete information for this open innovation challenge is available here
Agrograde app helps farmers get a quality overview of their harvested fruits and vegetables. This report comes handy while negotiating with buyers and also helps farmer determine who it should be marketed to. Using this technology farmers can directly communicate with the enterprises or buyers to communicate quality of their harvests. And added advantage of the using the app is to know what quality can be sold to which type of buyer to optimise returns.
Seed Funding
USD 20,000 will be awarded to the best solution!
This international seed funding aims to encourage submitters to ‘think global’ with their ideas/solutions with the objective of testing and scaling the solutions.
FINAL EVENT
Up to 5 finalist teams will be invited to pitch online in front of a panel of esteemed judges made of representatives from ADB, the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Amazon Web Services, UN-Habitat, Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand, Ramboll, and the Bandung City Government.
Join the challenge by 31 May 2021
ABOUT Asian Development Bank (ADB) :
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. It assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.
ADB, in partnership with member governments, independent specialists, and other financial institutions is focused on delivering projects in developing member countries that create economic and development impact.
Also Read :
Diversity in humanity, humanity in diversity : IDAHOBIT 2021
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