During the last weekends, on 13 and 14th of March UNDP Accelerator Lab in Kyrgyzstan held #DevelopMyCommunity online-hackathon and supported three digital solutions aimed at community development. This initiative was implemented jointly with the UNDP project "Digital skills and youth employment opportunities in the digital economy in the Kyrgyz Republic " with financial support of the Russian Federation.
As a result of the two-day online-hackathon, 16 teams out of 36 were selected for pitching - the presentation of innovative ideas for community development. Based on its results, the jury selected three innovative ideas which were selected with the support of Accelerator Lab team.
1st place - SEMANTIR - Marketing Assistant for Business Community
SEMANTIR project - is a marketing assistant for entrepreneurs and representatives of the creative economy, which will help to generate texts, posts and letters in English and Russian. SEMANTIR uses artificial intelligence which empower citizens and business community to generate media products and promote online their goods and services, accordingly. The authors of this idea were awarded with 125,000 soms for implementation.
2nd place - ILGERI multimedia project
A trilingual platform promoting the national culture, history, material and non-material heritage of Kyrgyzstan using modern technologies, creative solutions and art. The developers plan to use QR codes, AR, audio guides, videos and gamification to familiarize users with stories, facts and events from various fields related to Kyrgyz culture. ILGERI digital solution is aimed at building community of civic activists for promoting urban culture. In the future ILGERI may become a platform for co-planning, co-creation and co-implementation of the urban-related initiatives.
For the implementation of the ILGERI project, the winners were awarded a certificate for the amount of 75,000 soms.
3rd place - Ashar App platform
Ashar App - is a platform designed to simplify the translation process of technological terms into Kyrgyz. The authors expect that app users will be able to request translation from others and vote on the best options within the app. Further, the developers plan to receive commercial orders for translation and thus ensure the sustainability of the project. The paramount goal of Ashar App is to unite IT specialists using Kyrgyz language and help them building IT community through the crowdsourcing mechanism. The app promotes digital skills making them more accessible for youth in the remote areas of Kyrgyzstan.
To implement this idea, the Ashar App team received a certificate for 50,000 soms.
Evaluation was hold on the following criteria:
1. Originality - How creative and unique is the idea?
2. Social relevance - How well does the idea meet the interests and needs of the communities?
3. Feasibility - How realistic is the implementation of the idea?
4. Technology - To what extent the proposed solution uses new technologies (applications, games, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and others).
Team presentations are available here.
About UNDP Accelerator Labs
Accelerator Lab is launched at the initiative of the United Nations Development Program jointly with the Qatar Development Fund and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany. Accelerator Lab is designed to harness local innovation to create actionable insights and reimagine sustainable development in the 21st century. The Accelerator Lab Network is the largest and fastest-growing knowledge and development network of 92 Accelerator Laboratories in 116 countries, including a newly established laboratory in the Kyrgyz Republic.
As a member of the global knowledge network, the UNDP Accelerator Lab in the Kyrgyz Republic opened with internal UNDP funding at the end of 2020, will regularly share its discoveries and ideas arising from the analysis of the development problems of our country.
Contact Information:
Chyntemir Kalbaev,
Communications Assistant, UNDP in the Kyrgyz Republic
+996775767605
Some snapshots from the event
Photos: Asem Mukeeva and Asipa Altymysheva / UNDP Kyrgyzstan