An online design challenge on COVID-19 was launched today to provide Ethiopian youth an opportunity to come up with innovative solutions to tackle current and future challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The design challenge was originally launched by UNICEF and partners in Nigeria in May 2020 but is expanding now to other countries in Africa. In Ethiopia, UNICEF and UNDP are working together to addresses the most urgent challenges young people face across education, employment, and entrepreneurship.
The COVID-19 design challenge for youth involves engaging young people in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic through an online design thinking platform Cartedo in order to:
– Catalyze youth networks to drive awareness of COVID-19 and improve access to reliable information
– Accord the Ethiopian youth a platform to contribute to ways to prevent and mitigate the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on Ethiopian society.
– Provide the youth the chance to develop skills that will enhance future employability
As innovative ideas are being sourced from Ethiopian youth, the challenge also seeks to build their design thinking skills. Interested youth can access the COVID-19 Design Challenge website here as of now until the deadline of 30 June 2020.