The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) yesterday announced the finalists of the second edition of Young Innovators Competition.The contest provides young and talented social entrepreneurs with an opportunity to attend its key global networking and knowledge sharing event, ITU Telecom World 2012 that is slated for 14 to 18 October in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as well as a chance to win funding, mentorship and support.According to a statement from ITU, out of about 400 entries from 77 countries worldwide, 12 submissions were selected as having the greatest possible social impact and potential for business success within each category.The projects selected demonstrated both the breadth of young innovation geographically and the depth of technological applications.“Successful innovation rests on combining technology with human ingenuity, a resource which the youth of today around the world have in abundance”, said ITU Secretary-General, Hamadoun Touré.“This competition enables young digital innovators to demonstrate their ideas for tackling development issues, and commitment to changing the world on a truly global stage. Let us not forget that the young social entrepreneurs of today are the business, government and technology leaders of tomorrow.”Open to young social entrepreneurs between ages 18 and 25 from around the world, the competition seeks innovative digital solutions in the form of initial concepts or early-stage projects meeting real-world development challenges within the core theme of “Youth Innovation for Development.”Some of finalists include among others B.IT – GPS-based monitoring of blood in local blood banks (Oman, Healthcare), ChipSafer – Early recognition system for cattle diseases (Uruguay, Healthcare), Crisis Communicator – Disaster management information communication system (USA, Healthcare), SasaAfrica – e-Commerce application for local craftswomen (Kenya, Empowerment of Women) and Takachar – Solid waste management through ICT sensors (Kenya, Environmental Sustainability).Young Rwandan ICT entrepreneurs who submitted their projects were not successful as the selection process was very competitive and many of the projects did not impress the judges.Claude Migisha Kalisa, a technologist at Jhpiego-Rwanda, who contested in last year’s ITU’s Young Innovators Competition said: “the contest is an opportunity where one can get both industry mentorship and hands-on training skills.”Kalisa is the founding member of KLab and the co-founder of The iHills and Nobleclick Ltd.The iHills is an umbrella of all Young Rwandan Entrepreneurs in ICT. He pointed out that most of the time, the youth have bright ideas but are hampered by lack funds as well as managerial and business skills.The winners will benefit from prize money of up to Swiss Francs 10,000 (approx. Rwf 6.5 million) to realise their entrepreneurial dreams.
