Announcing the Global Innovation Competition Jury
Making All Voices Count announces the six highly respected members of the jury that will be selecting the wildcards during the semi-final and ultimately the winner in its inaugural Global Innovation Competition.
L to R: Chris Kabwato, Faisal Chohan, Bright Simons, Shikoh Gitau, Bitage Ndemo, Sheila Ochugboju
The Global Innovation Competition, launched in November 2013, is designed to elicit edgy ideas and ground-breaking concepts to address issues linked to the Open Government Partnership in: fiscal transparency; access to information; asset disclosures of public officials; and citizen engagement.
Our jury:
The jury shares Making All Voices Count’s vision of stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship to improve the performance and accountability of governments worldwide.
Dr. Sheila Ochugboju (Nigeria), TED fellow and founder of the media and stock photography consultancy Africaknows, will chair this high profile panel. Her fellow jurors include:
- Dr. Bitange Ndemo (Kenya), former Permanent Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communications, respected academic and a passionate supporter of Open Government and Open Data movements;
- Bright Simons (Ghana), Archbishop Desmond Tutu Award winner and president of the mPedigree Network (www.mpedigree.net) that pioneered a system allowing consumers to send free text messages to check whether their medicines are counterfeit or not;
- Chris Kabwato (South Africa), Director of Highway Africa, a centre within the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, which promotes the use of digital technology among African journalists;
- Shikoh Gitau (Kenya), a mentor to various start-ups and research efforts in Africa in both academia and industry;
- Faisal Chohan (Pakistan), Senior TED Fellow, tech entrepreneur and innovator, is a founding member of the one of the earliest technology start-ups in Pakistan, Coglient Solutions, and has gone on to lead initiatives in online recruitment, disaster mitigation and open mapping, social games and virtual economy.
Techies, citizens passionate about their community, civil servants, academics and activists as well as from the private sector and civil society organisations from around the world submitted almost 200 innovations to the Global Innovation Competition.
The field has now been narrowed to 31 semi-finalists. Each of the semi-finalists will have to review other semi-finalists and rank them on the strength of their idea. The jury will take part in the process by selecting wildcards and at the end there will be 10 finalists, based on the methodology, inclusion & collaboration and quality of team/management of their proposal. All of the finalists will gather in Nairobi in late March 2014 for the Global Innovation Week.
The winner will receive a Global Innovation Grant of 65,000 GBP plus expert mentorship. Two runner-ups will each receive a grant of 35,000 GBP and the seven remaining contestants will be awarded a 5,000 GBP prize.
The Global Innovation Competition semi-finalists are listed below:
1). My Public Official Country of focus: Kenya Category: Citizen Engagement
2). ICT for women leadership Country of focus: Kenya Category: Citizen Engagement
3). Citizen Eye Country of focus: Ghana Category: Access to Information
4). The Open Hansard Country of focus: Uganda Category: Citizen Engagement
5). Enhancing public hospitals effectiveness Country of focus: South Africa Category: Access to Information
6). Open Ghana Country of focus: Ghana Category: Asset Disclosure
7). My-Voice platform to empower displaced people Country of focus: Kenya Category: Citizen Engagement
8). Deepening transparency of budget absorption Country of focus: Indonesia Category: Budget Transparency
9). Kenya ICT$D Shared Computing Centre ( SCC) Country of focus: Kenya Category: Access to Information
10). Bahawalpur Service Delivery Unit (BSDU) Country of focus: Global Category: Citizen Engagement
11). School Feeding Upload Country of focus: Ghana Category: Citizen Engagement
12). Taking Citizen Desk to Level 2.0 Country of focus: Mozambique Category: Citizen Engagement
13). Reducing Maternal Mortality Country of focus: Indonesia Category: Citizen Engagement
14). My Gov, My Part ( My Government, My Partnership) Country of focus: Global Category: Citizen Engagement
15). SMS for Human Rights System Country of focus: Tanzania Category: Citizen Engagement
16). eGovernance via ratings and reviews Country of focus: South Africa Category: Citizen Engagement
17). opendatanigeria.org (web, mobile, android & IOS) Country of focus: Nigeria Category: Access to Information
18). Children Engagement for Government Accountability Country of focus: Tanazania Category: Citizen Engagement
19). Community Action Powered by Social Media Country of focus: Pakistan Category: Citizen Engagement
20). Citizen Engagement to Implement Election Manifesto Country of focus: Bangladesh Category: Citizen Engagement
21). Ask Your Government (AYG) Country of focus: Uganda Category: Access to Information
22). Opening The Window Country of focus: Bangladesh Category: Access to Information
23). ORBIT Country of focus: Indonesia Category: Budget Transparency
24). Precision Agriculture Information System Country of focus: Global Category: Budget Transparency
25). 116 Information Sharing Portal Country of focus: Tanzania Category: Access to Information
26). Citizen-Plus Open Information Database Country of focus: Nigeria Category: Access to Information
27). Academify Country of focus: Tanzania Category: Access to Information
28). The Mandera Times Country of focus: Kenya Category: Access to Information
29). One Village, One Library Country of focus: Bangladesh Category: Access to Information
30). GEM – Going the Extra Mile Country of focus: South Africa Category: Citizen Engagement
31). Ghana Petrol Watch Country of focus: Ghana Category: Access to Information