KATHMANDU: Start-up companies have been called for ADB Hackathon with innovative ideas or technological solutions to improve the health, safety, welfare, and working conditions of sanitation workers in Nepal.
The ADB Hackathon is an innovative event that inspires innovators across Nepal to leverage technology, creativity, and teamwork to develop technological solutions aimed at improving the safety and dignity of sanitation workers in the country.
The Hackathon is part of a broader technical assistance program of ADB that seeks to accelerate sanitation for all in Asia and the Pacific, and Nepal is one of the participating countries.
Through a competitive selection process, ADB Hackathon will identify a startup or JV of startups that will work closely with the project’s expert consulting engineer, PMO, and other stakeholders.
Overall the project aims to help transform sanitation into a respectable profession by inventing/developing/transferring these technical solutions, and currently piloting them in two cities – Bharatpur and Nepalgunj.
The Hackathon will feature various activities such as pre-selection and short-listing of potential innovators, orientation sessions, on-site pitching of innovative ideas, local design demonstrations, and a hackathon with mentorship sessions.
The program will run for a period of one month.
The jury of the hackathon will consist of technical innovators and experts from various fields of STI, innovation business management, and sanitation management. The 10 best startups will receive $500 for the prototype development and the winners will receive as much as a $40,000 grant for developing and piloting the product/solution that they have proposed.
The selected products will be piloted in Bharatpur and Nepalgunj in the first stage.
Hackathon has asked innovators or innovative companies from all over Nepal to submit their ideas by visiting the web portal adbhackathon.org.
ADB Hackathon as a part of the ADB-TA 9897: Hackathon is being organized on April 27-29, 2023 with ADB and Government of Nepal, Ministry of Water Supply, Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management, Project Management Office (DWSSM/PMO) as hosts and Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) as the Co-host.
The event is managed by the Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN) under the supervision of a Social Engineer consultant of ADB who is the Focal Person for the Hackathon.
