Scaling-Up in Silicon Valley to Disrupt Global Hunger
In October 2019, we’re taking our innovation bootcamp show on the road for the first time!
The World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator’s facilitators will meet innovator teams looking to scale-up their projects at Google Headquarters in San Francisco, California. While there, they will run through intensive bootcamp experiences and sprint processes designed to help them rethink their problem sets, hone their ideas, and develop viable solutions to address global hunger.
Scale-ups are advanced-stage innovations that have already proven their project concepts. They will participate in a 3-day bootcamp in preparation to expand their potential to scale globally and connect with Silicon Valley experts. Our collaborating corporate partners provide real-world expertise in management, marketing, user-centered design, product optimization and last-mile delivery.
Meet the Scale-Up Projects
EMPACT puts job opportunities in the global digital economy within reach of young adults affected by war in Syria and of food-insecure host communities. Tailored digital training courses provide hard (e.g. data cleaning, picture tagging) and soft skills that help bridge the gap between poverty and a new career in a globalized job market. Together with a network of forward-thinking private sector companies, WFP has trained more than 3,800 refugees, displaced or vulnerable local communities in Lebanon, Iraq and Kenya. Close to 50 percent of the graduates are women.
The H2Grow hydroponics project is a no-soil, water-efficient solution that allows people affected by hunger to grow their own fresh food in harsh desert environments. By developing low-tech systems from local materials, sprouting fresh vegetables or animal fodder in deserts, refugee camps or urban slums, H2Grow supports food-insecure families and has been implemented in 7 countries. In Algeria, 200 hydroponic units are producing fodder, boosting the milk and meat yield of goats. In Chad, 148 units were installed in 2018, supporting Sudanese refugees in the Sahel. A digital H2Grow platform has been developed with participants and provides access to easy how-to guides.
PLUS School Menus is online software that, through an advanced mathematical algorithm, calculates the most cost-effective school feeding menus that respect the nutritional requirements of children of different age groups, ensure dietary diversity and optimise impact on local economies through local procurement, with a particular focus on purchasing options from local smallholder farmers. The tool simplifies the decision-making process resulting in more nutritious, more efficient programming for children. PLUS School Menus received the WFP Innovation Challenge Award 2018.
ShareTheMeal is WFP’s fundraising app, allowing smartphone users to provide children with vital nutrition with a simple tap on their phones. It costs USD $0.50 to feed one child for a day. Free to download, the award-winning app is a pioneering way for people to join WFP’s efforts in creating a world with zero hunger. To date, the 1.5 million member strong ShareTheMeal community has shared over 43 million meals with those most in need.
PRISM/VAMPIRE is a platform for risk reduction in climate related disaster response. It collects and analyzes data to identify critical hotspots by combining Earth Observation data with real-time information on the ground. The platform provides key information on climate risk and population vulnerability before, during, and after climate events such as drought or flooding. In doing so, it enables authorities to initiate cross-sectional collaboration for disaster preparedness, and coordination between WFP and local government agencies to protect the livelihoods of those most impacted by climate change and ultimately to save lives.
Innovation Pitch Night
Once they’ve honed their ideas, these scale-ups will then showcase their ideas to one of the largest pools of international investors and corporate decision-makers from the Silicon Valley community that we have ever engaged! The goal isn’t to out-compete each other; it’s to resource transformative projects that will change how we address hunger and humanitarian assistance.
Watch the Innovation Pitch Night on WFP-USA’s Facebook page on Tuesday 15 October 2019 at 7pm PT.
More information on the innovation bootcamp in cooperation with WFP-USA in San Francisco. For more info, visit: WFP-USA.
WFP Innovation Accelerator
Assisting nearly 90 million people in more than 80 countries each year, WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and building a better future for people driven into hunger by conflict and the impact of climate change.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator identifies, nurtures and scales bold new solutions to end hunger. The Innovation Accelerator supports WFP entrepreneurs and start-ups through funding, hands-on technical support and access to WFP’s global operations. WFP believes that unprecedented advances in digital innovation, such as mobile technology, artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain, offer an opportunity to make a difference in the way it serves vulnerable communities across the world.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide. We provide WFP staff, entrepreneurs, start-ups, companies and non-governmental organizations with access to funding, mentorship, hands-on support and WFP operations.
Find out more about us: http://innovation.wfp.org
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