Crack the Code to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence Hackathon

About Hackathon

Crack the Code to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence

Are you an Innovator? Participate in UNFPA’s nationwide hackathon to prevent and address Gender-Based Violence!

Background

Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It knows no social, economic or national boundaries. Worldwide, an estimated one in three women experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime. The most recent data from the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-5) also reported that around 29.3% of married Indian women between the ages of 18-49 years have faced domestic violence/ or sexual violence. Gender-based violence undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of individuals, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence. It also impedes the realisation of shared development goals.

The risk of and vulnerability to GBV increases on account of intersections of gender with sexual orientation, disability, caste, and age, among others. Similarly, GBV risks have also been known to increase in humanitarian crises such as natural calamities, public health emergencies and conflicts.

In addition to the impacts of GBV on physical health, its mental health impact can be equally devastating and lead to long-term depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal ideations amongst survivors. The reverse relationship is also true: individuals living with mental illnesses are significantly more likely to face violence.

Challenges in effectively preventing and responding to GBV persist, among other factors, due to lack of awareness, prevention, reporting mechanisms (including lack of awareness about reporting and referral mechanisms) or low accessibility to existing services. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in India has launched this hackathon to seek relevant, impactful and innovative ideas and encourages individuals, students, women-led team, start-ups, techpreneurs and people with diverse lived experiences to participate in the Hackathon - "Crack the Code to Prevent and Address GBV" to ideate, design and build relevant, impactful and innovative solutions to address gender-based violence.

Problem Statements

Address key knowledge gaps and enable access to services for Persons with Disabilities experiencing Gender Based Violence (GBV)
Enhance awareness about available services and facilitate anonymous, safe and timely access to services for GBV survivors and those at risk of GBV in humanitarian situations
Address Technology Facilitated GBV (TFGBV) through designing or modification of existing solutions on Awareness, Prevention, Detection and Reporting

Stages of Hackathon

In Stage 1: Register and Submit an Idea
You will deep dive into problem statements and submit innovative ideas addressing gender-based violence (GBV) that will have the potential to create an impact in the lives of people at risk of gender-based violence.

In Stage 2: Submission of Prototype
Select teams or individuals will submit their prototypes and will receive mentoring support from subject matter experts to turn their vision into a reality (minimal viable products or innovative solutions) addressing identified problem statements.

In Stage 3: Hackathon Finale
Time to pitch your prototype in front of a selection jury. The top 3 will receive cash awards and the 4th and 5th place will receive a certification from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for their contribution to the social initiative to make the world safer for people.

Eligibility Criteria

Open to any individual, students, startups, university group or any organization.
The proposed innovation/ idea should be contributing to one of the following identified challenges: (i) responding to needs and concerns of persons with disabilities while accessing GBV services and support systems; (ii) addressing technology facilitated gender based violence; and (iii) strengthening GBV services and support systems during humanitarian crises, natural calamities and public health emergencies
The ideas must have a viable pathway to develop MPV into a full scale solution for piloting and scale up
Only one submission per applying team is permitted. All submissions must be made in the English language only.

In addition to the eligibility criteria, additional points will be given to ideas submitted by women/ women-led teams or organisations. We also value solutions that are driven by people’s lived experiences, and encourage diversity in applications.

Evaluation Criteria

Stage 1 – Submission and Selection of Ideas:

Relevance and alignment of Idea (30%) – How relevant is the idea for solving the most pressing identified challenges for ending gender-based violence (GBV)?

Novelty of Idea (20%) – How novel is the idea (new, advancement of existing solution or re-alignment of solution to the problem statement)?

Scalability (20%) – Does the idea have the potential to scale and include other advantages to tackle the identified problem statements for the Hackathon?

Impact (20%) - Does the idea have the potential to make a positive impact and can contribute to reducing gender- based violence or bridge the gap to increase access to GBV services?

Diversity and Capacity of the team (10%) - Does the team demonstrate diversity in gender/ lived experiences and expertise among the team members?

Stage 2 & 3 – Final Selection (Pitch Stage)

Concept and Solution (30%) - Does the team clearly describe the concept on what the challenge is and their proposed solution?

MVP/ Prototype (30%) - Does the team demonstrate evidence of the functional MVP/ prototype of the solution?

Potential to Scale (20%) - Does the MPV/ prototypes has a potential to develop into a full scale products and lead to scale up?

Communication and Pitch (20%) - Does the team effectively communicate and present their solution during the pitch stage?

Timelines

Launch of Hackathon – September 8, 2022
Timeline for Stage 1 – September 8 - October 7, 2022 (Deadline Extended to 14 October 2022)
Timeline for Stage 2 – October 24 - December 05, 2022
UNFPA Hackathon 2022 Final Event – December 20, 2022