#HackCorona: UNDP partners with Digital Transformation Ministry to fight COVID-19

April 1, 2020

The Ministry of Digital Transformation, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine, is launching a national competition for IT projects and ideas to make life easier for citizens and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.  

Called #HackCorona, the competition aims to boost innovated solutions to tackle the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease in Ukraine.

“Today, we need collective intelligence more than ever,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. 

“At this difficult time, it’s important to join forces and do everything possible to fight the epidemic. The country needs new ideas and IT solutions to do this effectively.”

Participants can submit projects in the following areas:

  • Coronavirus counteraction: Electronic services aimed at counteracting the spread of the COVID19 epidemic. 
  • E-services for citizens: Social, educational, administrative and other public services that are especially important during quarantine.
  • Social entrepreneurship: Innovative ideas for the development of digital social entrepreneurship in quarantine that can be realized via remote participation by citizens. 
  • Mutual assistance: Services aimed at supporting and ensuring the livelihood of the most vulnerable groups in quarantine.

These can be either brand new products or improved existing solutions.

The best ideas will get funding for implementation. The total prize fund for the winners is UAH 4 million (USD 142,000). The winners are also expected to receive mentoring support during project implementation.

Applications will be accepted until 6 April, and the jury members will select the winners on 9 April.

The main criteria for project selection will be the innovativeness of the solution, its social impact, its development prospects and relevance. Projects must demonstrate that they will have a genuine social impact for citizens or businesses, in line with the objectives of the competition. The team should have a clear understanding of the target audience and scope, as well as demonstrating specific development opportunities and scalability across the country.

The Challenge jury will include Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhaylo Fedorov, and his deputy, Oleksandr Bornyakov. The jury members from business will include Andriy Fedoriv, the founder of the FEDORIV marketing company, Oleh Horokhovsky, the co-founder of Monobank, recognized as the best Ukrainian FinTech startup in 2017, and Yaroslav Azhniuk, CEO of Petcube, a company that manufactures gadgets for pet owners and that won The Europas prize as Europe's best hardware startup in 2014.

Other jury members are President of the Foundation for Eastern Europe Viktor Liakh, Project Coordinator of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine Ilona Postemska, and UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine Dafina Gercheva. 

You can submit an idea at: https://hack-corona.gov.ua/

The partner of the National IT Project Competition #HackCorona in Ukraine is the E-Governance for Accountability and Participation programme, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The programme is implemented by the Eastern Europe and Innovabridge Foundation and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).