UNDP Hack-a-Green Future Hackathon 2025 | Empowering Youth (Deadline: Ongoing)
In a bold push to unlock Africa’s innovation potential around climate change, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kenya has launched Hack-a-Green Future 2025, a three-day hackathon running from 24th to 26th October 2025 at timbuktoo GreenTech Hub, Konza Technopolis.
This event invites a diverse mix of youth innovators, students, startups, researchers, county governments, development partners, and private sector actors to co-design technology-driven, scalable solutions geared toward Africa’s green transition.
Focus & Challenges
The central theme is Digital and Technology-enabled Climate Resilience Solutions. Participants will tackle both open and county-specific challenges that reflect real climate resilience priorities of different areas:
- Open Challenge: Develop affordable, tech-enabled climate information systems that integrate fragmented data into localized, actionable insights — so communities can make better resilience and adaptation decisions by 2030.
- County Challenges:
• Kajiado: Create tools to manage the invasive ipomoea weed, restoring pasturelands and supporting livestock resilience.
• Makueni: Devise climate-smart solutions that help farmers access reliable markets, reduce post-harvest losses, improve incomes, and buffer climate shocks.
• Machakos: Innovate systems to link waste generators, aggregators, and users, promoting reuse, recycling, and repurposing of household and agricultural waste.
By working with authentic, localized issues, the hackathon ensures that solutions are rooted in actual community needs and environmental realities.
Who Should Join & Why
Eligibility:
- Youth aged 18–35
- Multidisciplinary teams (3–5 members combining technical, business, and community experience) or individuals
- Special encouragement extended to women innovators, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and youth from arid, semi-arid lands (ASALs) or informal settlements
What Participants Gain:
- Experimentation Support: Selected teams will receive resources and services to test their solutions, in partnership with county governments
- Mentorship: Access to experts in climate, entrepreneurship, policy, and technology
- Networking: Engagement with government officials, development partners, and private sector players
- Skill Enhancement: Workshops in design thinking, prototyping, and pitching
- Visibility: Chance to showcase solutions to investors, policymakers, and media
Rather than offering simple cash prizes, the hackathon provides in-kind support, including deployment opportunities, links to county governments, and the chance for real-world implementation.
Important Dates & Selection Criteria
- Applications open: 30 September 2025
- Deadline for applications: Ongoing
- Notification of selected teams: 17 October 2025
- Hackathon event: 24–26 October 2025
Evaluation Criteria:
Submissions will be judged based on:
-
- Relevance – alignment with county climate resilience challenges
- Actionability – feasibility to prototype a working version in 48 hours
- Innovation – use of novel, tech-based approaches
- Impact – potential to benefit communities, ecosystems, or livelihoods
- Inclusivity – diversity in gender, expertise, and backgrounds
Intellectual property (IP) remains with innovators, but organizers retain rights for documentation, showcasing, and promotion of the solutions.
Local Momentum & Support
The hackathon has drawn enthusiasm from county governments and local partners, highlighting the shared commitment to foster youth-led innovation. The partnership among UNDP, Konza Technopolis, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, and the counties of Machakos, Makueni, and Kajiado underscores the collaborative breadth of this initiative.
Final Thoughts
Hack-a-Green Future 2025 represents an exciting convergence of youth energy, cutting-edge tech, and grassroots climate action. For innovators passionate about sustainability, resilience, and societal impact, this hackathon offers not just a platform—but a real pathway to pilot and scale solutions in communities that need them most.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND APPLY
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