The project promotes social innovations in support of development that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Following on from the success of the first two programmes, run in 2011 and 2012, today Orange
is launching the third Orange African Social Venture Prize. The project
promotes social innovations in support of development that use
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Orange,
which is present in 18 African countries and boasts over 70 million
customers, is seeking to become a major player in the economic and
social development of every one of these countries. The Group has
decided to contribute to the development of the local markets for new
technologies through its ‘Orange for Development’ programme and to
propose innovative solutions which meet the needs of the local
population. In this context, and as part of its innovation strategy as
well as its Corporate Social Responsibility policy, that the Group has
decided to launch the Orange African Social Venture Prize.
The
call for projects has received more than 1,000 applications over the
past two years, a figure that reflects a true entrepreneurial spirit and
the potential for telecommunications on the African continent.
Encouraging the use of ICTs for development
This
year, the Orange African Social Venture Prize will once again reward
three entrepreneurs or start-ups offering products or services that make
innovative use of ICTs to meet the needs of people on the African
continent in fields as varied as healthcare, agriculture, education,
energy, industry and trade.
For
example, the prizewinning projects in 2012 involved mobile technology
used to assist traders in food products in Ivory Coast (Vivuus Limited),
a system launched in Kenya to improve the treatment of waste (Takachar)
and the creation of an e-commerce site to allow people in the
Senegalese diaspora to shop online for their families in Dakar.
This year, internet users will once again be able to vote online for their favourite project using the Orange portal in Africa www.StarAfrica.com.
The project voted “online favourite” will be submitted directly to the
jury along with the other finalists’ projects preselected by the experts
and will therefore have the maximum possible chance of being among the
three winners of the 2013 Awards. In 2012, the Egyptian start-up
“Innovative Electronic Employment Platform” won the prize with more than
50,000 votes.
Supporting social entrepreneurs
Orange
has committed to providing financial support and placing its expertise
at the service of the entrepreneurs who win the competition. In addition
to prize money ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 Euros, the three winners
will also receive support from professional entrepreneurs and ICT
experts for a period of six months. In another new initiative this year,
the project submitted by the winner of the first prize will be patented
by Orange in the country where it is deployed.
Who can take part?
Any
entrepreneur aged 21 or over, or company that has existed for less than
three years at the time of the competition, regardless of nationality,
can enter the awards free of charge. The projects submitted must have
plans to deploy their service in at least one of the African countries
where Orange is present and make innovative use of information and
communication technologies to contribute to improving the living
conditions of people in those countries.
Applications may be submitted between 14 May and 20 September 2013 using the Orange portal in Africa: http://www.starafrica.com. Discover the details of the competition on http://www.starafrica.com, and the presentation of the Orange African Social Venture Prize on video on http://www.orange-innovation.tv/en/webtv/international-en/africa/orange_african_social_venture_prize_2013
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of France Télécom-Orange.
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