AI4Resilience Challenge Announces Finalists

AI4Resilience has selected its ten Challenge Finalists! Challenge Finalists received seed funding to prototype and further refine their solutions. In this stage, Challenge Finalists will receive one-on-one coaching and more learning opportunities. In March, our Challenge Finalists will attend our Solutions Showcase for the opportunity for further funding and support as they implement their solutions. For more information on the AI4Resilience Challenge, visit our program website.

Be sure to check back into our program website and social media channels for stories from our Challenge Finalists and more information on their solutions. Those places will also have more information on Open Learning Sessions you can attend in the near future.

If you are interested in contributing to the Challenge and the solutions as a judge, mentor, partner, or co-sponsor, please reach out to [email protected].

Challenge Finalists

Betterstories Limited is a private sector initiative fostering socially-responsible, innovation-driven entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. Through our work over the past 13 years, we have seen that Humanitarian actors in Bangladesh are fragmented. Expert knowledge remains unshared. Local innovations are siloed and buried deep within small pockets. A big opportunity is lost for these to be scaled and have a greater impact. BetterStories believes that large-scale social change comes from radical cross-sector collaboration and coordination. Stand-alone and isolated interventions do not create transformational shifts.

Bonhishikha – unlearn gender is a feminist organization committed to ensuring equality and justice across all spectrums in Bangladesh. We aim to facilitate safe spaces: to advocate for gender and sexuality rights; promote uniform access to opportunities; produce counter-narratives of diverse experiences through storytelling; and, raise awareness of gender-based discrimination.

CARE seeks a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live in dignity and security. CARE has been in Bangladesh since 1949. CARE Bangladesh amplifies the voices of the poor and marginalized in ways that influence public opinion, development practice, and policy at all levels. CARE’s holistic approach is reflected across the breadth of programming: covering livelihoods and income generation; health, hygiene, and sanitation, nutrition, sexual and reproductive health; governance, transparency, and accountability; women’s empowerment and ending gender-based violence; labor rights; market linkages and private sector engagement; resilience, disaster risk reduction emergency response.

Field Ready was founded by professionals in development aid, humanitarian relief, technical services, design, and engineering. Our combined experience totals many decades in developing countries and disaster-stricken areas, as well as various technical skills. Taking hard-earned lessons from places like the Horn of Africa and Central Asia, we’ve borrowed from the best of Silicon Valley to conceive a meaningful and transformational approach to the challenges of humanitarian relief and working in the most remote and challenging places on the planet.

Impact Hub Dhaka is a part of the global Impact Hub Network that engages 24,000+entrepreneurs and innovators in 100+ locations across 60+ countries, among which 90% address one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2020, Impact Hub Dhaka has been designing and managing co-working spaces, mentoring, startup support programs, ecosystem-building events, policy, and advocacy. The team has supported 70+ social entrepreneurs through local programs and engaged with 1000+ people through capacity-building and community events.

inSights – Institute of Innovations for Gender and Humanitarian Transformations is a social enterprise based on an ethical and professional approach to implementing innovative ideas that challenge the gender, DRR, and humanitarian status quo in the sector. Our priority objectives are to work for a more localized and equitable humanitarian system based on knowledge and professional competencies.

Inspira is a consulting and implementation services firm working in nascent, early-stage industries of Bangladesh offering market research, enterprise building support, early-stage startup incubation, and investor matchmaking support. Inspira works with several multilateral & bilateral development partners, UN agencies, and international NGOs in undertaking research, advisory services, and multi-year program implementation.

LightCastle Partners is a business consulting firm in Bangladesh. They focus on creating data-driven opportunities for growth and impact. They’ve consulted and collaborated with a variety of partners, including development partners, public sector, and private organizations. LightCastle promotes inclusive economic growth that positively changes people’s lives at scale.

The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) is one of Bangladesh’s leading research and teaching institutions. We strive for excellence through the creation, preservation, transfer, and application of knowledge. For almost two decades now, we have been educating and working with outstanding people to deliver knowledge leadership for a better world. Established on the principles of liberal arts, ULAB, through its ten research centers, including the Center for Enterprise and Society and the Center for Sustainable Development, has been involved in the research and implementation of development projects in partnership with international universities and local and international NGOs and bilateral donors.

Youth Policy Forum (YPF) is a policy dialogue, research, and advocacy platform for young Bangladeshi policy enthusiasts from all over the world. By creating a pool of young intellectual minds, YPF intends to establish a support system to help governmental and non-government organizations and global policymakers adopt more inclusive policies. Climate adaptation and resilience are a part of the Bangladeshi gene. But our adaptation efforts are happening in silos. YPF wants to bridge that gap to evenly increase the resilience of the nation through this AI4Resilience challenge.