Chembe Urban Security Competition 2010 - East Africa

Chembe Ventures is an Irish owned company which provides seed capital to mobile application developers, social media start-ups and web ventures in East and Southern Africa. We’re sponsoring this competition to encourage innovative mobile solutions to assist residents in urban communities address a specific or general security problem. One prize of US $5,000 will be awarded to the winning entry. On top of that, we’re offering a potential further US $5,000 or more of investment and pilot testing capital to the winning team or individual.

Entry Criteria:

• Entrants must be registered as a developer in the Betavine community
• Entries need to be written in English
• Entries must be designed for deployment in one of the following countries: Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa or Tanzania.
• This challenge is all about helping residents living in low-income, densely populated urban areas improve their personal security.

Entries must provide solutions under one or more of the following headings:


• early warning notifications of criminal activity, violence or other security threats
• assistance for families, communities at risk of crime
• reducing crime, preventing the spread of violence
• location, identification and assistance of victims of violence or crime

2010 MIF competition for innovative financial solutions

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank will co-host an international Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development (2010 MIF) to be held in Paris on March, 4-5 2010.

The 2010 MIF will be dedicated to smart, fine-tuned, innovative financial mechanisms for mobilizing, channeling, and spending funds for development issues. The event will bring together development practioners, donors, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, academics, representatives from across a range of financial institutions and policy makers to exchange experience and ideas on innovative development finance solutions. The event will be structured around workshops and a marketplace where innovators can showcase their initiatives and projects. The main objectives of the event are to:

The main objectives of the event are to:

• advance the agenda on innovative financial solutions for development;
• facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, including South/South learning, on innovative financial solutions for development, what works and what doesn’t , and how to design solutions to maximize development impact and cost-effectiveness; and
• spur the evolution of cutting-edge projects that apply innovative financial mechanisms to development challenges.

The Competition

A key feature of the 2010 MIF will be a competition to garner and highlight fresh ideas on how innovative financing mechanisms can be used to solve development challenges at the local, country, regional, or global levels, with the goal that successful innovations can be scaled up and replicated.
The winners will be awarded pilot grants of up to US$100,000 to assist them in the implementation of their proposals.

Proposals are welcomed from all organizations involved in innovative finance focused on development, including financial institutions, private-sector companies, social enterprises, non-governmental and civil society organizations, government agencies, universities and other academic organizations, foundations, and development organizations. Guidelines and application forms can be accessed on the 2010 MIF website: www.fininnov.org

Proposals must be submitted by November 15th 2009.

For further informations, please contact: info@fininnov.org

The Wharton Africa Business Plan Competition

**Phase I submission due October 27**

Register and submit here

The 2007 Wharton Africa Business Plan Competition (WABPC) Finals will take place on Saturday November 10, 2007. The competition will be a key component of the 2007 Wharton Africa Business Forum and is organized to promote entrepreneurship in Africa. The intent of program is to link entrepreneurs with African business ideas to prospective investors such as banks, advice and investments toward the implementation of their business Idea.

The WABPC is organized in 3 phases. In Phase I, applicants submit an executive summary of their business plan

which will be reviewed for admission into Phase II by a group of professionals from the consulting or the investment world. In Phase II, the 6 admitted applicants from Phase I will pitch their business concept to a group of bankers, venture capitalists and private equity investors: The top 3 best ventures win predetermined prizes. In Phase III, follow up advice and funding is provided to co-opted ventures by investors and other professionals on their sole discretion. Finalists are eligible to win up to $3,000 in prizes.