‘Miyaheli’ Social Innovation Camp 2022 Successfully Concludes
The 2022 edition of the ‘Miyaheli’ Social Innovation Camp has concluded with three winning teams selected from the participants at the closing ceremony held in K. Thulusdhoo. This year’s camp was in particular targeted at Civil Society Organisations and brought together 11 CSOs based in different parts of the country. Adhering to the theme ‘Innovation for People, Planet and Prosperity’ the CSOs proposed various innovative ideas which were evaluated by a panel of judges.
From 12 outstanding ideas, the judges selected the best three winners and awarded them with grant funding to carry out their ideas. The winners of this year’s camp are:
1st Place: ICONS Association
2nd Place: Blind and Visually Impaired Society Maldives
3rd Place: Maldives Conservation Society
The winning CSOs will now be able to pilot their visions and explore opportunities to further upscale their project by using the grand funding for social innovation projects.
The ‘Miyaheli’ camp is an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Maldives and has been running annually since 2016 onwards. Along with its partners such as Ooredoo Maldives, the camp aims to empower youth and promote social innovation. The camp is supported by generous assistance from the Government of Australia.
The Ooredoo Maldives Director Human Resource, Fazna Mansoor stated “This is the first edition of Miyaheli open for civil society organizations in the Maldives and we are delighted to extend our support and provide them the platform to build on their ideas to create innovative sustainable solutions for their communities. It was amazing to see so many great ideas that can bring sustainable positive changes to our society. Congratulations to the teams that won and we are excited to see how the projects unfold”.
The 2022 Miyaheli edition urged participants to create solutions benefitting and empowering the vulnerable in society through increased opportunities, accessibility and inclusivity. Moreover, participants were also encouraged to pursue solutions that promote best practices for the planet such as science-based ideas that combat environmental and societal problems. This in turn would lead to an improvement in the daily lives of Maldivians and merge employment and livelihood opportunities.
“With the support of our partners, at this year’s Miyaheli we are excited to provide an inclusive space for civil society organizations from across the Maldives to exercise creativity in designing innovative solutions with and for their communities - to create a sustainable partnership and the creation of empathic solutions that can stimulate commitment and interest from those who need it the most,” said Vera Hakim, Deputy Resident Representative at UNDP Maldives.
