#HacktheDivide Competition 2025 for Young African Innovators (Fully-funded trip to Italy) – YOA

Deadline: September 7, 2025

Are you a digital entrepreneur utilizing know-how to increase entry to work, coaching, and higher alternatives? #HacktheDivide is your probability to take your concepts additional—beginning with a two-day hackathon in Nairobi and persevering with with incubation assist in Italy.

Applications are open to younger digital innovators (aged 18-35) from 25 African nations to co-create inclusive tech options that tackle actual challenges similar to youth employment, digital inclusion, and labour mobility. You’ll spend two days in Nairobi collaborating in groups, supported by skilled mentorship, and interacting immediately with world establishments and coverage leaders shaping Africa’s digital future.
Travel, lodging, and meals might be lined for all chosen contributors.

On the ultimate day, you’ll have the OPPORTUNITY to current your answer reside through the broadcast occasion Skills for Fair Digital Transitions in Africa in Turin, connecting you with key choice-makers in Italy and linking native innovation to world choice-making. One group might be chosen for a tailor-made incubation expertise with I3P, Italy’s main tech incubator. This features a funded trip to Italy and entry to the Italian innovation ecosystem.

Background

#HackTheDivide is part of the broader Skills for Fair Digital Transitions in Africa initiative, co-organized by the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), and in partnership with the African Union Commission – Department of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation. 

Aligned with the ILO Decent Work Agenda and Italy’s Mattei Plan for Africa, this occasion helps continental frameworks just like the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) 2025. It locations digital abilities on the coronary heart of inclusive, human-centred transitions, contributing to AU Agenda 2063’s objectives of inclusive digital development and youth empowerment.

Prizes

At the tip of the hackathon, every group will current their concept to a panel of consultants. One profitable group might be chosen primarily based on the standard, relevance, and potential of their answer.

The profitable group will obtain a tailor-made incubation expertise with I3P, the incubator of the Politecnico di Torino, and the primary public incubator on the planet. This contains:

• A completely funded trip to Italy on the finish of the incubation course of.
• Ongoing mentorship to additional develop the thought.
• Access to Italy’s vibrant innovation ecosystem.

Eligibility

• Open to younger digital innovators (aged 18-35) primarily based within the following nations: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda.
• Whether you’re already constructing options that assist folks achieve abilities, entry respectable work, or develop their companies, or working in associated areas like training, digital inclusion, migration, fintech, or information innovation, they’re trying for younger entrepreneurs with the concepts and drive to assist form a extra inclusive digital future.

Selection Criteria

• Relevant expertise: you or your startup work in a number of of the hackathon’s focus areas.
• Commitment to inclusion: your work goals to increase entry and alternative, particularly for underrepresented teams.
• Potential for impression: you deliver concepts or insights that might assist construct options others can use and adapt
• Availability: you need to be out there to attend the complete hackathon in Nairobi on 7-8 October 2025.

Application

Apply by September 7. Selected contributors might be contacted on September 15.

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to #HackTheDivide.