Deadline: 4 August 2024
The Young Caribbean Water Entrepreneurs Shark Tank Competition seeks to provide a unique opportunity for young persons from the Caribbean, aged 18 to 34 years, to pitch innovative and impactful water-related project ideas to support better water resources management in their community, country or the Caribbean region.
Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) has recognised for many years the critical importance of creating avenues for young people to become involved in water governance and management ventures. Development challenges in the Caribbean will ultimately be inherited by the region’s youth. Young people are solution providers and have ideas and energy to act for sustainable development. GWP-C therefore sees the importance of empowering young people to be agents of change in contributing to and advancing Caribbean water security.
Through GWP-C’s work and interaction with its youth partners and young people within water and related sectors, it is evident that they often do not have access to funding or resources to easily advance their project ideas. Additionally, they do not always have easy access to technical support to turn their ideas into fully workable projects.
Themes
Seed funding of US $4,000 will be awarded for the best project/idea under the following themes:
- Water and Agriculture
- Water and Climate
- Water and Health
- Water and Energy
- Water and Tourism
Entry Requirements
- You must be a Caribbean national residing in the Caribbean region, aged 18 – 34 years with an innovative project/idea under any of the themes.
- All project proposals must be submitted in English, and a maximum of two (2) persons can apply for a submission together.
- Each of the selected finalists will receive feedback, critiques and advice on their proposals to prepare to pitch their water-related project/idea to the sharks in the competition’s finals.
- Proposals will be assessed based on various areas (but not limited to):
- Innovation
- Water Resources Management Relevance
- Practicality of Implementation
- Projected Impact
- Financial Feasibility
- Project Sustainability
- Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships
- Business/Industry Analysis
- Market Research
- Competitive Analysis
- Gender Mainstreaming
- All finalists will be required to deliver a 7-10 minutes pitch of their project before a panel of sharks/judges. Finalists will be provided with relevant guidelines/criteria at least two (2) weeks before their final pitch to the sharks. The pitches to the panel of sharks will take place virtually.
For more information, visit Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C).