Deadline: April 15, 2025
Applications are open for the UNDP Tanzania Insurance Innovation Challenge (IIC) 2025. The Insurance Innovation Challenge (IIC) presents an opportunity for Tanzania to engage the insurance industry in developing solutions that enhance financial resilience and promote inclusive growth through the Insurance Innovation Challenge, using a Hackathon modality.
Technically supported by UNDP Accelerator Lab Tanzania the challenge will be organized in partnership and collaboration with the Association of Tanzania Insurers (ATI) and the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA). The event will be structured to facilitate the development of innovative ideas over a short, intensive period, with participants working in teams to address specific challenges.
The hackathon will serve as a platform to crowdsource innovative ideas from a diverse group of participants. The collaborative nature of a hackathon will enable participants to co-create solutions that address specific challenges faced by Tanzanians, such as limited access to insurance solutions that cover their health, the impact of climatE-change and disasters and also protection for their Small and medium- scale businesses.
Benefits
The winning overall solution will receive a combined prize money of 30,000,000 Tanzanian Shilling, along with comprehensive technical assistance for six months at the contract start date to ensure the resulting solutions are viable, sustainable, and scalable. The areas of technical assistance include:
- Strategic Management and Business Model Development: Crafting robust strategies and sustainable business models.
- Market Research: Mapping and analyzing distribution channels to identify market opportunities.
- Process Simplification and Improvement: Streamlining operations for efficiency and effectiveness.
- Digitalization and Technology: Leveraging technology to enhance operations and customer experiences.
- Product Design: Developing innovative and market-relevant products.
- Reinsurance: Integrating reinsurance strategies to manage risk effectively.
- Digital Solutions: Creating technology-driven solutions for scalability and impact.
- Social Marketing: Promoting solutions through targeted, community-focused marketing strategies.
- Access to Global Capacity Building and Mentorship Programs: Connecting participants with global expertise and mentorship opportunities.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be Insurance intermediaries, aggregators, insur-techs, Fin-techs, distribution channels, and other related private sector actors operating in Tanzania.
- Entities applying to the Insurance Innovation Challenge 2025 must address key development needs through innovative thinking while ensuring:
- Viability: Solutions must be adaptable to local conditions, demonstrating practicality and effectiveness in the Tanzanian context.
- Sustainability & Scalability: Solutions should be designed to promote long-term sustainability and scalability, ensuring they can grow and evolve to reach wider audiences over time.
- The challenge seeks innovative solutions that embody the following attributes:
- Building an Insurable Population: Solutions should focus on risk prevention, risk reduction, and financial protection for underserved and excluded populations who have limited access to existing insurance products. Solutions should be inclusive, addressing gaps in affordability, accessibility, and awareness.
- Sustainability and Scalability: The proposed model must demonstrate long-term sustainability by incorporating cost efficiency, adaptability to different market conditions, and the potential for scaling beyond initial implementation. Solutions should leverage technology, partnerships, or innovative business models to maximize impact.
- Development Stage and Feasibility: Solutions should be at least prototype-tested, at the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) stage, or beyond, with essential features functional and ready for real- world testing and feedback. Exceptionally promising idea-stage proposals will be considered if they present a well-defined roadmap, technical feasibility, and a viable strategy for development into a fully-fledged product.
- Innovation and Impact: Solutions should introduce new approaches or significantly improve existing models to enhance insurance accessibility, effectiveness and offer client value. They should demonstrate potential for measurable social and economic impact, particularly in addressing climate risks, health protection, and small business resilience.
Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be judged based on the following criteria:
- Innovation and Disruptiveness: How transformative is the solution for Tanzania and Africa?
- Team Composition: Technical and commercial strengths and diversity of team members and their capacity to deliver excellence based on the solution presented.
- Traction: Evidence of milestones, success, and progress achieved.
- Impact and Scale: Potential for social and commercial impact, scalability, and expansion beyond Tanzania. This should be demonstrated through a clear distribution plan. Solutions with existing distribution partnerships will be given preference.
- Sustainability: Viability of the business model and revenue generation strategy.
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP): What makes the solution unique, innovative, and impactful?
- Risk Mitigation: Strategies for addressing potential negative impacts.
Application
All completed application packs must be submitted through the designated online platform provided for the hackathon.
For more information, visit UNDP Tanzania Challenge.
