Deadline: October 18, 2026
Applications are open for the SafeTech Africa HackLab 2026. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA Eastern and Southern Region & Western and Central African Region), in partnership with the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Programme (SIARP 2.0), the Global Programme to End Child Marriage (GPECM), the African Union Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (AU Innovation Lab), UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women invites young innovators, social entrepreneurs, and digital rights advocates across Africa to submit entries for the Youth Social Innovation Challenge Titled “SafeTech Africa Hacklab 2026”
Officially launched during the African Union Innovation Festival ’26 (AU InnoFest ’26) in Addis Ababa under the theme “Vibrant Youth Ecosystems for AI & Digital Sovereignty,” this challenge identifies, incubates, funds, and scale youth-led digital and community solutions. Across Africa, young people comprise over 60% of the population, yet adolescent girls and young women, and other marginalized groups face severe structural inequalities: an adolescent birth rate of 93 per 1,000, 1 in 3 girls married before 18, a 26% mobile internet gender gap leaving 230 million women offline, and pervasive technology-facilitated violence (TF-VAWG). Driving a strategy of Decentralised Power and Systemic Shifting, the Hacklab aims to equip local youth leadership to challenge entrenched power imbalances directly.
Benefits
Winners and runners-up enter a post-hackathon support program:
- High-Level Pitching Stage: Shortlisted finalists receive pitch coaching and will present live at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit in November 2026.
- Seed Capital Grant: Four winners will receive seed grants ranging between USD $5,000 to USD $10,000.
- Market Access & Investor Matchmaking: Direct exposure to investors, venture funds, and continental development partners present at YCA Summit.
- Continental Visibility: Spotlight feature across UNFPA, Spotlight Initiative, and African Union media channels, and other media channels during the YCA summit.
Eligibility
- All team leads and members must be between 18 and 24 years old at the time of application.
- Open to young innovators residing in Eastern, Southern Western and Central Africa.
- Team of 2-5 members are strongly encouraged. A designated team lead serv as pimary focal point.
- Female-led startups and gender-balanaced teams (at least 50% female membership) are prioritised.
- Solution must demonstrate an intentional intersectional design approach that actively accommodates marginaised and underserved youth populations (rural youth, young women, out-of-school adolescents, displaced persons, and youth with disabilities).
Evaluation Criteria
- Problem-Solution Fit: Relevance to the three Hacklab teams: Gender-based Violence, Child Marriage, FGM, or Countering Anti-Rights/TF-VAWG.
- Innovation & Originality: Creative, novel, and innovative ideas that clearly targets the identified problem in the communities or of the target beneficiaries.
- Feasibility & Viability: Realistic 12-month implementation roadmap, outputs and milestones.
- Inclusivity & Disability accessibility: Solutions ensure that No One is Left behind with clear measures to promote inclusivity and accessibility among offline, low-data or intermittent connectivity, low-digital literacy communities and/or people living with disabilities.
- Youth Leadership: Young people, especially young women, lead solution design, execution, and enterprise ownership.
- Scalability & Impact Potential: Clear pathway to scale from pilot community to regional level with measurable impact metrics.
- Safety, Privacy & Ethics: Compliance with ethical AI, user data privacy, safeguarding, and mitigation of digital pushback/censorship.
Application
Applications must be submitted online via the official portal by 18 October 2026 (23:59 CAT).
Required Application Content:
- Team Lead & Member details (ages, gender composition, nationalities, contact info, and roles).
- Theme Selection (Select 1).
- Problem Statement (Max 200 words): A clear description of the affected people/community, where are the affected people/community, what is the problem/challenges faced by the people/community, and why it matters and what would be the cost of inaction.
- Innovation Description (Max 700 words): How your product/platform works, technology used, user benefits, and scalability.
- 12-month implementation roadmap, outputs and milestones.
- Digital Safety & Inclusion Note: Safeguarding measures, data privacy, and accessibility considerations.
For more information, visit SafeTech Africa HackLab.
