Global Competition for Innovations to Improve Rural and Farming Communities

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ( http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ ), Ashoka's Changemakers ( http://www.changemakers.net/ ) has launched "Cultivating Innovation:

Solutions for Rural Communities," a new collaborative competition designed to find innovative solutions that help to improve the quality of life in rural and farming communities.

The competition is open to all types of organizations (charitable organizations, private companies, or public entities) from all countries.
Changemakers will consider all entries that demonstrate system-changing solutions in agriculture and in the lives of rural citizens in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and around the world. Entries must indicate growth beyond the stage of idea, concept, or research. At a minimum, entries should be at the demonstration stage and indicate success. The judges are only able to evaluate programs that are beyond the conceptual stage and have demonstrated a proof of impact, even at small scale. The winners of the competition will be those entries that best demonstrate innovation, social impact, potential for replication, and sustainability.

Entries may be submitted in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Online submissions will be accepted until May 13, 2009. At any time before this deadline, competition participants are encouraged to revise their entries based on questions and comments they receive in the Changemakers community online discussion. A panel of judges will select ten to fifteen finalists, and the Changemakers community will then vote online to select three awardees to each receive a cash prize of $5,000. In addition, the best entry submitted by the early entry deadline of March 30, 2009, will win a cell phone and digital camera.

Visit the Changemakers Web site for complete competition information.