Seed Journey won Youth Co: Lab Thailand 2018

30 October 2018 Uncategorized

After two months of the Youth Co: Lab Thailand 2018 project, there are 20 teams that could make the entry into the next round. Recently, the social innovation project Youth Co:Lab Thailand 2018 co-hosted by the National Innovation Agency (NIA) and UNDP Thailand, have announced the three finalists who could into final round.

The winners include: Seed Journey team, a sustainable tourism project of Akha community which won the first prize and received 100,000 baht award; Saturday School International Volunteer, an English-teaching platform by volunteer tourists which won the second prize and received cash prize worth 50,000 baht; and second runner-up was Smart Smor team which introduced smart …to reduce the harm to coral reefs and received cash prize worth 30,000 baht.

There were also complimentary awards for two teams including SF Fresh, an application to order fresh seafood from fishery community; and Food Hunter, an application to sell remaining food for low-income earners. Dr. Krithpaka Boonfuang, NIA’s Deputy Executive Director (Innovation System), presided over the award presentation ceremony and presented the awards to all winners.

Youth Co:Lab is a project to develop the capabilities of youths through social enterprises and innovations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs). It focuses on building capacity and get youths’ engagement in the innovation development that will help solve social problems and drive the society towards better future. It also aims to lay out foundation and strengthen relationships of those who work for society by linking the youths, organizations, and relevant agencies so they can build a network that can encourage Thai people to join hands to create social innovation that can lead to sustainable development.

Youth Co: Lab is a regional-level project which get direct support from the UNDP and Citi Foundation. It has been organized in 14 countries in Asia Pacific by UNDP.

The Youth Co:Lab Thailand 2018 also got support from NIA which has also organized SDGs Hackathon covering four regions of Thailand including central, southern, northeastern and northern regions. The project aims to look for teams and ideas to solve three key problems which are: accessible society, sustainable tourism and sustainable production and consumption.

The final round took place during 25-28 October 2018 at the Knowledge Exchange:KX which saw more than 20 teams making their entry. The activities during the last four days include Inspiration Talk, panel Discussion, Capacity Building and Showcasing for Impact as well as finding the best ideas in each aspect.