Winners Announced for Third OSS4SDG Hackathon

The Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), the European Commission Directorate-General for Informatics and the International Telecommunication Union-ITU announced the winners of the third series of innovation challenges in the framework of the Open Source Software for Sustainable Development Goals (OSS4SDG) during a virtual awards ceremony on 15 December. 

The three winning solutions of the “SDG 5 - Gender Equality” challenges are: 

  • 1st prize: “Safer Route” by Maximiliane Kitzinger, Valentin Böhmer and Charles Hatfield (Germany)  
  • 2nd prize: “Safe Path”, by Albano Lazzarini & Fernando Debernardi (Argentina)  
  • 3rd prize: “Immersive Detective Game” by Yina Yao (Thailand) 

Mr. Bernardo Mariano Junior, Chief Information Technology Officer, Assistant Secretary-General, and Mr. Cosmas Zavazava, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU, delivered keynote addresses. 

“Events like this allow us to reflect on, and celebrate, the achievements of everyone who is actively contributing for a better world,” said Mr. Mariano. “The solutions proposed through this hackathon are a testament to the immense potential of open source. SDG 5: Gender equality lies at the heart of our collective effort towards a better future, and it is very essential to development around the world. Gender equality connects all SDGs; therefore, we must strive for its development.”    

The third series of the OSS4SDG initiative featured seven challenges related to SDG 5: Gender equality. Thirteen solutions were submitted for consideration, with a jury of experts from the ITU and OICT selecting the three winners from a list of five finalists.  

The jury judged the solutions based on creativity, innovation, relevance, applicability and end user experience.  

Watch a replay of the ceremony to learn more about the winning solutions: bit.ly/3RIKXMr  


About the OSS4SDG “Gender Equality” challenges: 

The hackathon focused on addressing challenges related to SDG 5. As part of our commitment to the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), this hackathon promoted the use of Digital Public Goods (DPGs) and harness their potential to address global issues. Participants had the opportunity to develop open source solutions that address these challenges by building upon existing open source projects and DPGs.