Counselor for Public Diplomacy at the U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam Jeanne Clark recently announced at the AidData/REPOA “Investing in Tanzania’s People” event that the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, in partnership with the U.S Department of State will host an open competition for private sector and/or civil society organizations to submit applications to support innovative solutions to boost civic participation and bolster media literacy and information integrity in Tanzania.
Up to three organizations will be selected as winners of the Challenge and will receive funding totaling $250,000 .
Through this innitiative, the embassy invites technologists and change makers from across Tanzania to submit an application to present their proposals and solutions to an audience of government, civil society, and private sector stakeholders.
Up to eight organizations will be selected to demonstrate their technology to a panel of judges, with up to three winning funding. Winning solutions will be put to use for the benefit of Tanzania only.
Participants can present tech-based solutions for education programs, gaming platforms, fact-checking tools, content-authentication tools, and other topics. Proposals should particularly seek to bolster civic responsibility and community engagement; and support expanding digital literacy resources including to areas with limited media access.
The U.S.-Tanzania Tech Challenge will be hosted in Dar es Salaam on September 18-19, 2024, as a two-day event. The first day of the competition will consist of a demo day featuring the selected technologists or organizations; day two will feature panels and discussions amongst technologists, government officials, civil society, academia, and media to share lessons learned and opportunities for cooperation around addressing the challenges of boosting civic participation, increasing media literacy, and strengthening the information environment.
Those applying to compete in the Tech Challenge can find more information at https://cvent.me/Z0Am03
Through this Tech Challenge the U.S. Department of State seeks to support Tanzanian tech companies and/or organizations to continue their development of innovative solutions aimed at enhancing civic engagement and responsibility through enhanced media literacy.
The embassy noted it believes in fostering ongoing and constructive engagement on civic participation, improve media literacy and a stronger information environment between Tanzanian tech companies, educational institutions, media organizations, civil society, and government stakeholders.