Leaders International for Economic Development officially launched its Crowd-solving for Innovation and Economic Growth in Jordan project (Idea Bank) with funding from the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative MEPI.
In a statement on Sunday, Leader International said that the project offers Jordanian governmental institutions a platform to outline their needs and challenges for Jordanian entrepreneurs who will in turn find innovative, technological solutions.
Throughout its first phase, the project signed 3 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the following entities: Jordan Investment Commission (JIC); Ministry of Agriculture; and Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, followed by dialogue sessions with each in order to define the ‘Idea Bank’ concept, present the anticipated project implementation plan, and illustrate the design for the corresponding digital platform.
The sessions also involved an exchange of information and ideas regarding the challenges faced by Jordanian governmental institutions, which can potentially be tackled by the innovation, entrepreneurship ecosystem in Jordan.
Hamzeh Shamaileh, Country Manager at Leaders International, stated: “Leaders International strives to enhance cooperation and collaboration with governmental bodies in Jordan. Through our Idea Bank project, we provide such institutions with the opportunity to communicate needs and challenges that can be solved by the Jordanian innovative, entrepreneurial community. We also facilitate dialogue between the two sides in an effort to create new economic opportunities and accelerate digital transformation.”
Shamaileh also stressed the importance of ‘Idea Bank’ as one of the first projects in Jordan to encourage partnership and collaboration between the government and the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The project, the statement added, will also organize a 3-day national hackathon, bringing together 100 entrepreneurs and a number of representatives from participating governmental institutions so that the former can come up with innovative solutions for the latter. At the end, participants will present their innovative solutions to a panel of representatives from participating governmental institutions and incubators, who will select winning teams and provide primary financing to entrepreneurs so they could develop and implement their ideas.
The winning teams will also receive 4 – 6-month incubation services with one of the participating Jordanian incubators, it said.
With regards to sustainability, the project will launch the digital ‘Idea Bank’ platform, which will showcase the winning teams and highlight the significance of crowd-solving. Each of the participating governmental organizations will have a representative acting as a focal point with entrepreneurs and incubators to express and outline pressing problems and challenges that need to be addressed.
The platform itself is also a tool to ensure project sustainability whereby governmental organisations can carry on using it to articulate their challenges even after the project ends, and thereby increase participation and new economic opportunities for Jordan’s youth.
Source: Jordan News Agency