MEMBER OUTCOME 2024 – 2025

Hack for the Environment - UNEP, GIZ, Action Lab

Mobilize and empower Kenyan youth to develop practical, scalable digital and data-driven solutions to the triple planetary crisis—climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution—while strengthening skills in AI, GIS, and human-centred design and identifying solutions that could feed into UNEP’s Digital Accelerator Lab for broader scalability.

Environment Hackathon UNEP

Hack for the Environment - UNEP, GIZ, Action Lab

TALK TO OUR TEAM

Sustainability & Youth

UNEP, GIZ, Action Lab

OUR ROLE

IDI's Role & Contribution

IDI provided technical and advisory leadership by refining locally grounded problem statements, leading the Design Thinking for Environmental Solutions masterclass (human-centred design, stakeholder mapping, storytelling), mobilizing mentors and compiling datasets, and offering hands-on mentorship to help teams refine prototypes and strengthen team balance.

Key Insight

"The most powerful interventions happen when communities are treated as co-designers, not beneficiaries. By embedding ourselves in the problem space, we uncovered the systemic roots of the challenge and built solutions that last."

The Problem

Three interlocking failures created a system where continuity of care was structurally impossible.

Fragmented care

Mobilizing and empowering youth to design digital and data-driven solutions to the triple planetary crisis.

Lost record continuity

Communities lacked access to tools and infrastructure to address the underlying challenge.

Invisible complications

Multiple actors worked in silos, preventing coordinated responses that could have amplified impact.

Our Approach

A structured end-to-end participant journey from planning to execution, combining phased delivery (launch to UN showcase), targeted capacity building through partner masterclasses (e.g., design thinking, AI for sustainability, pitching), and iterative development via design sprints and mentor feedback—delivered in a hybrid format with ecosystem partners (academia and tech institutions) to recruit diverse and inclusive talent.

Outputs & Results

Measurable outcomes achieved through the programme's core activities.

120+

DEVELOPERS ENGAGED

3×

Improvement in service delivery efficiency

500+

Community members directly impacted

Partner organisations engaged

85%

Satisfaction rate among beneficiaries

2 yrs

Sustained operation post-project

OUTCOME

Project Outcome & Impact

Over 1,000 applicants participated in the pipeline, with 157 innovators selected into 38 teams; 7 finalist teams showcased at the UN Office in Nairobi, and 3 winning solutions were selected—Msitu Guard (tree survival improvement from 30% to 93%), Earthwise Insights (community impact simulator for recyclers), and Marina AI (mangrove health prediction)—with top solutions positioned for integration into UNEP’s global digital innovation pipeline toward UNEA-7 goals.