{"id":7680,"date":"2021-07-29T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/40.117.174.162\/?p=7680"},"modified":"2024-11-19T05:22:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:22:50","slug":"caribbean-youth-advances-post-covid-recovery-efforts-with-international-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/caribbean-youth-advances-post-covid-recovery-efforts-with-international-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"CARIBBEAN YOUTH ADVANCES POST-COVID RECOVERY EFFORTS WITH INTERNATIONAL HACKATHON"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>July 24th, 2021<\/strong>.&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas,&nbsp;an&nbsp;NGO affiliated to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Organization&nbsp;of American States (OAS),&nbsp;keeps nurturing innovation&nbsp;and Open Government&nbsp;in the region with the&nbsp;competition&nbsp;\u201cByte the \u03c0: Caribbean Hackathon\u201d.&nbsp;This&nbsp;virtual\u202fhackathon&nbsp;invited&nbsp;public sector and civil society&nbsp;participants&nbsp;from Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad &amp; Tobago,&nbsp;to&nbsp;use&nbsp;Information and Communications Technology&nbsp;(ICTs)&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;disruptive ideas&nbsp;that&nbsp;help foster&nbsp;post&nbsp;COVID-19 recovery efforts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/caribbeanindustrialresearchinstitute\/videos\/1513213019017071\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">link<\/a>)&nbsp;was&nbsp;organized in collaboration with the Developing the Caribbean (DevCa) initiative,&nbsp;The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) of Trinidad and Tobago,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Institute of Law and Economics (ILE) of Jamaica,&nbsp;the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB), the Ministry of Youth, Sports &amp; E-Governance of Belize, The Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE),&nbsp;The&nbsp;Belize Tourism Board (BTB), and the OAS National Office in Belize; with the financial support of&nbsp;Citi Foundation and&nbsp;the United States of America Embassy in Belmopan.&nbsp;&nbsp;\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;hackathon&nbsp;focused on the \u201cOpen Response + Open Recovery for COVID-19&#8243; campaign,&nbsp;which seeks to highlight Open Government fundamental values, such as&nbsp;transparency, participation, inclusion, and accountability. All crucial&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;recovery&nbsp;phase. With this in mind,&nbsp;the&nbsp;60 participants, divided into&nbsp;18&nbsp;teams,&nbsp;were encouraged&nbsp;to&nbsp;use the given&nbsp;48 hours&nbsp;to&nbsp;come up with solutions&nbsp;that address&nbsp;everyday local challenges&nbsp;in&nbsp;the following&nbsp;two areas of work:&nbsp;economic recovery&nbsp;through&nbsp;tourism, and&nbsp;access to&nbsp;health&nbsp;care, in particular&nbsp;COVID-19 testing and vaccination&nbsp;facilities.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCOVID 19 has presented the world with significant challenges and opportunities. However, as the world begins to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, through vaccinations and subsidence of restrictions, a new trial faces us: economic recovery. Hackathons have historically provided a means of sparking collaboration between problem seekers and solvers. In resource-constrained environments, facilitating these interactions and conversations can be challenging and therefore require creative approaches to motivate stakeholders to have a conversation\u201d,&nbsp;stated Mr. Miguel Andrews, CARIRI Calibration Lab Manager.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe believe that there&nbsp;are many opportunities in the current&nbsp;digital ecosystem&nbsp;to face these economic and health care challenges,&nbsp;and the work done by the participants&nbsp;was proof of that.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, the young&nbsp;hackers, theorizers, and doers&nbsp;were&nbsp;benefited&nbsp;from expert coaching and mentoring, industry expert guidance, and curated domain open dataset starter kits to assist in their solution development. With the DIA \u2013 Democratizing Innovation in the Americas program, we aim to accelerate&nbsp;innovation and entrepreneurship&nbsp;by enabling Caribbean youth to create&nbsp;community improvement&nbsp;solutions integrating ICTs&nbsp;in a virtual, safe, and collaborative environment.\u201d,&nbsp;shared Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani, Senior Program Manager of DIA at The Trust for the Americas.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A panel of judges,&nbsp;formed by&nbsp;Mrs. Alexia Peralta,&nbsp;incoming Director&nbsp;for the E-Governance and Digitalization Unit in the&nbsp;Ministry of Youth, Sports and E-Governance of Belize;&nbsp;Mr. Leroy Almendarez, Director of the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE);&nbsp;Mr.&nbsp;Luiz&nbsp;Octavio&nbsp;Coimbra, OAS Representative in Belize;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Gena Foster, Medical Doctor for the Ministry of Health and Wellness in Jamaica;&nbsp;Mr. Jeevan Persad, member of the Faculty of Engineering at The University of The West Indies (UWI);&nbsp;Keyan Murdock, Customer Relation Personnel for First Global Bank Jamaica;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Bryanna Chang, Field Service Analyst for Nestle Corporation Jamaica;&nbsp;Mr. Dale Wilson, Chief of Information of&nbsp;Teleios&nbsp;Systems Limited; and&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Kemby&nbsp;Ross Jones, Founder of Rent My Tutor,&nbsp;assessed every&nbsp;presented&nbsp;pitch&nbsp;based on&nbsp;technologies&nbsp;used, utility, target audience and reach, problem-solving capability, novelty, visual appeal, and financial sustainability.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To recognize the&nbsp;hard work,&nbsp;creativity&nbsp;and proactivity of&nbsp;participants, cash&nbsp;prizes&nbsp;of&nbsp;USD 800&nbsp;were awarded to&nbsp;the first place of&nbsp;Belize and Jamaica, whereas USD 625&nbsp;were granted&nbsp;to the winner of&nbsp;Trinidad and Tobago.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1st Place in Jamaica:\u00a0Team UCC designed Access to Health, a web application that would allow users to book appointments for COVID-19 testing and vaccination, and also to download the results.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1st Place\u00a0in Belize:\u00a0Aesthetics Marketing Solutions\u00a0pitched\u00a0CaribTravels,\u00a0a\u00a0web\u00a0page\u00a0and app\u00a0that alerts\u00a0tourists\u00a0interested in visiting Caribbean countries\u00a0on the changes regarding\u00a0the\u00a0country\u2019s travel policy during the pandemic\u00a0and regulated events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1st Place in Trinidad and Tobago:\u00a0TT Vaccine Hub, by the team\u00a0Hack\u00a0O Holics,\u00a0presented a platform to sign up for vaccination,\u00a0make appointments\u00a0for\u00a0medical house visits,\u00a0professional guidance for people affected by COVID-19\u00a0and\u00a0daily SMS\u00a0updates.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cByte the \u03c0: Caribbean Hackathon\u201d, celebrated on \u201cPi Approximation Day\u201d,&nbsp;is the second annual hackathon&nbsp;produced by The Trust for The Americas, through&nbsp;the&nbsp;DIA program,&nbsp;to&nbsp;achieve its&nbsp;goal&nbsp;of&nbsp;empowering, connecting&nbsp;and inspiring youth, academia,&nbsp;multi-sector&nbsp;innovators and entrepreneurs&nbsp;to help&nbsp;generate livelihood opportunities, promote good governance, and&nbsp;strengthen democracy&nbsp;by nourishing innovation&nbsp;across the region.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About\u202f&nbsp;The\u202f&nbsp;Trust&nbsp;for the Americas:\u202f&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trust for the Americas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 to promote public and private sector participation in social and economic development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our initiatives, implemented through local partner organizations, seek to improve access to economic opportunities as well as to foster innovation in vulnerable communities in the hemisphere. To this end, The Trust also promotes social inclusion and good governance. The Trust has offices in Washington, D.C., Colombia, and Canada.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More information:\u202f<a href=\"http:\/\/www.trustfortheamericas.org\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.trustfortheamericas.org<\/a>\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook:\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheTrustfortheAmericas\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Trust for the Americas<\/a>\u202f Twitter:\u202f\u202f\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Trust4Americas\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Trust4Americas<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trustfortheamericas.org\/static\/webpage_app\/insumos\/projects\/icon-map-marker.svg\">Belize\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0Jamaica\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0Trinidad &amp; Tobago<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 24th, 2021.&nbsp;The Trust for the Americas,&nbsp;an&nbsp;NGO affiliated to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Organization&nbsp;of American States (OAS),&nbsp;keeps nurturing innovation&nbsp;and Open Government&nbsp;in the region with the&nbsp;competition&nbsp;\u201cByte the \u03c0: Caribbean Hackathon\u201d.&nbsp;This&nbsp;virtual\u202fhackathon&nbsp;invited&nbsp;public sector and civil society&nbsp;participants&nbsp;from Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad &amp; Tobago,&nbsp;to&nbsp;use&nbsp;Information and Communications Technology&nbsp;(ICTs)&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;disruptive ideas&nbsp;that&nbsp;help foster&nbsp;post&nbsp;COVID-19 recovery efforts.&nbsp; The event&nbsp;(link)&nbsp;was&nbsp;organized in collaboration with the Developing the Caribbean (DevCa) initiative,&nbsp;The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) of Trinidad and Tobago,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Institute of Law and Economics (ILE) of Jamaica,&nbsp;the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB), the Ministry of Youth, Sports &amp; E-Governance of Belize, The Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE),&nbsp;The&nbsp;Belize Tourism Board (BTB), and the OAS National Office in Belize; with the financial support of&nbsp;Citi Foundation and&nbsp;the United States of America Embassy in Belmopan.&nbsp;&nbsp;\u202f\u202f&nbsp; The&nbsp;hackathon&nbsp;focused on the \u201cOpen Response + Open Recovery for COVID-19&#8243; campaign,&nbsp;which seeks to highlight Open Government fundamental values, such as&nbsp;transparency, participation, inclusion, and accountability. All crucial&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;recovery&nbsp;phase. With this in mind,&nbsp;the&nbsp;60 participants, divided into&nbsp;18&nbsp;teams,&nbsp;were encouraged&nbsp;to&nbsp;use the given&nbsp;48 hours&nbsp;to&nbsp;come up with solutions&nbsp;that address&nbsp;everyday local challenges&nbsp;in&nbsp;the following&nbsp;two areas of work:&nbsp;economic recovery&nbsp;through&nbsp;tourism, and&nbsp;access to&nbsp;health&nbsp;care, in particular&nbsp;COVID-19 testing and vaccination&nbsp;facilities.&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cCOVID 19 has presented the world with significant challenges and opportunities. However, as the world begins to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, through vaccinations and subsidence of restrictions, a new trial faces us: economic recovery. Hackathons have historically provided a means of sparking collaboration between problem seekers and solvers. In resource-constrained environments, facilitating these interactions and conversations can be challenging and therefore require creative approaches to motivate stakeholders to have a conversation\u201d,&nbsp;stated Mr. Miguel Andrews, CARIRI Calibration Lab Manager.&nbsp; \u201cWe believe that there&nbsp;are many opportunities in the current&nbsp;digital ecosystem&nbsp;to face these economic and health care challenges,&nbsp;and the work done by the participants&nbsp;was proof of that.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, the young&nbsp;hackers, theorizers, and doers&nbsp;were&nbsp;benefited&nbsp;from expert coaching and mentoring, industry expert guidance, and curated domain open dataset starter kits to assist in their solution development. With the DIA \u2013 Democratizing Innovation in the Americas program, we aim to accelerate&nbsp;innovation and entrepreneurship&nbsp;by enabling Caribbean youth to create&nbsp;community improvement&nbsp;solutions integrating ICTs&nbsp;in a virtual, safe, and collaborative environment.\u201d,&nbsp;shared Rodrigo&nbsp;Iriani, Senior Program Manager of DIA at The Trust for the Americas.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A panel of judges,&nbsp;formed by&nbsp;Mrs. Alexia Peralta,&nbsp;incoming Director&nbsp;for the E-Governance and Digitalization Unit in the&nbsp;Ministry of Youth, Sports and E-Governance of Belize;&nbsp;Mr. Leroy Almendarez, Director of the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE);&nbsp;Mr.&nbsp;Luiz&nbsp;Octavio&nbsp;Coimbra, OAS Representative in Belize;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Gena Foster, Medical Doctor for the Ministry of Health and Wellness in Jamaica;&nbsp;Mr. Jeevan Persad, member of the Faculty of Engineering at The University of The West Indies (UWI);&nbsp;Keyan Murdock, Customer Relation Personnel for First Global Bank Jamaica;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Bryanna Chang, Field Service Analyst for Nestle Corporation Jamaica;&nbsp;Mr. Dale Wilson, Chief of Information of&nbsp;Teleios&nbsp;Systems Limited; and&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Kemby&nbsp;Ross Jones, Founder of Rent My Tutor,&nbsp;assessed every&nbsp;presented&nbsp;pitch&nbsp;based on&nbsp;technologies&nbsp;used, utility, target audience and reach, problem-solving capability, novelty, visual appeal, and financial sustainability.&nbsp;&nbsp; To recognize the&nbsp;hard work,&nbsp;creativity&nbsp;and proactivity of&nbsp;participants, cash&nbsp;prizes&nbsp;of&nbsp;USD 800&nbsp;were awarded to&nbsp;the first place of&nbsp;Belize and Jamaica, whereas USD 625&nbsp;were granted&nbsp;to the winner of&nbsp;Trinidad and Tobago.&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cByte the \u03c0: Caribbean Hackathon\u201d, celebrated on \u201cPi Approximation Day\u201d,&nbsp;is the second annual hackathon&nbsp;produced by The Trust for The Americas, through&nbsp;the&nbsp;DIA program,&nbsp;to&nbsp;achieve its&nbsp;goal&nbsp;of&nbsp;empowering, connecting&nbsp;and inspiring youth, academia,&nbsp;multi-sector&nbsp;innovators and entrepreneurs&nbsp;to help&nbsp;generate livelihood opportunities, promote good governance, and&nbsp;strengthen democracy&nbsp;by nourishing innovation&nbsp;across the region.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &#8212;&nbsp; About\u202f&nbsp;The\u202f&nbsp;Trust&nbsp;for the Americas:\u202f&nbsp; The Trust for the Americas is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 to promote public and private sector participation in social and economic development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our initiatives, implemented through local partner organizations, seek to improve access to economic opportunities as well as to foster innovation in vulnerable communities in the hemisphere. To this end, The Trust also promotes social inclusion and good governance. The Trust has offices in Washington, D.C., Colombia, and Canada.\u202f&nbsp; More information:\u202fwww.trustfortheamericas.org\u202f\u202f&nbsp; Facebook:\u202fThe Trust for the Americas\u202f Twitter:\u202f\u202f\u202f@Trust4Americas Belize\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0Jamaica\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0Trinidad &amp; Tobago<\/p>","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":7681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7682,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7680\/revisions\/7682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trust-oea.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}