Global Disruptive Tech Challenge 2021: Restoring Landscapes in the Aral Sea Region

What is the Global Disruptive Tech Challenge 2021?

The Global Disruptive Tech Challenge 2021 aims to identify and support disruptive technologies and innovative approaches to landscape restoration in the Aral Sea region and Central Asia. The Challenge will select innovators (individuals or entities) from around the world to change the lives of millions of people in the Aral Sea region. Proposals obtaining the best scores will obtain recognition and awards, including a monetary award of up to US $4,000 and an invitation to participate in a 4-month Mentorship Program.

Why The Aral Sea Region?

The Aral Sea in Central Asia, once the world’s fourth-largest inland water body, has almost disappeared due to more than 30 years of overuse of its resources to grow water-intensive crops, such as cotton and rice. This dramatic change has led to a steep decline in the environmental, social, and economic well-being of the region.

The situation has been further impacted by global climate change, which is already affecting the livelihoods of more than four million people who live in the disaster zone. That covers a significant part of Uzbekistan and the southern part of Kazakhstan; in total, 40 million people live in the Aral Sea basin and might be affected further by the disaster there.

Moreover, salt from the Aral Sea is found far beyond this region, including in Scandinavia and Antarctica. Every year, winds carry some 150 million tons of salt — often toxic due to pesticides and fertilizers used in intensive farming — from the Aral Sea over hundreds of thousands kilometers.

Innovators are invited to propose their disruptive and innovative solutions to landscape restoration issues in the Aral Sea region with the potential to scale-up in the entire Central Asia (from the mountains to the steppes).

What are the focus themes?

This Challenge evolves around four focus themes:

• Agriculture and land management: the most serious environmental problems, threatening Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan’s natural resources, include increasing soil salinity and water pollution, wind and water erosion, overgrazing, deforestation and loss of biodiversity, as well as declining arable land productivity;
• Sustainable forestry: the imbalance between the flow of water into the sea and evaporation has led to an increase in water mineralization. Fish can be found only in the northern part of the Aral Sea, while in the southern part, aquatic biodiversity is limited to salt-tolerant organisms. Furthermore, some areas of salt deposits can be very toxic;
• Socio-economic development: in recent years, in the considered countries, there is a disproportion between overall economic growth and poverty reduction, in particular, in remote rural areas. The highest level of poverty was registered in the territories with a higher percentage of degraded land. Rural poverty is usually connected to a scarcity of jobs and low salaries;
• Information and knowledge: in the strategic and program documents in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it is acknowledged that there is a need for improving the existing land management system as well as «technical» solutions in the form of projects to restore the required level of reclamation of agricultural lands.

Eligibility:

This Challenge is open to participants («Contestant») from member countries of the World Bank. Contestants may be individuals or organizations (profit, non-profit organizations, academia). They are invited to pitch their solutions on innovative landscape restoration.

The submitted proposal can be part of different focus themes (e.g. Agriculture — Area 1- and Information & Knowledge — Area 4).

The Challenge is open for both international and Central Asian participants.

Individuals:

• Individuals must be of a minimum of 18 years old as of (date of submission);
• An individual or a team may submit entries. Individuals who join teams must meet the eligibility requirements for Individual Contestants;
• Any national from a Bank member country can participate.

Companies, Organizations, Startups:

• Must be legally established entities (profit, non-profit) in their respective countries.

Challenge submission

The Challenge will be hosted online. Submission period begins on November 19, 2020, at 5:00 PM CET and ends on January 15, 2021, at 11:59 PM CET.

The submission form template (in pdf) documents can be used as reference but official submission must be performed online.

Contestants should complete their application through the online registration form.

Structural requirements:

• Submissions must comply with the format provided on the online platform;
• Contestants must fill out the online application form (in English);
• Contestants must attach a completed project proposal (in English);
• Contestants must be available to attend all events, bootcamps and preparatory activities throughout the challenge;
• Follow the provided template; all documents must include the name, organization and thematic area chosen;
• Contestants may submit more than one submission. However, overlap between submissions should be avoided, and only one cash prize can be allocated to the same contestant;
• Each submission must be in English. Proposals that do not comply with the structural requirement will not be considered.

The submitted proposal are scored by the following quality criteria:

• Be applicable and relevant to socio-economic and environmental conditions of the Aral Sea watershed (Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan) as well as to World Bank environmental projects under preparation and implementation in Central Asia;
• Demonstrate a potential for scaling-up to other regions of Central Asia (from the mountains to the plains);
• Establish a clear path towards practical application of the solution on the ground (indicative implementation road map / draft business plan);
• Demonstrate positive impacts for local communities (at the environmental and socio-economic levels);
• Identify result’s indicators to monitor and evaluate the proposal outcome over time

Application deadline: 15 January 2021

Challenge day: February 2021

Where: Online

Social: #TechChallengeCA