Gulf Today

Expo 2020 Dubai spotlights five grassroots innovation­s

- Business Bureau, Gulf Today

DUBAI: A wearable device that warns when social distancing is not being respected and a Jordanian programme helping vulnerable communitie­s grow online businesses during lockdown are among five new projects selected from a call for Covid-19-related proposals from Expo 2020 Dubai’s Global Best Practice Programme.

The hand-picked initiative­s join 45 existing best practice projects, whose simple, effective and locally based solutions solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, including those laid out in the Sustainabl­e Developmen­t Agenda - 17 global targets designed to achieve peace and prosperity for people and the planet, according to a press release on Wednesday.

The latest additions come as the United Nations marks World Creativity and Innovation Day on 21st April, celebratin­g human ingenuity and the creative economy, and their essential role in helping communitie­s throughout the pandemic.

Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for Internatio­nal Cooperatio­n, Director-general of Expo 2020 Dubai and Chair of the UAE National Commitee on Sustainabl­e Developmen­t Goals, said, “The impact of major global challenges has made it very clear that, to build a beter future, we must work together as a global community. Our expanded Global Best Practice Programme exemplifie­s Expo’s purpose to bring the world together - aligned with our theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ - to drive positive change and support projects from across the world that communitie­s need now.

“These projects are providing tangible, lifechangi­ng solutions to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, and we are proud to showcase them at Expo 2020 Dubai - a one-of-a-kind global plaform and an impacful incubator for new ideas,” she said.

New projects include Safedistan­ce, a wearable device from Belgium firm Lopos that uses alarms, lights and vibrations to warn when social distancing is not being respected, and UAEbased Project Maji, which has devised the Maji Bucket - a safe, low-tech and low-cost invention, produced by people of determinat­ion in Ghana, to ensure safe handwashin­g practices in rural communitie­s.

Another project, Sitatbyoot, works directly with vulnerable communitie­s in Jordan, primarily women working from home during lockdowns. During the pandemic, it developed a vocational training programme to create certified ‘makers’, producing garments and hand-made goods for sale through Sitatbyoot’s sister e-commerce plaform, Makesy. To date, Makesy has a certified network of 500-plus ‘makers’ fulfilling orders from home - helping them enter the labour market, grow their businesses online and provide more income for their families.

Dimitri S. Kerkentzes, Secretary General of the Bureau Internatio­nal des Exposition­s (BIE), said, “World Expos excel as plaforms for showcasing and sharing inspiring projects that bring real improvemen­ts to lives around the world. The BIE enthusiast­ically endorses this timely COVID-19 edition of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Global Best Practice Programme, which gathers a series of innovative, inclusive and truly transforma­tive solutions to the new challenges raised by the pandemic. By exchanging impacful solutions for people and the planet, we can address and overcome these challenges together.”

During the call for COVID-19 proposals, which began in September 2020, Expo received applicatio­ns from 318 projects, in 78 different countries, across five focus areas: Digitalisa­tion; Education and Skills Developmen­t; Health and Wellbeing; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; and Protecting Livelihood­s.

They were assessed by a jury, comprising Cisco, the Official Digital Network Partner of Expo 2020; Uae-based global philanthro­pic organisati­on Dubai Cares; and UN Habitat, the UN programme for human setlements and sustainabl­e urban developmen­t. Top submission­s were then reviewed and signed off by the BIE and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainabi­lity Leadership (CISL).

Launched in 2018 under the theme ‘Small Steps, Big Leaps: Simple Solutions for Sustainabl­e Impact’, the Global Best Practice Programme honours a 2010 BIE mandate for all World Expos to spotlight solutions that can be replicated, adapted and scaled for greater global impact - highlighti­ng World Expos as powerful plaforms for inspiring change and driving human progress.

From 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022, Expo 2020 Dubai will invite visitors from every corner of the globe to join the making of a new world, as they discover life-changing innovation­s that will have a meaningful, positive impact on people and planet.

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