As part of the Global resources for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) Initiative, UNODC aims at fighting corruption by harnessing – along with the power of education, research and youth empowerment – also young people’s skills and interests in technology and connection.
Together, youth are 1.8 billion strong and have the power to reduce inequalities and create a better world for all. GRACE is seeking to harness the energy and creativity of youth to catalyse real change and inspire them to revolutionize the way society views and addresses corruption, make informed socio-political choices, take steps towards transformational change and move towards a more sustainable and ethical recovery from the pandemic.
In order to ensure that youth is not only heard but understood, not only engaged but empowered, and not only contributing to but leading global efforts, GRACE leverages young people’s knack for digital innovation and social entrepreneurship in order to meaningfully engage them and put them in a position to tangibly and efficiently join global anti-corruption efforts.
Such an approach builds upon the strong policy support recognized by the World Youth Report launched in 2020, in which it is explained that the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda finds its driving engine in the empowerment and support of the new generations, for us today have the “… unprecedented opportunity to strengthen relationships between development agents such as young people, the private sector and policymakers to produce effective and innovative solutions.” Furthermore “youth social entrepreneurship in support of the 2030 Agenda represents a nimble and flexible option that allows a wide array of partners from all sectors to come together with youth and serve communities while generating employment.”
The Report highlights the tremendous potential of the younger generations in being actors of positive change when utilising new frontier technologies that offer a wide range of opportunities for innovating global efforts in tackling major and complex social issues, including the multidimensional challenges posed by corruption to so many facets of our societies.
In a nutshell, “connecting young social entrepreneurs with new and emerging technologies represents an opportunity to disseminate and scale up technological solutions that will contribute to the global welfare and leverage the enormous potential of youth worldwide.”
But how does GRACE bridge digital innovation, social entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, anti-corruption and the 2030 Agenda? One very successful example is through the catalytic power of hackathons:
Today’s youth are not only naturally inventive, creative and tech-savvy but most importantly they are greatly motivated to use their skills for social causes that make their lives, those of their peers and their communities more just, fair and peaceful in an efficient and sustainable manner. The Coding4Integrity hackathon series aims to seize the youth's dedication to just, fair and peaceful change to give young people a learning and networking space to come up and develop technological solutions for corruption-related problems that affect their communities.
Hackathons, as programmes that stand in between digital innovation and social entrepreneurship, indeed provide a substantial opportunity for young people to enhance their knowledge on relevant topics as well as strengthen their social and technical skills. GRACE engages with a rich network of partners, from both the public and private sectors (the latter mainly from the technology industry) to provide a well-rounded and meaningful experience to all young coders, as well as a possibility to see their tech-based solutions being developed and adopted by varied stakeholders.
Let’s hear directly from some of the young coders who participated in the Coding4Integrity Youth Anti-Corruption hackathon series: