Start-ups Partnership: Cambridge and Initiative for Global Prosperity

With monetary prizes, mentorship, and access to global organisations, worth up to $ 1 mill., the Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity brings together a community of ‘makers’ to tackle some of the world’s toughest societal problems that affect over 1 bn. people globally. In alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Prosperity Initiative aims to empower entrepreneurs, innovators and technologists to drive social innovation and promote global good.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity combines the Global Maker Challenge, an online open-innovation platform designed to promote and accelerate global prosperity through product innovation; and the Global Prosperity Award, a prestigious global accolade that recognizes and rewards corporate social responsibility that advances resilience, community, harmony and dignity across the world.

The Global Maker Challenge consists of four challenges, each targeting a specific global issue which global organizations can adopt as part of their corporate social responsibility. The four challenges were determined in partnership with eight UN agencies and, so far, over 1,100 submissions have poured in from 83 countries, with strong participation from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) such as Uganda, Laos, Sudan, and Congo.

Each of the winning solutions to the four challenges will be presented to a panel of international experts brought together by the University of Cambridge IfM to demonstrate its socio-economic impact and its contribution to advancing one or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The panel will then determine the solution with the greatest socio-economic impact in order for its adopting organization to qualify for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s Global Prosperity Award as a recognition of its corporate social responsibility.