The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Water For All Pitch Competition now open to youth and business entrepreneurs in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC).
The search is on for innovative ideas to power the Caribbean’s water-tech revolution!
The USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean office is pleased to launch the Water for All Pitch Competition, seeking entrepreneurs located in the ESC region to submit game-changing innovations that focus on the water sector.
The pitch competition aims to bring regional awareness and drive action to promote water sector resilience in the face of climate change and other hazards affecting the region. It will amplify the private sector’s role in water solutions by showcasing promising innovations and practices and to strategically connect them to advanced support systems that will ultimately support the scaling up of their innovations for the benefit of all. This would enable testing of ideas to identify what works and catalyse follow-on investments for and bring attention to proven solutions for greater scale.
Entries must be submitted in English through the waterislife2023.com website. Eligible entrepreneurs must have an existing innovation or prototype, pitches must provide solutions for water resilience and sustainability, and ideas must be driven or amplified by technology. The pitch competition is open to eligible applicants in the following ESC countries: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Up to 5 entrepreneur finalists will be shortlisted to participate in an in-person pitch in Barbados with a total of a US$50,000 cash prize. The Grand Prize winner will win a US$25,000 investment in their pitch. The first and second runners-up will win US$15,000 and US$5,000 investments, respectively. The other 3 finalists will receive non-financial support in the form of business development, market assessment, public relations and communications, technical expertise, and travel services in order to accelerate and facilitate continuing development of their pitches.
The Water for All Pitch competition was recently launched at the USAID Caribbean
Water Conference 2023 on 7 June 2023 and will be open for applications through 14 July 2023. All interested participants should read carefully through the eligibility criteria and entry process before submission. If the entrant experiences any difficulty with submitting an entry, please contact ESC Resilience Team at [email protected].
For more information on the USAID Water for All Pitch Competition, please visit the website https://www.waterislife2023.com/pitch–competition.
US Embassy Barbados
Let’s start with some easy stuff like more reservoirs that are covered to prevent evaporation, AFFORDABLE purchase program for household water storage tanks, plumbing systems that are set up to use good grey water like from showers or laundry to irrigate gardens or agriculture.