Designing safe and affordable sanitation in rural areas to improve public health

What is the open innovation challenge?

The lack of adequate sanitation facilities is a global problem with an estimated 2.3 billion people using unimproved toilets or having no access to toilets at all. The cost of a proper toilet makes them unaffordable to the vast majority of the rural poor. This problem leads to significant public health issues with an estimated 280,000 diarrheal deaths per year attributable to inadequate sanitation.

World Vision, supported by SeaFreight Labs, is seeking novel new ideas, concepts, and approaches to attack the lack of adequate toilets and latrines in some of the poorest areas of the world.

This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.

The award(s) will be paid to the best submission(s) as solely determined by the Seeker. The total payout will be $15,000, with at least one award being no smaller than $5,000 and no award being smaller than $1,000.

The Solvers are not required to transfer exclusive intellectual property rights to the Seeker. Rather, by submitting a proposal, the Solver grants to the Seeker a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use any information included in this proposal, including for promotional purposes.

Timetable

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on 12 January 2021. Late submissions will not be considered.