New deadline!

11 May 2020

UNCDF under its Financial Health work is launching the ‘Gig Economy Challenge’ as part of APEC 2020 “Optimizing Human Potential Towards a Future of Shared Prosperity”. The objective of the challenge is to raise awareness and inspire collective action toward improving the financial health of this new breed of workforce by crowdsourcing viable solutions from start-ups and MSMEs in 21 APEC countries.

Apply here: https://www.uncdf.org/article/5438/gig-economy-challenge

The challenge will be designed to:

• Use Malaysia as a test bed to pilot the solutions in the market, iterate quickly and gather insights over a couple months of intense bootcamp, field testing, mentoring and judging;
• Provide seed capital and technical assistance to top 3 promising solutions; and
• Draw early insights on how solutions work and their impact on users to share during the APEC 2020 Summit in October.

UNCDF is looking for solutions that improve the financial health of gig economy. The 4 pillars of financial health are the following:

• Saving: able to cope with an unexpected expense as have liquid savings; build long term savings for financial goals for retirement, children’s education, etc.
• Spending: able to manage cash flow, pay bills on time and spend less than income; includes access to and use of bank account and digital payment channels.
• Borrowing: able to access credit and the ability to pay it back; have a manageable debt load.
• Planning: able to cope with unexpected expenses as covered for assets and potential shocks; ability to budget and plan ahead financially.

Queries to this challenge can be submitted via email at finlab@uncdf.org cc uncdf.rfa@uncdf.org no later May 11th, 2020 23:59 GMT. A list of Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) will be provided on this webpage.

Applications about this challenge would only be accepted online through the application page. In case there is a problem been faced by the participant on submission, they may reach out at finlab@uncdf.org cc uncdf.rfa@uncdf.org

Apply here: https://www.uncdf.org/article/5438/gig-economy-challenge

*Pilots for those entities which needs to be regulated by any regulator shall have the approval from the said regulator for it to be piloted. The organizers shall support by providing access to the relevant regulators and assist with engagement.