REGISTRATIONS OPEN FOR THE THIRD EDITION OF COOPATHON: A COOPERATIVE HACKATHON
On 30 October 2020, the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) launched the third edition of coopathon – a cooparative hackathon. Coopathon 3.0 is being organised by the ICA-AP in collaboration with the ICA-EU partnership and its partners. The initiative is aimed at sourcing sustainable, innovative and technologically enabled solutions to address challenges in the social and service sectors that are in line with cooperative values and principles.
The theme for Coopathon 3.0 is “Technology and Cooperative Identity”. It is the third of its kind in a series of similar events organised to encourage technology infusion, innovative models of collective-entrepreneurship and youth participation within the cooperative ecosystem. The earlier two events were held at Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K) in the year 2018 and at the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), New Delhi in the year 2019 respectively. The third edition of the Coopathon will be a fully online hackathon event, for participants across the Asia and Pacific region from 11th December 2020 (Friday) - 14th December 2020 (Monday). This is the first time ICA-AP is organising an online Coopathon and at an international level. You can see more information about the earlier events here: coopathon 1.0 and coopathon 2.0. coopathon 3.0 envisages the use of technology as a tool for digital transformation to establish people-centred business collectives such as cooperatives for solving global problems. Cooperatives across the globe are led by a common sense of identity which was imbibed in the ‘Statement of Cooperative Identity’, adopted in the year 1995. Furthermore, this holds particular relevance in the time of the global pandemic and economic crisis that the world is currently going through. The essence of how collective enterprises can be explored as a resilient alternative to traditional business models, due to their democratic economic structure, sustainable and community-first approach to development is a model that innovators and entrepreneurs should explore. The solutions from the hackathon would be encouraged and mentored to develop as Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) or working prototypes, that may be taken up for testing and thereafter if viable, encouraged for commercialization.
The Coopathon initiative also resonates with several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 8 (Decent work & economic growth), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) and also highlights the importance of newer and innovative structures that align with the cooperative identity. This year also marks twenty-five years since the cooperative identity statement had been adopted. Registrations for the Coopathon 3.0 are now open! Teams can register online. For more details and information please visit: www.coopathon.coop
Contact
Ganesh Gopal, Programme Officer and Shree Padmanabhan, IT Officer
contact@coopathon.coop
ICA Asia and Pacific - The ICA is an independent, non governmental organisation established in 1895 to unite, represent and serve co operatives worldwide. It provides a global voice and forum for knowledge, expertise and coordinated action for and about co operatives. Its members are international and national co operative organisations from all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, banking, consumer, fisheries, health, housing, insurance, and industry & services. It helps members develop business relationships and partnerships with members as well as convenes co operative knowledge, information and guidance through capacity building programmes , technical exchange, and increasing access to co operatives related information. The ICA Asia and Pacific (ICA AP) was established in 1960 in New Delhi as the regional office and education centre . The ICA AP serves 108 organizations from 32 countries (as of Oct 2020) in the region.
ICA-EU Partnership - In March 2016, the ICA entered a partnership with the European Commission, ushering in a new phase of collaboration on strengthening the co operative movement as development actors. The ICA EU partnership is built around activities focused on increasing visibility, enhancing advocacy, sharing capacity building, strengthening co operative development networking, and supporting all these with evidence from exhaustive research.
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