SafeTech Africa HackLab 2026: Innovating for Safe Spaces

SafeTech Africa HackLab 2026 is a pan-African youth social innovation challenge supporting practical digital and community solutions that make physical, informational and online spaces safer for women, girls and young people. It is led by UNFPA's Eastern and Southern Africa and Western and Central Africa regional offices with the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Programme, the Global Programme to End Child Marriage, the African Union Women, Gender and Youth Directorate, UNDP, UNICEF and UN Women. Applicants must submit under one of three themes: safer physical and community spaces addressing child marriage, female genital mutilation and technology-facilitated violence; safer informational spaces providing accurate, confidential sexual and reproductive health information; or safer digital spaces countering online abuse, anti-rights disinformation, censorship and other technology-facilitated harms. Shortlisted innovators and teams will receive virtual mentorship using the UNFPA Social Innovation Toolkit and pitch coaching before presenting at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit in November 2026. Four winners will receive seed grants of US$5,000 to US$10,000 each. The programme also offers investor and market exposure, connections with continental development partners and visibility through UNFPA, Spotlight Initiative and African Union media channels. Selection considers problem-solution fit, originality, feasibility, inclusion and disability accessibility, youth leadership, potential to scale, and safety, privacy and ethical practice. Applicants must provide team details, choose one theme, write a problem statement of up to 200 words and an innovation description of up to 700 words, and include a 12-month implementation roadmap plus a digital safety and inclusion note. Applications close on 18 October 2026 at 23:59 CAT. Use the official Spotlight Initiative page to review the full call and open the application form.

Open to young African innovators aged 18–35, including youth-led teams, social entrepreneurs and digital-rights advocates across Africa. The proposed innovation must be original, practical and youth-led, and it must address at least one of the three published themes: harmful practices and physical/community safety; accurate, confidential health information; or safer digital spaces and protection from technology-facilitated violence. Applicants should be ready to present a realistic 12-month implementation roadmap. Proposals are assessed for inclusion, accessibility, safeguarding, privacy, ethical technology use, feasibility and potential to scale. Team submissions must provide each member's age, gender composition, nationality, contact details and role.