The Peace Corps Innovation Challenge is a call to Volunteers to find new ways to use technology to better deliver on our mission. You have a unique understanding of your host community. Share it with talented people around the world collaborating to create solutions.

Define Your Challenge

How can mobile technology help your host community? Deadline to submit is May 20th.

View, Vote, Refine

Top Peace Corps ideas will be featured at a global Hackathon June 1-2. Everyone can help.

Use the Solution

Beta test the Tools from the December challenge.

"I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people's lives."

–President Barack Obama

How it works:

  • Tapping on-the-ground knowledge of Peace Corps Volunteers in the developing world, define challenges that can be solved with better information, technology, or tools.
  • Then, connect Volunteers with tech experts and entrepreneurs from around the world to collaborate, create, and build innovative solutions.

DEFINE. From now until June, Peace Corps Volunteers can identify and articulate specific problems in their communities that could have a technology solution. Problem statements will be shaped, scrubbed, and prioritized by other PCVs, RPCVs, Peace Corps staff, NGOs, tech experts, etc. The most compelling problems will be submitted to Random Hacks of Kindness (www.RHoK.org), a global community of innovators building practical, open-source technology solutions to make the world a better place.

SOLVE. Sharing unique perspectives and knowledge, coders, content experts, PCVs, and more will team up to develop solutions using public data, existing apps, and other resources during a 48-hour global collaboration on the weekend of June 1-2, 2013. Local events will be held all over the world and everyone is encouraged to attend—physically or virtually. At each event, teams will develop solutions and submit them by the end of the weekend.

USE. Solutions and tools will be available to the public for free. Likely, the solutions and tools will continue to be honed, refined, and adapted over time through ongoing collaboration and development.

Define Your Challenge

Highlights

Bantu Babel

March 5, 2013, 3:07 p.m. | Posted by patrick

Zambian language translator created through the collaboration of Peace Corps Volunteers and local coders in Zambia during the Innovation Challenge

Recent Challenge Ideas