NEAR KENYA HUNGER-THON CALL OUT

Sign up here Via the Google Form

About the Challenge

Kenya is in the throes of the worst drought induced famine in the last four decades.

Famine and drought continue to ravage millions of Kenyans in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands with over 4.35 million Kenyans across 23 counties being affected. According to Oxfam, some neighbouring countries have it worse with hunger likely to claim a life every 36 seconds.

Somalia’s peoples are experiencing the worst hunger crisis in living memory.

The Hunger-thon aims to target the ongoing famine being experienced in the majority of Kenya.

The NEAR KENYA HUNGER-THON is a virtual event for uncovering possible solutions to the stated disaster.

The hackathon aims to engage existing Web3 developers and onboard Web2 builders to create Decentralised Applications (dApps) on the NEAR Blockchain. We also invite students and researchers to explore the NEAR Protocol and possible direct impact use cases via research.

The effort of the HUNGER-THON has a direct social impact on drought and famine ravaged regions.

Solutions emerging from the hackathon shall seek to address and demonstrate direct impact use cases with a priority on short term immediate action. The hackathon therefore invites leading minds to hack around the following identified possible lanes for solutions:

• Human hunger and starvation
• Malnourishment
• Ongoing citizen, government & private sector famine relief efforts (eg Donations of food, water and cash)
• Animal loss due to starvation and death
• Forced migration due to famine (has led to community conflicts & human-wildlife conflict)
• Water scarcity (eg..dried up wells)
• Children school drop out & school closures
• Long term food security initiatives (Drought mitigation, Food wastage-post harvest losses et al)

Judging shall be done within 48 hours of project submissions. The jury will include 1 technical judge, a famine and drought expert judge, and a judge from NEAR Kenya.

A closing ceremony shall be done following the Judging period.

Participating projects shall make presentations during the closing ceremony of the hackathon.

DATES AND TIMING

Call Out: November 11th, 2022

• Shortlisted Teams Announcement: November 16th, 2022 (12:00pm EAT)
• Ideation/Brainstorming Period: November 17th, 2022 (00:00am EAT) — November 22nd, 2022 (11:59pm EAT) *devs to use SDG2 consultants during ideation
• Project Work Period: November 23th, 2022 (00:00am EAT) — December 15th, 2022 (11:59pm EAT)
• Judging Period: December 16th, 2022 (10:00 EAT) — December 17th, 2022 (16:00pm EAT)
• Closing Ceremony/ Luncheon: December 17th, 2022 (14:00pm to 17:00pm EAT) *teams make presentations.
• Winners Announced: On December 17th, 2022 (16:00 pm EAT).*prizes awarded

ELIGIBILITY

• Attendees from all backgrounds, genders, and geographies are welcome. There is no age restriction to attend the hackathon. In case you are under 18, your parents/legal guardian should contact the hackathon to request a waiver authorizing you to be part of the hackathon and submit their plan for your attendance and transportation to and from the end of the hackathon luncheon on December 17th 2022 .
• Committee members are not eligible to participate in the hackathon as part of any participating teams. They may, however, assist teams as DevRel, mentors, consultants during the ideation/coding/development phase.
• There is no country restriction but you must be eligible to receive prizes (in case you win) and you are responsible for paying any taxes on the prize winnings.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

• Following registration and shortlisting, the teams will be provided a consultant to assist with the theme area of the hackathon. The consultant will be available during the duration of the hackathon.
• The final product should be deployed on NEAR Testnet.
• To ensure a level field for all contestants, all code must be created only at the hackathon. You are permitted to use publicly developed and openly licensed API’s and SDKs for your project.
• Project design/assets can be created prior to the start date of the hackathon. All assets should conform to the Creative Commons License agreement standard or are freely available and you have permission or license to use them. Proof of permission must be given upon request.
• Assets, SDKs, APIs or other tools or components available under a trial license may be used.
• A team can submit only one entry for the hackathon. Participation at the hackathon is subjected on a “per-team” basis meaning you are not allowed to be on more than one team at the event.
• Any intellectual property developed during and within the scope of the hackathon is owned by the developing team or team can decide to open source and licence under one of the licenses referenced in https://opensource.org/licenses.
• The license selected by the team must be clearly listed in code (page per page) or a generic page announcing the license the application adheres to. The public code used inside your application should also list the licenses the code is subjected to.
• A team can use multiple licenses in the application. For example, the public code used could be licensed under the Apache license agreement whereas the code written by the team for the application licensed under the MIT license agreement.
• A team may not code applications that violate the common code of conduct. For example, Racially insensitive ideas for an application will automatically be disqualified.

IDEATION

Following registration and shortlisting, the teams will be provided a consultant to assist with the theme area of the hackathon. The consultant will be available during the duration of the hackathon.

TEAM FORMATION

Teams can consist of at least two team members to a maximum of five members. Exceptions can be made for teams to have more than five members on a case by case basis. Contact the hackathon admins in case you need to have a team of more than five members.

Please sign up for the hackathon on our Google Form. We shall review the applications and shortlist three teams for the hackathon. Shortlisted teams shall be contacted within a few days of submitting the application

GET STARTED

Please sign up for the hackathon on our Google Form.

Requirements

WHAT TO BUILD

Following the orientation period and ideation phase, each team is expected to have settled on a track within the theme of the hunger-thon. As a team, it is your responsibility to build a software project around that theme and submit it by 11:59 PM EAT, 15th December 2022. A consultant shall be on stand-by to advise on the ideas around the theme. Each team shall also be assigned a Developer Relations person. The DevRel shall act as contact person for the teams, provide app resources, personnel resources, and respond to questions from the developers. DevRel will be responsible for addressing developer requests from the organizers and ensure their production proceeds smoothly in the hackathon period.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

All project submissions will be code-reviewed to confirm that the code is original work created at the hackathon and all components and assets conform to the licences allowed in these rules.

1. Submit a link to your project source code on Github

2. Submit a link to a 2–3 minute demo video presenting your product.

3. If deployed, please submit a link to a live demo of your product.

Prizes

• All 3 participating teams will equally share from a pool of $3,000, upon successful submission of their projects by 15th December 2022.
• Prizes shall be settled on 17th December 2022, at the end of hackathon luncheon.

Judging Criteria

• Idea
  Does the product address the prompt? Does the product introduce a new/unique approach or perspective?
• Effectiveness
  Does the product function as intended? Does the product execute on its idea in a way that’s effective?
• Technical Challenge
  Is the implementation complex? Does the product feature different parts? Does the product use interesting concepts or technologies?
• Design
  Is the product aesthetically pleasing? Is the product easy to use? Does the design of the product elevate its function and original idea?

RELEASE

Photographs, videos and any other media recordings of the event may be used for media and PR purposes including all online media i.e.; social media, blogs among other online and offline publications. By participating in the hackathon, participants acknowledge that the organizers have full copyright and authority to use the photos, videos and footage and agree with the terms listed above.

LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY

The Organisers shall not be responsible for any breach of intellectual Property or any other direct, indirect, special or consequential, economic, or other damages arising in any way out of the installation or use of third party equipment and software by the Participants

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The Participants will hold and absolutely own all right, title, and interest in and to any intellectual property embodied in all the code, computer programs and softwares they develop during the hackathon.

DISPUTES

In the event of a controversy, dispute or claim arising out of, in connection with, or in relation to in any way related to this hackathon or the projects developed hereby, including, without limitation, any claim based on intellectual property, contract, tort etc the parties shall negotiate in good faith for a reasonable period of time to settle such dispute.

FEES & TAXES

The Participants shall be solely responsible for the payment of any taxes imposed by Kenyan laws or any other any lawful jurisdiction over the winnings from the hackathon or as a result of their participation in the hackthon.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS & CONDITIONS

By enrolling into this hackathon, the participant acknowledges having read and understood the terms and conditions of participation and the participant expressly agrees to abide by all of the governing terms and provisions of the hackathon.

Please sign up for the hackathon on our Google Form.