The Hult International Business School is back with their annual case competition. This year, they ask university students around the world to develop solutions for tackling global poverty through education, energy, and housing.
The Hult Global Case Challenge started three years ago and has featured thousands of students competing from over 100 countries for a $1 million cash grant to implement their idea. Every fall, 4-5 students team up to develop a solution for a real challenge that NGOs are facing in a case study format.
On January 15, finalists of the competition were announced and were distributed with a case study in their selected category of education, energy, or housing. They will be competing in the regional finals in Boston, London, Dubai, Shanghai, or San Francisco on February 24-25. The winner from each category in each city will be competing in the global final in New York.
This year, the $1 million grant provided to the winning teams of each category by Hult will be split equally among SolarAid, One Laptop per Child, and Habitat for Humanity. The teams will move on to map out an implementation plan and next steps with each of the partner NGOs.
The winners from 2011 worked with Water.org to address the clean water crisis. Their winning solution is to implement a loyalty program designed in conjunction with mobile providers which allows individuals to allocate a percentage of their top-off cards to raise capital required for water improvements in their community. Currently more people in the world have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
As with previous years, the winners of the 2012 competition will be announced by President Bill Clinton whose Clinton Global Initiative remain a strong partner with the Hult Global Case Challenge.