CMI e-Hackathon and e-Bootcamp

CMI e-Hackathon and e-Bootcamp for Water and Climate Change Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean Region, with a focus on Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia

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The Middle East and North Africa

2019 - 2021

Client

CMI Marseille

Beneficiaries

Mediterranean youth with interest in developing entrepreneurial solutions to water and climate change challenges.

Key Partners

CMI Marseille
The World Bank
The UK Overseas Development Fund
MedYWat

In the framework of the World Water Day organised annually by the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI), the CMI’s Regional Knowledge Program on Water in collaboration with the Mediterranean Youth for Water Network (MedYWat) and cewas Middle organised a series of interventions geared towards young water entrepreneurs-to-be, the Water and Climate Change entrepreneurship e-Hackathon and e-Bootcamp, which also includes extensive coaching and implementation period.

We started the e-Hackathon out with 10 teams in mid-2020, composed of dedicated young professionals interested in water and climate change entrepreneurship from all over the Mediterranean region. Over 3 very intensive days, the teams got to work out their initial ideas accompanied by technical inputs, experts, mentorship, and access to a plethora of resources and tools. The best four teams got to continue working on their ideas in the framework of the intensive e-Bootcamp, which started in late 2020 and lasted into the summer of 2021. The teams received intermediate business inputs to help them refine their ideas and understand their markets and were awarded seed funding, allowing them to implement and test their minimum viable products with real customers. Of course, they continue to be accompanied by the cewas team, our sister organisation, during this vital phase and integrated into our global network of entrepreneurs.

We support, motivate, and coach a group of water entrepreneurship teams from all over the Mediterranean region every step of the way to take their solutions for the most pressing challenges related to water and climate change off the ground and transform them into real businesses. Our activities within this project included:

Co-create and design

Development of an online platform bringing together the entrepreneurial teams in private workspaces and facilitating exchange with experts and mentors.
Development of four realistic business models tackling challenges in the water and climate change space.

Empower

Intensive 3-day e-hackathon with over 40 participants and nearly 20 experts and mentors
Two-month e-bootcamp to further develop the initial ideas.
Intensive immediate level coaching to accompany the implementation of the teams’ minimum viable products.