The Enable Makeathon is a unique social movement in the field of humanitarian action, disability, innovation, entrepreneurship and technology. It aims to crowdsource new, innovative solutions that enable persons with disabilities with specific needs that have, so far, been neglected.

©ICRC

The Enable Makeathon builds on a rich knowledge pillar of humanitarian action, professional skills and expertise to do away with the continued exclusion of persons with disabilities. We believe in diversity and set the accent on multidisciplinary thinking with collaboration, and commitment at the heart of our endeavour. The sharing of experiences is vital to address the most urgent needs of persons with disabilities, and thus, crucial to the Enable Makeathon.

The ICRC supports a large number of persons with disabilities across the world and has active programmes in more than 40 countries. Most of these people – men, women as well as and most unfortunately, thousands of children – are in rural and remote areas and from less privileged communities. The ICRC’s support and assistance, helps many of them cope with their daily challenges and live a life of dignity.

Enable Makeathon 1.0

Enable Makeathon 1.0 took place in Bengaluru, India. Out of the 186 applications submitted, 31 teams came together – 16 from across the globe and 15 onsite – for a 60-day programme. There were three themes for the programme: Improving individual autonomy, access to and quality  of physical rehabilitation services, and the open challenge. Out of these three overarching themes, nince challenges emerged.

  • Performing activities of daily living
  • Mobility in and around the house
  • Mobility within and beyond the community
  • Assisting education and training
  • Employability and self-employment
  • Remote access to physical rehabilitation services
  • Remote follow-up and user-to-service provider interactions
  • Data collection to improve quality of service
  • Adaption and use of new technologies

©ICRC

The participating teams worked with persons with disabilities to identify the challenges, design prototypes, refine and test them. On “Demo Day,” 17 finalists presented their products and business models. Three winners and five solutions were selected by a panel of experts. The five solutions then went through a period of incubation and are now on their way to being scaled up for business.

Enable Makeathon 2.0

The Enable Makeathon 2.0 was an intensive innovation programme that took place from November 2017 to January 2018. Ideas related to the key issues of accessibility and employability of persons with disabilities were crowdsourced and the ultimate goal was to slingshot ideas from ideation to action in a span of 90 days.The co-creation camps took place in two simultaneous locations; Bengaluru, India hosted by the ICRC and London, UK hosted by the Global Disability Innovation Hub and University College London.

With a focus on innovation for and by persons with disabilities, the Enable Makeathon carried innovative ideas through the innovation chain: from ideation to co-creation, refinement to testing and incubation with an aim to facilitate the exchange among innovators to foster and enable innovative thinking across a broad range of disciplines to build new solutions.

Teams were accompanied at each stage, with winning teams awarded and assisted to translate ideas into action. At the end of the 90 days, 3 winners were awarded the Enable Makeathon prize to build and scale up their ideas.

 

A few videos from EM 1.0 and EM 2.0:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For queries please contact:
C-6/6, Safdarjung Development Area, Hauz Khas,
New Delhi – 110016, India
+91 11 42211000
+91 8588846504

You can write to newdelhi@icrc.org with subject line ‘Enable Makeathon’.