AshMan says…

So why is there Imagine Cup?

Imagine Cup, so you might be starting to hear more and more about this competition and actually wondering what do you have to do to enter? I thought to try and make it easier to understand, to explain it in a few posts

Imagine Cup: Why the competition?

Technology as you would know is a great enabler of things in our everyday lives in first world countries. What is even more impressive is the potential impact which technology can make in countries which don’t share the same luxuries.  Imagine Cup encourages students to challenge themselves to create solutions to what the United Nations have stated are the 8 Millennium Development Goals. These goals are:

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty & Hunger

• Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
• Target 2: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
• Target 3: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

 Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

• Target: Ensure that, by 2015, chil­dren everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Goal 3:  Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

• Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

•  Target: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

• Target 1: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
• Target 2: Achieve universal access to reproductive health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

• Target 1: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Target 2: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
• Target 3: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

• Target 1: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
• Target 2: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
• Target 3: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
• Target 4: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dweller

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

• Target 1: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
• Target 2: Address the special needs of least developed countries
• Target 3: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing states
• Target 4: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries
• Target 5: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
• Target 6: In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

For more information visit http://www.imaginecup.com to learn more about the competition and its’ goals and look out for future posts going into more detail the different categories!

Tags: ashman, Imagine Cup, microsoft, Millennium Goals, Poverty, SmackDown, UN