Due to rapid urbanization, the population in cities all around the world are growing annually at an increasing rate. Currently around 52% of the global population live in cities but by the year 2050, two third of the entire population will be living in urban areas.

According to a United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report, experts predict that urbanization in addition to the overall population growth in cities, another 2.5 billion people will be added to the current urban population by 2050. And 90% of this growth is concentrated in the two continents, Asia and Africa.

This increased population has become a major global problem as the infrastructure in most of the cities are unable to support so many people. Thus urbanization is leading to several other social problems including environmental consequences due to air pollution, water pollution, traffic congestion and overpopulation. In order to tackle this, United Nations has set the SDG #11: To make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

According to World Atlas, Dhaka is currently the 16th largest city in the world with a population of over 160 million. And every year around half a million people from rural or semi-urban areas are settling in Dhaka. Therefore Dhaka city is also a victim of overpopulation.

BRAC, the world?s largest NGO, is seeing this urbanization problem in Bangladesh as an opportunity in disguise. In order to solve the problems of urbanization and develop the city of the future, on 31st October, BRAC launched the Urban Innovation Challenge, an innovation competition for young Bangladeshi students to develop sustainable solutions.

The aim of this competition is to create a platform for young entrepreneurs, innovators and university students to improve the lives of people with the most creative ideas. As part of the competition, BRAC will provide training and mentoring to the shortlisted project ideas and support them to build social enterprise models. The organizers will event connect the best ideas to investors for launching and running the project in Dhaka.