RETOS

Connecting students from universities around the world with rural communities' challenges

Team Leader

Diana Duarte Gómez

Connecting students from universities around the world with rural communities' challenges

What is the name of your organization?

Diversa

What is the name of your solution?

RETOS

Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.

Connecting students from universities around the world with rural communities' challenges

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Bogotá

In what country is your solution team headquartered?

—

What type of organization is your solution team?

Nonprofit

Film your elevator pitch.

—

What specific problem are you solving?

A graduate student pours an average of 300 hours into writing their thesis. However, once they graduate, their data collection, analysis, and recommendations are archived, never put to practical use. Meanwhile, rural communities confront challenges that student groups often have resources and analytical capabilities to address—but the connection is missing.

What is your solution?

Retos identified a real need for practitioners willing to invest time in the field researching and assessing solutions to rural challenges. The team created a web platform that connects academic and rural communities in Colombia to develop practical solutions. Alongside the platform, Retos runs workshops to help rural Colombians formulate and post local challenges. Universities register academic teams, and a learning algorithm assigns each team a challenge. Retos also facilitates communication between participants, provides project guidance, and evaluates projects to support future collaborations.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

We serve rural communities and university students. Rural communities are mostly families with small productive systems whose income comes from selling products in large cities or from tourism. Their living conditions vary depending on their distance from village centers. In Colombia, many of these communities have been heavily affected by armed conflict and limited access to growth opportunities. With universities, we work mainly with professors and administrators to understand how to channel students’ interest in socio-environmental issues. Our solution bridges both worlds by surfacing rural challenges and connecting them with university teams, while making stakeholder matching more accurate and efficient.

Organization Type:
Nonprofit

Headquarters:
Bogotá, Colombia

Stage:
Growth

Working In:
Colombia, Guatemala

Solution Website:
https://www.diversa.co/

Solution Team: