WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will host an interactive pitch competition at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas on Monday, March 14 from 3:45 - 4:45 p.m. CT at Palm Door on Sixth, 508 E 6th Street.

USAID Chief Innovation Officer and U.S. Global Development Lab Executive Director Ann Mei Chang will lead the event where three entrepreneurs will pitch their innovative ideas to solve global development challenges in food security, education and health care:

• Jeheil Oliver, founder and CEO of Hello Tractor: Hello Tractor is an agricultural technology company that has created "Uber for tractors." The social enterprise sells its Smart Tractor to low-income farmers, providing financing when needed, and pairs them with a network of farmers who can text and use mobile money for tractor services.
• Doreen Kessey, COO of Ubongo: Ubongo is a Tanzania-based social enterprise that creates interactive edutainment for kids in Africa with technologies they already have - basic mobile phones.
• Jonathan Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Dimagi: Dimagi's CommCare is a free, open-source, mobile platform that enables anyone to build their own mobile apps. Community health workers can use these apps instead of paper-based forms to track and support patients with registration forms, checklists and SMS reminders.

The competition will be decided  by judges Jean Case, the CEO of the Case Foundation, and Rajesh Anandan, the Senior Vice President of UNICEF Ventures for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and by the audience in a live vote. The winning entrepreneur will have the opportunity to attend President Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford in June 2016.

USAID will also participate in two panels at SXSW: Designing Collective Action for Global Development, and Fighting Wildlife Crime with Tech Innovation.

Follow the activity on Twitter at @USAID and @GlobalDevLab, and hashtags #SXgood and #EndPoverty.