How can we expand access to quality work, affordable housing, and financial resilience so that more people can build lasting prosperity?
Challenge Overview
Three foundations of economic prosperity remain out of reach for billions: the ability to withstand financial shocks, access quality work, and safe and adequate housing.
Globally, financial inclusion has increased, without necessarily increasing financial resilience. Today, four in five adults hold a bank account, formal savings have increased, and gender gaps have narrowed in account ownership. Yet, since 2021, only 56% of adults can reliably access extra money to deal with an unexpected event.
Headline employment figures tell a similarly complex story. Global unemployment remains steady at 4.9%, but progress in job quality has stalled, and access remains deeply unequal. One in five young people (15-24) are not employed or pursuing education or training; women remain 24% less likely than men to participate in the labor force. As AI and other technologies reshape entry-level work, workers need credible pathways not only into jobs, but toward security, mobility, and advancement.
Housing is where many of these pressures converge. More than one in three people face some kind of housing inadequacy. Informal settlements provide affordable housing, livelihoods, and vital community networks; yet residents frequently lack secure tenure, basic services, and climate resilience. Meanwhile, housing costs are rising faster than incomes, and an estimated $3-4 trillion in annual investment through 2030 is needed to deliver adequate and affordable housing globally.
These challenges are interconnected. Technology and community-driven innovation cannot resolve these structural failures alone. But they can help households and businesses manage risk, connect workers to opportunity, improve productivity, and make housing systems more affordable and effective. The strongest solutions will expand people’s agency, work within real financial and institutional constraints, or integrate into the systems capable of sustaining them.
MIT Solve seeks exceptional technology-driven solutions that expand economic security and opportunity, with a particular interest in 2027 for solutions that:
Help individuals, families and small businesses build financial health and resilience to manage financial obligations and shocks
Create pathways to quality employment and economic opportunity, particularly for young people and workers excluded from formal labor markets as AI and other technologies reshape entry-level work
Expand access to safe, affordable, and climate-resilient housing, especially for vulnerable, informally settled, or displaced populations
Every person deserves to experience security and opportunity. Let’s make that a reality, together.
