If eradicating world poverty isn't sufficient reward in itself the World Bank has established a prize fund of $45,000 for developers who create apps that help meet one of the Millennium Development Goals.

As a developer these days you could easily spend more time on entering contests than on your day job. Now the World Bank has entered the arena and is asking developers for apps that raise awareness of and help meet the Millennium Development Goals.

The Apps for Development competition challenges participants to develop software applications related to one or more of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - including eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development - defined by the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000.

The contest is linked to World Bank's Open Data Initiative, launched in April, 2010 which made freely available three data sets: World Development Indicators, Africa Development Indicators, and Millennium Development Goal Indicators.

In order to be considered for prizes (with a total of $45,000 on offer) submissions must use at least one of these datasets. The other stipulation is that entries should address at least one of the following objectives:

1. Raise awareness of at least one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), or
2. Contribute to progress toward meeting one of the MDGs by 2015.

Submissions, which are being accepted up until 10 January 2011, may be any kind of software application - for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, SMS, or any software platform broadly available to the public.

Applications which best satisfy the competition criteria will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to have their apps featured on the World Bank Open Data website.

To register for the contest visit the Apps for Development site and create an account.