ITU-Women Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) Digital Innovation Challenge for women Entrepreneurs | Opportunities For Africans
Application Deadline: January 20, 2023
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in collaboration with the Women Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) and Mary Kay Global, has launched the 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge with the theme of Building enabling ecosystems for women entrepreneurs. This challenge supports the commitment of WEA to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030 and is aligned with the 2023 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) Priority theme of “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. ». WEA is a multi-partnership initiative on women’s entrepreneurship convening the 6 United Nations agencies (ITU, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), UN Development Programme (UNDP) , UN Global Compact (UNGC) and UN Women).
CHALLENGE SCOPE
The Challenge will help identify scalable, innovative digital solutions that enable countries, societies, communities, institutions and individuals to develop a more gender-inclusive digital entrepreneurship ecosystem promoting an environment that supports the creation and growth of women-owned and women-led enterprises.
The Challenge objective is to build vibrant and inclusive digital innovation ecosystems that empower women entrepreneurs by supporting existing digital solutions developed by women-owned companies or with a minimum of one female founder or by women acting as micro-entrepreneurs or innovative change makers working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Eligibility Requirements
Benefits
To increase the potential/ capabilities of the selected proposals/teams, the Challenge will open access to the Digital Innovation Challenge Acceleration Programme (“the Programme”), providing:
The 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge will bring resources and expertise from various industries and sectors to support mentoring and capacity development for the selected innovators.
| Key Dates | Activities |
| 7 December 2022 | 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge Launch |
| 20 January 2023 | End of 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge 2022 |
| 27 January 2023 | Shortlisted Candidates Announcement |
| 1 February 2023 | Pitch Competition Session and 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge winners announcement |
| 7 -10 February 2023 | Bootcamp |
| 13 February 2023 | Mentorship Programme starts |
| 6 March 2023 | CSW67/ Best Practice Report release |
| 28 April 2023 | End of Programme |
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