ITU-Women Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) Digital Innovation Challenge for women Entrepreneurs

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

• The Challenge is open to governments, international organizations, NGOs, private sector companies and start-ups, research institutions, acad​emia and civil society organizations (CSOs) (collectively, the “the Participants” and each a “Participant”). 
• Only legal entities which are legally registered in an ITU Member State and have at least one female member in the leadership team (e.g. founder, chief executive, or similar) are eligible to participate in the Challenge.
• Only one submission per Participant will be permitted. Multiple submissions from the same Participant who submit multiple entries will be disqualified.
• ​Participants must have an existing project or minimum viable product (MVP) that:
  • ​a.has already been implemented or tested
  • b.promotes and supports female entrepreneurship within digital innovation ecosystems
  • c.demonstrates a new innovative project/prototype, outlining its potential for scaling up
  • d.is a digital solution
• Participants must have availability from the 7th to the 10th of February 2023 to participate in a four-day virtual boot camp for a two (2)-hour session per day and availability to meet their mentor and programme team until the end of April 2023.
• Representatives of Participants warrant that all information submitted is true, complete, and up-to-date and that they are authorized to participate in the Challenge on behalf of their respective institution/organization. ITU reserves the right to verify eligibility for participation in the Challenge as well as the accuracy of submitted information.

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:

• capacity-building training, attending a virtual boot camp to refine further their plans and milestones (e.g. market entry, deployment, impact traction),
• a specialised mentorship scheme,
•  access to a network of change-makers,
• a publication of the case in a Best Practice Report,
• and the possibility to attend the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67), New York, USA.

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.

Timeline

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the ITU WEA Digital Innovation Challenge