The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in collaboration with the Women's Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) and Mary Kay Global, has launched the 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge with the theme of Building favourable ecosystems for women entrepreneurs.

This challenge supports the WEA's commitment to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2030 and is aligned with the Commission on the Status of Women's 2023 priority theme (CSW67) "Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls".

The WEA is a multi-partner initiative on women's entrepreneurship that brings together the 6 United Nations agencies (ITU, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and UN Women).

More than ever, it is crucial to maximise the impact of female entrepreneurship in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating a digital innovation ecosystem that is favourable to female entrepreneurs around the world.

Call for applications

The challenge will help identify scalable and innovative digital solutions that enable countries, societies, communities, institutions and individuals to develop a more gender-inclusive digital business ecosystem, fostering an environment that supports the creation and growth of businesses owned and led by women.

The aim of the Challenge is to build vibrant and inclusive digital innovation ecosystems that empower women entrepreneurs by supporting existing digital solutions developed by companies owned by women or with a minimum of one female founder, or by women acting as micro-entrepreneurs or innovators working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Benefits

• Capacity building training, attending a virtual boot camp to perfect your plans and milestones (e.g. market entry, deployment, impact traction),
• a specialised mentoring scheme,
• access to a network of changemakers,
• a publication of the case in a Best Practices Report,
• and the possibility of participating in the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, New York, USA.
• The WEA 2022 Digital Innovation Challenge will bring resources and expertise from various industries and sectors to support mentoring and capacity building for the selected innovators.

Chronology of Events

• 7 December 2022 - Launch of the WEA Digital Innovation Challenge
• 20 January 2023 - End of 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge 2022
• 27 January 2023 - Announcement of shortlisted candidates
• 1 February 2023 - Announcement of the winners of the Pitch Competition and 2022 WEA Digital Innovation Challenge
• 7 -10 February 2023 - Bootcamp
• 13 February 2023 - Start of the Mentorship Programme
• 6 March 2023 - CSW67/ Disclosure of the Best Practices Report
• 28 April 2023 - End of Programme

Eligibility Criteria

• The challenge is open to governments, international organisations, NGOs, private sector companies and start-ups, research institutions, academia and civil society organisations (CSOs) (collectively, the "Participants" and each a "Participant").
• Only legal entities that are legally registered in an ITU Member State and have at least one female member on the leadership team (e.g. founder, chief executive, or similar) are eligible to take part in the Challenge.
• Only one submission per Participant will be allowed. Multiple submissions from the same Participant who submits multiple entries will be disqualified.
• Participants must have an existing project or a minimum viable product (MVP) that:
  • has already been implemented or tested
  • promotes and supports female entrepreneurship in digital innovation ecosystems
  • demonstrates an innovative new project/prototype, outlining its potential for expansion
  • is a digital solution

• Participants must be available from 7 to 10 February 2023 to take part in a four-day virtual boot camp for a two (2)-hour session per day and be available to meet with their mentor and programme team by the end of April 2023.
• Participants' representatives guarantee that all information submitted is true, complete and up-to-date and that they are authorised to participate in the Challenge on behalf of their respective institution/organisation. ITU reserves the right to verify eligibility to participate in the Challenge as well as the accuracy of the information submitted.
• All submissions must not: a. infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties; b. be illegal under applicable (inter)national laws; c. depict or incite hatred, defamation, abuse, harassment, stalking, threaten a specific person or social group, incite violence or conflict or otherwise violate the legal rights of third parties (including those of privacy and publicity) and d. violate the terms of use of any social media service, website, mobile application or any other platform used in connection with such submission.

Visit the website/apply here.