Female-focused UN innovation contest invites African entrepreneurs to apply

The Innovations to Empower Women and Girls Challenge was launched by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to help scale innovative solutions that can help disrupt inequalities and advance the empowerment of women and girls.

The Innovations to Empower Women and Girls Challenge, the UNFPA’s first joint innovation challenge, is searching for creative solutions that boost female empowerment, maternal health, gender equality, and reproductive rights.

With a focus on hard-to-reach areas and humanitarian settings, the challenge will support women-centred innovations, such as those that provide affordable and sustainable access to essential reproductive health commodities, services, and information, as well as scale-up prevention and response to gender-based violence and harmful practises.

The challenge’s ten winners will sign a nine-month contract and get up to $60,000 in funding. To assist them to scale their ideas, UNFPA and its partners will give them targeted mentorship, lectures, interactive workshops, and access to the UN network.

Applications will be accepted through April 15th.