Deadline: April 15, 2020
Applications are invited for the World Bank Group Global Tech Challenge: Solutions for Women 2020. The World Bank Group, one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, has partnered with CES —the world’s largest and most influential technology event—to launch a Global Tech Challenge to bridge the digital gender divide.
Over 300 million fewer women access the internet in low-and-middle-income countries than men. This divide has persisted and is in fact widening. Barriers to digital equality are linked, among other factors, to availability of infrastructure, financial constraints, interest and perceived relevance of digital technologies, and socio-cultural and institutional contexts.
They will reward scalable, innovative technological solutions that seek to empower women in four areas:
- Platforms: Solutions that increase the availability of locally relevant digital platforms catering to women. For example, local marketplaces and solutions building online communities for women.
- Digital skills: Solutions that support the development of digital skills by women and girls. For example, applications that use personalized and adaptive learning to teach basic, intermediate or advanced digital skills.
- Online content: Solutions that increase the availability of women-oriented content. For example, locally relevant content on reproductive health or to combat gender-based violence.
- Enhancing digital access: Solutions that focus on innovative business models that make it easier for women to access and use digital technologies and enable the use of digital identification, such as pay-as-you-go and other models that promote women’s sustained use of mobile internet.
Benefits
Winners will:
- Receive recognition and brand visibility at CES 2021 as a Global Tech Challenge winner.
- Engage with governments and World Bank Group teams to potentially scale their solutions within development projects.
- Access mentorship from technology companies and World Bank leaders to help scale their solutions.
- Share their stories at multiple international fora such as CES 2021, regional conferences, and the World Bank Group’s Spring and Annual Meetings.
- Build their professional networks and raise their international profile and brand.
Eligibility
The challenge is open to all eligible for-profit and public interest organizations that are currently in the process of scaling solutions to bridge the gender digital divide.
- Individuals and governments are not eligible to apply.
- UN Agencies are not eligible to apply.
- Recently registered organizations (both for-profit and not-for-profit) are eligible to apply.
There are no eligibility restrictions based on the size of the organization, be it a start-up, privately traded, or publicly traded organization. There are no restrictions on the size of public interest organizations either. There are no restrictions based on the organization’s focus area or current business lines. Organizations that are exploring gendered effects of existent solutions are eligible to apply.
Application
For more information, visit Global Tech Challenge.
