Leveraging this year’s theme that is Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) on innovation and technology from a gender perspective, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) Commission on the Status of Women side-event, hosted at MetLife’s headquarters in New York City, brought together a high-level panel of experts.
Senior representatives of WEA partner agencies, those from the private sector, and civil society discussed ways to build a more gender-responsive eco-system for women entrepreneurs so they can participate and compete in the current digital economy. Speakers identified WEA as a critical multi-stakeholder solution to address the bottlenecks to women’s entrepreneurship.
What was the agenda of the event?
Addressing the role of innovation and technology from a gender lens for the very first time since its inception, the set of agreed conclusions adopted by Member States at CSW67 provides best practice guidance for stakeholders, including governments, the private sector and civil society. This guidance aims to promote maximum and equal participation and leadership of women and girls in the design and rollout of digital tech and innovation processes.
Panelists focused on:
- the critical importance of women’s entrepreneurship as a key driver of innovation in addressing societal challenges, and;
- the contribution women entrepreneurs make to economic growth and poverty reduction.
- The barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in growing their businesses and getting their products and services to market were also highlighted which include:
- a lack of access to capital, unequal social norms, lack of connectivity, and time and skills constraints, all of which hamper their ability to compete in the digital marketplace.
Digitalization as a critical enabler for women entrepreneurs and the role of digital tech in supporting women’s businesses during the pandemic was underscored, and the fallout from the pandemic on women’s labor market participation and women’s rights at large.
The relevance of creating a strong eco-system for women to scale their businesses was key to the discussion. The panelists for the different sectors of the eco-system pointed to WEA as an exceptional turn-key platform working to address the hurdles to women’s entrepreneurship through partnerships of the private sector and six unique UN agencies. The WEA event was also a great opportunity to announce the winners of WEA’s Digital Innovation Challenge.
An initiative of WEA and conducted by ITU in collaboration with Mary Kay, the objective of the Challenge is to build an enabling context for women entrepreneurs by addressing the barriers to women’s entrepreneurship, including the digital gender divide, complementing the theme of this year’s CSW67 on innovation and technology from a gender perspective.
How does the WEA Digital Innovation Challenge work?
Launched in December 2022 at the global headquarters of Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator partner International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, the WEA Digital Innovation Challenge received 250 submissions from companies in 54 countries either owned by women entrepreneurs or with a minimum of one-woman founder each with their unique digital solution aimed at driving socio-economic benefits in their communities.
Furthermore, in alignment with the International Telecommunication Union’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital, the objective of the Challenge is to effectively showcase what an emerging eco-system of digital innovators would look like and to build an enabling context for women entrepreneurs to participate in the current digital economy.
What were the highlights of WEA?
The 10 winners of the Challenge were invited to present their two-minute live pitch before an expert Grand Jury at the Commission for the Status of Women event comprised of investors as well as cross-sectoral representatives who each provided them with their unique insights.
Grand Jury Members included:
- Dan Seymour, Strategic Partnerships Director, UN Women;
- Deborah Gibbins, Chief Operating Officer, Mary Kay Inc.;
- Harry O’Mealia, CEO and President, 1919 Investment Counsel;
- Julia Pimsleur, Founder, Million Dollar Women Network;
- Selin Oz, SME Banking Entrepreneurship Banking, Senior Manager, Garanti BBVA;
- Tess Mateo, Sustainability ESG Impact Investor, US W20 Delegate to G20;
- Ursula Wynhoven, Representative to the United Nations in New York, International Telecommunication Union.
The 10 winners of the challenge will be given access to the “Digital Innovation Challenge Acceleration Program” over the coming months where they will receive capacity-building training along with a virtual boot camp to enable them further refine their business plans as well as specialized mentorship and access to a wide network of change-makers.
Following this, the selected winners will participate in International Telecommunication Union’s prestigious Global Innovation Forum later this year and join a community of practice to explore ways through which to leapfrog the digital innovation divide and address global challenges.
Special Mention awards were presented to three companies receiving consultancy hours from 1919 Investment Counsel. In first place, the recipient of 10 hours of consulting services was Tiny Totos, a Kenyan social enterprise that is supporting quality childcare. Through providing training, access to capital, plus a network and a tech platform, Tiny Totos sets up childcare centers to improve the availability of childcare and boost childcare services in Kenya.
Receiving 5 hours each of consulting services, the two runners-up, Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx) and Gwiji for Women Gig Workers are also known for addressing key societal challenges. HIEx identifies the different challenges faced by health systems and connects innovators with the relevant key health eco-system actors primarily in Africa and Asia in order to deliver working solutions that can greatly improve access to quality healthcare.
Gwiji for Women Gig Workers is a technology start-up that addresses barriers to labor market participation by low-income women in Kenya. This technology start-up identifies, vets, trains, and empowers women from lower socio-economic backgrounds such as casual cleaners by connecting them with multiple prospective clients through a mobile application.
Who were this year’s event panelists for WEA?
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator Digital Innovation Challenge was held against the backdrop of a rapidly changing economic context which has seen the rise of digital technologies and the growth of a digital economy. Recognizing the maximum potential of the digital acceleration to perpetuate inequalities, the Challenge presented participants with an opportunity to widely discuss digitalization as a barrier to women’s economic status.
The high-level panel discussion included the following cross-sectoral representatives:
- Welcome:
- Dr. Cindy Pace, VP, Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, MetLife
- Opening Remarks:
- Anita Bhatia, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director UN Coordination, Partnerships, Resources and Sustainability, UN Women
- Ulrika Modéer, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy, UNDP
- Introductory Remarks:
- Deborah Gibbins, Chief Operating Officer, Mary Kay Inc.
- Keynote Speaker:
- Virginia Littlejohn, Co-Head of the Women20 (W20) US Delegation to the G20 countries; Global Coordinator, W20’s Women Entrepreneurs Act Initiative (WE Act); Advisor, Women7 (W7) for the G7 Countries, and Co-Coordinating Team for Women’s Empowerment, Meaningful Participation, and Leadership; Forbes Women 50 over 50 (Investment)
- Discussant:
- Sonia Jorge, Founder and Executive Director, Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP)
- Closing Remarks:
- Dr. Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
What were the thoughts of the panelists on the event?
The panelists listed above spoke about the importance of women’s entrepreneurship as a critical enabler of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the need to set up a more gender-responsive eco-system for women entrepreneurs in order to provide them with better opportunities to compete and scale their businesses in the current digital economy.
Dr. Cindy Pace
“Women entrepreneurs are likely to face multiple obstacles that can stunt the growth of their business, and these range from lack of capital to social norms, as well as time and skills constraints. Entrepreneurship can be a powerful force in addressing societal challenges. However, entrepreneurship and the benefits it can drive remain male-dominated,” said Dr. Cindy Pace, Vice President Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, MetLife.
“By developing more gender-inclusive eco-systems for start-ups and challenging the currently existing business models, we are able to remove the obstacles that women entrepreneurs face so they can drive success in their businesses and reach their maximum potential.”
Anita Bhatia
“200 million women in India received funds during the pandemic because digitalization made it possible via their mobile phones and through a national identification system. However, two years after the pandemic, women continue to face barriers in accessing venture capital and therefore in innovating,” said Anita Bhatia, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director UN Coordination, Partnerships, Resources and Sustainability, UN Women.
“It is a known fact that less than 5% of all venture capital is invested in women-owned businesses and until such an eco-system of financing for women entrepreneurs is adjusted, nothing much is going to change in the business lives of women entrepreneurs.”
Ulrika Modéer
“More than 600 million people have used the internet for the first time throughout the last couple of years, but 2.7 billion people are still offline the majority of whom are women. Women are 25% less likely than men to know how to use technologies hence depriving them of the basic opportunities to leverage technologies to thrive,” said Ulrika Modéer, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy, UNDP.
“On top of that, women-owned businesses make up 30% of registered companies worldwide yet only 10% of them have access to the capital necessary to successfully grow business-wise. We must also recall that basic legislation has to be implemented and enforced for technology to benefit women and this means women’s rights need to be worked on at the same time.”
Deborah Gibbins
“We need to urgently reverse the current business trend of gender-blind innovations and redress the digital gender gap that exists in the availability of different technologies and in digital training, education as well as skills. The time has come for us to make sure that women entrepreneurs are not left behind. This is too big an operation for just one company or one industry to shoulder,” said Deborah Gibbins, Chief Operating Officer, Mary Kay Inc.
“Given the scale of the challenges faces, there is a need for more cross-sectoral partners to join all their efforts to build more suitable conditions for women entrepreneurs to innovate, compete and thrive. With the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator, we have a turn-key platform to shape a more equal and inclusive digital marketplace and society in general.”
Virginia Littlejohn
“Gender bias and weak governmental and private sector collaboration limit female entrepreneurs from access to resources like finance. WEA is key to unlocking the full potential of female entrepreneurship,” said Virginia Littlejohn, Co-Head of the Women20 US Delegation to the G20 countries; Global Coordinator, W20’s Women Entrepreneurs Act Initiative; Advisor, Women7 for the G7 Countries, and Co-Coordinating Team for Women’s Empowerment.
Sonia Jorge
“The world lost a trillion US dollars for not including women in digital economic activity. Reversing this could gain over $525 billion from closing that gap, since governments could earn an additional $525 billion in the next 5 years by including women as active economic agents. To close the gap by 2030, we would only need $430 billion,” said Sonia Jorge, Founder and Executive Director, Strategy and Partnerships, Global Digital Inclusion Partnership.
Sonia Jorge further stated, “To put it in perspective, this is roughly how much the world spends every year on soda! This is foundational to bringing women entrepreneurs online, to creating opportunities for entrepreneurship and to creating opportunities for participation, creation, innovation along with improving engagement with digital services and products.”
Dr. Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava
“The solutions presented throughout the Challenge are indisputably changing the world for the better. Gender-inclusive and equitable innovations will enable us to efficiently navigate the new digital world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Digital innovation eco-systems continuously suffer from a substantial gender divide that affects everyone,” said Dr. Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU.
“More gender-inclusive digital innovation eco-systems are needed to elevate economies and societies worldwide and help protect against the socio-economic crises we have seen.”
Access the panel event here and WEA’s Digital Innovation Challenge is here.
