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SPRING Accelerator: funding to empower women and girls through innovation in South Asia
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The SPRING Accelerator is offering funding and mentoring support for businesses in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal or Pakistan that are using innovation – including ICT – to empower women and girls.
Selected businesses receive nine months of world-class technical expertise, including Human-Centred Design Boot Camps, investment-readiness support and mentorship.
Apply now – the deadline is 1st November 2017.
Find out more!
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Maya Apa video: using mobile to answer Bangladeshi girls' questions
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We're big fans of Maya Apa, and love this new video from the Maya Apa team and Facebook Free Basics . It shows how Maya is using technology to reach Bangladesh's hard-to-reach girls, and give them opportunities to seek advice as well as a safe space to ask questions about topics such as menstruation, contraception, sexual and mental health.
Watch the short video here.
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UN Women launches Global Innovation Coalition for Change
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Last month, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka announced a new multi-stakeholder initiative to focus resources and efforts to advance innovations that will help meet women's and girls' needs. The Global Innovation Coalition for Change (GICC) aims to "build market awareness" where gaps exist for products and services created by female entrepreneurs that could enhance the lives of women and girls traditionally excluded from such opportunities.
Partners include MIT Solve, SAP, South 32, Statoil, the Ellevate Network, CISCO and DELL.
Read more here. A background paper on the factors that spurred this initiative can be accessed in English here.
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How to increase women's digital financial inclusion in Bangladesh
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In Bangladesh, only 28% of women have access to a formal bank account, and despite the promise of mobile money with providers such as bKASH, there is a gender gap in mobile money access and use.
This new guide from our friends at mSTAR looks at some of the barriers women in Bangladesh face with accessing financial services, and how organizations can address these issues through design, deployment and education.
Read the guide here.
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Have an mHealth service? Here's how to make sure it reaches women too
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Last month saw the release of a new toolkit and accompanying webinar on how to make an mHealth service more inclusive and reach more women. It's published by GSMA mHealth and authored by Alex Tyers, one of our editors.
The webinar and the toolkit explore some practical things that mobile operators, service providers and NGOs can do to ensure that their mHealth service includes women as well as men. Topics covered include the business case for including women, content, platforms, user testing, pricing, marketing and promotion and monitoring and evaluation.
Read more.
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Paralegals in India use SMS for justice
Nazdeek, a charity, has partnered with the International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination for a mobile solution to support women in India who have been denied basic entitlements. Women in slums are trained as paralegals to implement SMS for Justice, using SMS to inform Nazdeek about benefits women are being denied. Nazdeek then works with local governments to address grievances.
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Women in Africa are as tech savvy as men
In May 2017, Worldreader and Opera conducted a survey on mobile web browsing trends in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. A gendered data analysis found that women use the web at the same frequency as men, usually more than eight times every day. Women also purportedly use the mobile web more for entertainment, self-development and empowerment through information.
Read more here.
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Aarthi Subramanian named Chief Digital Officer of Tata Group
The appointment of Aarthi Subramanian to one of India's biggest congolmerates is a milestone for women everywhere. Although Indian women have relatively good access to entry-level technology positions, there is a firm glass ceiling for their representation in the C-suite. It is hoped that her appointment drives gender digital inclusion in the Tata Group's mobile initiatives.
Read more here.
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