USAID announces additional $1.5 Million to Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment

USAID announces an additional $1.5 million to advance Women’s Economic Empowerment

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced $1.5 million in new grant funding for the WomenConnect Challenge under the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative.

This was announced by the USAID  Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick at the just concluded Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The Challenge calls for global solutions that empower women and girls to have access to, and use, digital technology to advance W-GDP’s three pillars:

1) Women prospering in the workforce;

2) Women succeeding as entrepreneurs;

3) Women enabled in the economy by removing restrictive legal, regulatory and cultural barriers.

Applications are open online starting on June 5, 2019. Completed applications are due on July 26, 2019. USAID will announce the winners in the Fall of 2019.

Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump and USAID Administrator Mark Green launched the W-GDP WomenConnect Challenge on International Women’s Day in 2018.

Since then, USAID has awarded nine grants to organizations that are working to address barriers that limit women’s access to technology and to connect nearly one million women in 12 countries.

Digital technology is revolutionizing the word by providing access to information, finance and networks all of which are necessary for women to reach their full economic potential and create more self-reliant communities.

Today, 1.7 billion women in low- and middle-income countries still do not own mobile phones. The internet user gender gap is more than 40 percent in some countries. The persistent gender digital divide is reinforcing, and even exacerbating, existing socioeconomic gaps between men and women.

Advancing women’s digital connectivity is key to promoting their empowerment in an increasingly digital world.

To apply for the WomenConnect Challenge click here!

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