DAI’s Digital Frontiers project has just launched a call for proposals for two challenges under the White House-led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative’s WomenConnect Challenge.

The WomenConnect Challenge was first launched by Advisor Ivanka Trump and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green on International Women’s Day in 2018. Since then, USAID awarded nine grantees that are working to address barriers limiting women’s access to technology and to connect nearly 1 million women in 12 countries.

The W-GDP WomenConnect Challenge is a global call for solutions to improve women’s participation in everyday life by meaningfully changing the ways women access and use technology. While most of the world is becoming increasingly connected, the gender gap in mobile internet use in some countries is more than 51 percent. Advancing women’s digital connectivity is a key component to ensuring women’s economic empowerment.

Photo Credit: Ramundo Media for DAI.

As part of the W-GDP commitment to close the gender digital divide, a third round of the WomenConnect Challenge was announced on August 11, 2020. These funding opportunities focus on scaling effective practices while supporting emerging technologies and policies:

• W-GDP WomenConnect Challenge Round 3 is a global call for proposals and will focus on scale, replicability, and private sector partnership and investment. Round 3 builds on the effective practices established in WomenConnect Challenge Rounds 1 and 2, such as addressing social norms, creating new ways for women to engage with technology, and leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence to address barriers to access and use.
• Reliance Foundation and W-GDP WomenConnect Challenge India highlights a deep commitment from the Reliance Foundation to close the gender digital divide in India through supporting local and culturally contextual innovative solutions. “When women rise, families flourish, communities grow, and countries prosper. A truly developed world has to be an equal world.”—Nita M. Ambani, Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation

How to Apply

Apply through https://www.womenconnectchallenge.org/. The deadline for proposals is November 6.

Digital Frontiers is a $74.4 million buy-in mechanism available to USAID Bureaus and Missions from 2017–2022. DAI implements Digital Frontiers, which works closely with USAID’s Global Development Lab, the Center for Digital Development, USAID Missions, the private sector, and international and local development organizations to identify successful and sustainable digital development approaches and scale their impact globally.