Project Inspire: looking for tech & design to change the world for women

A competition which seeks to support social entrepreneurs around the globe, Project Inspire, is calling for initiatives that can empower women around the globe. Aimed specifically at Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, the project is currently accepting entries until 1 June 2015.

Project Inspire was launched in 2011 by the Singapore Committee for UN Women and MasterCard during the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Its objective is to seek out and offer support to social entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 with a project that empowers women and girls in any or all of the three regions.

Georgette Tan, head of communications for Asia/Pacific, MasterCard, said in a press release: “It’s vital that more is done to empower and encourage women to break the glass ceiling in the traditionally male dominated fields of technology and design. Careers in these fields afford women the opportunity to be financially self sufficient and positively impact the world through their leadership and creativity.”

Contestants must apply by submitting a five-minute long video clip in which they pitch their projects in line with the theme. The rules for entrants’ projects are as follows:

• It must empower disadvantaged women and girls through entrepreneurship and business literacy.
• It must also be based on an existing initiative.
• It must be designed to be implemented with a budget of US$25 000.

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Crowdfunding for accepted projects will begin on 15 September 2015, while the finalist will be announced 30 September 2015 and 13 November will be the Grand Finale pitch day.

Each of the finalists will be flown to Singapore where they will be paired with a mentor. They will also participate in a week-long social business boot camp. The winner will receive a US$25 000 grand prize, while the runner-up receives US$10 000.

The remaining semi-finalists stand a chance of winning a wild-card ticket to pitch their inspired idea at the Grand Finals in Singapore by securing the most amount of supporters during the crowdfunding stage of the competition.

Full project details here.