Project Inspire is a global social impact competition based in Singapore. It presents youths with a five-minute platform to pitch their inspired idea, for the chance to win a US$25,000 grant and an opportunity to implement their project in the respective fields.
Project Inspire is a joint initiative from the Singapore Committee for UN Women and MasterCard, to help young change-makers create a better world for women and girls in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Launched in 2011, to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, it organizes this competition each year under slogan ‘5 Minutes to Change the World’ to help young change-makers create a better world for women and girls.
Beneficiary Areas
- Asia-Pacific
- Middle East
- Africa
Prizes
- Grand Prize : The grand prize winner will receive a US$25,000 grant to implement their project.
- Runner-up: The runner-up will receive a US$10,000 grant each to implement their project.
- People’s Choice: This year, Project Inspire will choose twenty semi-finalists to progress to a crowd-funding stage of the competition. From the semi-finalists, finalists will be chosen to attend the Grand Finals in Singapore where they will pitch their inspired idea to a panel of judges. 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 crowd-funding stage of the competition.
- Ten finalists will each receive
- 1 return flight from the finalist’s capital city to Singapore, to participate in the grand final.
- 1 ticket to the Project Inspire Grand Final on November, 13 2015.
- 4 nights accommodation in Singapore, plus meals and transfers.
- Exclusive INSEAD and Bain & Company workshops, plus one-on-one mentoring.
Eligibility Criteria
- Young Individuals and Groups from anywhere in the world can participate in the competition.
- Beneficiaries must be women or girls in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East or Africa.
- For the Group– At least one team member must be 18-35 years old.
- Proposal should be implementable with a budget of US$25, 000.
- The idea of their project must be innovative.
- Each participant must submit (i) an application form, and (ii) a (maximum) 5-minute video.
- The project must be designed to empower disadvantaged women and girls through entrepreneurship and business literacy.
- The project must be based on an existing initiative.
- The beneficiaries of the project must be women or girls in Asia/Pacific, Middle East or Africa.
- Submissions must be made in English or Chinese.
Application Process
- Interested applicants can fill & submit the application form available on the website.
- The application form will demand the following:
- What is your inspirational idea?
- How will your project change the lives of women and girls in the short and long term?
- How many women and/or girls will benefit directly and indirectly from your project.
- How will you/your team carry out the project?
- Please include a timeline for the project, indicating key phases relevant to your project i.e., ground preparation, pilot phase, training period, evaluation etc.
- Tell us the activities you have planned to help reach your goal.
- How will you spend the US$25,000 grant to carry out the project?
- Within your proposal, include a detailed budget plan on how the US$25,000 grant will be utilized. The budget should clearly indicate the project expenses, operational costs, manpower costs, and other spending relevant to your project.
- How will you measure the success of the project?
Past Award Recipients
- 2014 grant award to project- ‘Supporting Disadvantaged Young Women through Vocational Training and Job Placement Program’ by REACH in Vietnam.
- 2014 runners up grant award to Sara Gingold- Riverkids from Cambodia and Singapore with the project – ‘Provide counselling, healthcare and vocational training for Cambodian sex workers, so they can transition out of the sex industry, and run their own small business’.
- 2013 Inspirational award to the team of Susan Asio (Uganda), Brian Mwiine (Uganda), Gerald Kikoyo (Uganda) for project- ‘Empowering Disabled Young Women through Beekeeping from Masaka and Luwero, Uganda’.
- 2013 Grant award to ‘The Masala Project’ by Nivedita Pohankar (Mumbai, India) to provide training and support to women who run businesses producing masala.
For more information, please visit Project Inspire 2016.