Deadline: 15-Mar-22
Miss.Africa Digital Seed Fund Program is now open to support women and girls in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields to launch or expand their own initiatives that will increase their digital opportunities in IT related training, jobs and leadership roles.
Projects under this funding initiative are based entrepreneurship and innovative use of ICTs in developing demonstrable applications that can solve the developmental challenges within the African societies and economy to enable the community help catalyze there daily lives by working efficiently and successfully.
The seed fund is intended to support initiatives in these fastest growing economies to become well-equipped with ICT technologies for learning and economic empowerment and catalyse enable equitable economic growth and development in these countries.
Benefits
- The Seed Fund Impact Award: A unique award for the most outstanding winning initiative to start or expand their capacity. 3 winners:
- 1st receives 5,000 USD
- 2nd and 3rd receive 1,000 USD each
- DCA Academy Boot Camp Accelerator: 6 weeks of tailored support and training for scaling to enable them successfully launch or expand their initiatives to increase their digital opportunities in tech related inventions, training, and leadership roles.
- Media Package: They will also offer the 1st Winner a Media Package worth 1000 USD. They appreciate all those who set an example and go above and beyond to display true excellence during the Covid 19 pandemic.
- Comprehensive Networking: Unlimited access to the FLemPower Diaital Pont comprising of former winners and alumni as well as other girls and women community members. They will facilitate meetups and symposiums, capacity building support, and advisory and market linkages of the members and participants to network and exchange ideas.
- Expert Coaching: Access to Expert Coaching and Mentorship from DCA Digital Academy experts to produce tangible enhancement in terms of career development and talent mobility.
How will you choose the winners?
Application Entries for the Miss.Africa Seed Fund will be judged based on applicability to STEM subjects, innovation, impact, scalability, launch-readiness and entrepreneurship.
- STEM: The application of the program/Initiative to promoting the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields
- Innovation: How original, ground breaking or creative is the app, website or service?
- Impact: Has the program or initiative impacted numerous lives in meaningful ways within their locale?
- Scalability: Does the program/initiative scale technically? What percentage of the designated population does it reach?
- Entrepreneurship: Does the program have the ability to monetize itself or expand to solve local problems and create revenue opportunities.
- Launch-readiness: If the program/ initiative has not been launched, is it ready to go live
Eligible Projects
Preference will be given to projects that target underserved populations and locations, take a collaborative approach, have a high potential for growth and present an innovative use of technology. Projects eligible for grant funding include, but are not limited to:
- Computer science workshops and training for women and girls.
- Early incubation of female tech entrepreneurs.
- Programming and app development training programs.
- Hackathons and coding boot camps for girls.
Eligibility Criteria
- Individuals and organizations around Africa are eligible to participate so long as their initiatives, programs, applications, websites or services are designed to meet the needs of the categories. (Note: Residents of countries outside Africa will not be eligible at this time.)
- Application must be submitted in English.
- Ability to demonstrate previous experience conducting activities supporting women and girls in computer science or STEM fields.
- Demonstrated leadership potential (references will be required for those applying for leadership funds).
- Proposed projects MUST have a tangible impact for women and girls in computer science and/or STEM- related fields.
For more information, visit https://missdotafrica.digital/proposal-competition-2021/