Deadline: 14-Nov-22
Building on their efforts to narrow the gender digital divide and empower women in India, Reliance Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced the launch of the WomenConnect Challenge (WCC) India Round Two and are calling for grant applications.
The 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. WomenConnect Challenge India aims to identify and support solutions that bridge the gender digital divide in India. Round One of WCC India began in August 2021 with the selection of 10 grantee organisations that are implementing solutions in 17 Indian states. Over 3 lakh (300,000) women and girls will have benefited from the initiatives of the first round.
Funding Information
- Reliance Foundation will provide up to INR 10 crore in grants for up to 10 organisations (up to INR 1 crore for each grantee) to implement innovative solutions over 12-15 months.
The Solutions They Seek
USAID and Reliance Foundation will identify and support solutions that empower women via access to and the use of digital technology in order to drive positive development and livelihood outcomes for themselves and their families. Enabling women to be technologically empowered is imperative, especially during the ongoing pandemic. USAID and Reliance Foundation understand that women’s access to technology is not an end, but a means to help address development objectives, and that the complexity of the digital gender divide requires local solutions that consider complex cultural and socioeconomic factors.
Proposals will need to create compelling cases for women’s digital access and use, using the Proven Strategies to guide project design and deployment:
- Change Social Norms and Cultural Perceptions
- In many poor or rural communities, access to technology and the internet by women is often seen as immoral, inappropriate, or unnecessary. It is important to work on perceptions with those frequently in power, such as men, community and religious leaders, and elders. Tackling these existing social and cultural norms will help women gain access to information and opportunities, build confidence, and feel empowered.
- Create economic opportunities
- When trained on using technology, women can access increased economic opportunities, from serving as community technology leaders to entrepreneurs. Once men are educated about online workforce opportunities for women, they often become supportive of technology access due to the increased family income. In turn, a woman’s financial gains allow her to have more liberty and be able to afford additional internet access, educating and empowering her further.
- Cultivate women’s confidence
- In many developing countries, ingrained traditional gender roles lead women and men to believe that women are unable or not smart enough to use technology, enforcing a gender digital divide and lack of confidence. Targeted programs have helped women increase self-efficacy and have demonstrated that women are able to effectively utilize technology, understand risks and opportunities, and position themselves as role models in their communities.
- Design Creative Women-Centric Technology
- To close the gender digital divide, programs must use technology options tailored to women in developing countries, many of whom are illiterate or have low literacy levels. Innovative video and audio platforms allow women to readily communicate and learn. Offline content on a range of development topics can reach women who do not otherwise have access to the internet. Custom devices and services can meet women’s needs much better than a “universal” technology.
- Develop Community Support
- As poor or rural women gain access to technology, many become advocates for change in their communities. When given a platform to communicate with local leaders, they have championed issues disproportionately affecting women such as gender-based violence and access to finance or government programs, which benefits the whole community and leads to greater acceptance of women’s technology use.
Eligibility Criteria
- Proposals are invited from all organisations satisfying the following criteria:
- The applicant has to be an entity with a registered office in India;
- The applicant has to be a foundation, trust, non-profit organisation, or a Section 8 company (or erstwhile Section 25 company) registered under the provisions of the Companies Act 2013 with a track record of at least three years in carrying out activities in related areas;
- The applicant may be a partnership or consortium;
- Proposals are encouraged from:
- Diverse groups that have clear, strategic, collaborative models to tackle the complexity of the gender digital divide;
- Applicants that promote more gender equitable access to and safe usage of existing digital infrastructure (as opposed to solutions that necessitate new infrastructure);
- Projects that focus on gender and digital safety, fraud, and online gender-based violence;
- Programs that focus on the most socially and geographically marginalized;
- Organisations with women in leadership positions.
For more information, visit https://www.reliancefoundation.org/wcc-press-release