Ashoka Launches WISE Up, a Virtual Summit to Amplify Female Social Entrepreneurs

Ashoka Arab World, a regional platform for social entrepreneurs, is launching a virtual summit celebrating women innovators titled ‘WISE Up’. The online event will host women leaders, thinkers and figures from the ecosystem to start a dialogue on the great impact they’ve created in their societies by reinventing models of success, and how budding entrepreneurs can follow suit.

“The mainstream definition of success in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem prioritises scaling out, a franchise-oriented strategy that creates impact by replicating a venture, targeting large numbers of beneficiaries, and expanding geographical Reach,” says Dr. Iman Bibars, Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World and leader of the Women’s Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship (WISE). “Among our global network of social entrepreneurs, we’ve observed that women innovators tend to scale their impact deeply. They give more weight to shaping cultures, beliefs, norms, and patterns of behaviours.”

The speaker lineup include regional and international superstars from the ecosystem, including Angelou Ezeilo, founder of Greening Youth Foundation, Natalie Rekstad, CEO of Black Fox Philanthropy, Hasina Kharbhih, founder of Impulse NGO Network and Rana Dajani, molecular biologist and founder of We Love Reading.

Ashoka is also debuting the WISE Storytelling Initiative, a project aimed at amplifying the stories of 200+ women Ashoka Fellows and social entrepreneurs worldwide who are championing innovation and are a pillar for shifting the paradigm, to help create a comprehensive global network that also paves the way for aspiring women to carve their way in the ecosystem.

WISE Up will run from July 13th to 15th, 2020. You can register now right here.