Women Micro-Entrepreneurs Could Fly To New York City With SDGs&Her

Three years ago, all 193 United Nations member countries signed on to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to "create the future we want" in about 10 years from now. In collaboration of Wharton School's Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, UN Development Programme, and UN Women, the World Bank Group has launched the online competition SDGs&Her, hittng two birds with one stone; supporting female entrepreneurs and promoting the SDGs.

SDGs&Her is an online competition for women entrepreneurs to showcase how their micro-enterprises support the SDGs. The top winners will be recognised in September 2018 at an event on the sidelines of the 2018 UN General Assembly High-Level Week in New York City. The stories of the winning women entrepreneurs among many other notable entries will be shared through partners’ social media and websites.

The competition is open to women who own or run micro-enterprises with up to nine employees, under $10,000 loan eligibility or annual sales under $100,000. To enter, applicants complete a short online template, describing their work and linking their initiative or product to one or more SDGs.

With SDGs&Her, the World Bank and its partners aim to recognise women implementing the SDGs, spreading awareness about the SDGs and their potential impacts on women among non-traditional audiences. Moreover, the competition aims to collaborate with the private sector partners on all SDGs, with a special focus on SDG5 which basically mandates to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 

The applications, which are open since April and closing on June 30^th, will be screened by a university partner and then judged by an expert panel. Judges will determine the winners based on the impact on the SDGs, vision, purpose, and clarity of the entries.

You can apply here. 

Main image: Francisco Diez, licensed under Creative Commons.