Month: March 2021

The online WSA Global Congress 2021 under the motto "Connect for Impact", brought together all the regions of the world, focusing on their local needs, and their specific areas of development.  The ‘Hack the Gap’ discussions on gender, the education and the healthcare gaps showcased the importance of connectivity in times of global pandemic. The WSA community exchanged ideas and knowledge regarding the world's most pressing issues, discussing solutions and bringing together entrepreneurs coming from all over the world.

Out of 342 nominees worldwide, 9 social tech startups were awarded as WSA Global Champions. Their solutions not only drive the achievement of the UN SDGs, but also the local impact from rural connectivity.

63 jurors selected the 9 WSA Global Champions, a worldwide spectrum from Belarus to Australia, from South Africa to Canada..

 

WSA GLOBAL CHAMPIONS 2021

EASY LAWS from Lebanon, a free mobile app and website that explains laws in everyday language, giving people access to legislation from a citizen’s rather than a legalistic perspective, enabling real citizen participation.

 

 

The Chinese Corona AI is designed for real-time medical screening during the Corona pandemic, to monitor patients without having to interact with them, protecting medical personal and patients alike.

 

 

Magrid from Luxembourg is a language-independent pedagogical program in Luxembourg for the development of children’s early visual-spatial and mathematical abilities, removing language barriers for children!

 

 

Beewise from Israel is an AI-based robotic beehive that monitors bees 24/7 using computer vision, precision robotics and AI, Beewise identifies and meets the needs of bees in real time, while reversing the trend to bee colony collapse.

 

 

Wheel the World from Chile is an accessibility travel platform from Chile for people with special needs, providing more than 500 million potential travellers with disabilities, using automated emails and system integration with all the information required to satisfy traveller needs.

 

 

M4Jam from South Africa links jobbers with organisations needing micro-tasks completed, enabling people most in need and connecting start-ups, SMEs or big business, NGOs and governments, to connect directly with rural and peri-urban communities.

 

 

Übank from Chile is a digital savings that promotes habits of incremental saving to improve financial resilience regardless of economic status, giving over 200 million people in Latin America access to a new culture of saving.

 

 

WelcoMe from the UK is a low-cost web-based service enabling any person with a disability to forewarn participating businesses of their visit and special needs, ensuring awareness and ease of customer experience.

 

 

ConnectHear from Pakistan is a VRS application with interpretation services for the deaf in Pakistan, working with local governments to standardize the profession with private certification programs, giving the deaf a voice by normalizing sign language literacy.

Digital solutions can be a great driver for the UN SDGs.  Each year, the WSA national Experts in over 180 countries scout the local start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem to select a maximum of 8 best practice examples for the 8 WSA categories.

 

The focus lies on digital finesse with content that solves local problems, enhances knowledge, and drives the UN SDGs.

 

This unique and diverse selection process provides a brilliant diameter of how digital innovation can be used for social impact, development and narrowing the global divides – and showcases global trends and focus points.

 

The WSA Inclusion & Empowerment category, focussing on empowering and enhancing the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic status, received 46 nominations in 2020.

 

 

 

 

The inclusion and participation of under-served individuals and communities benefits all, building a strong society's core. The representation of the under-served individuals and communities in the leading administrations and governments and planning processes transforms a communities operational paths to a more.

 

The diverse WSA 2020 Inclusion and Empowerment nominees are building awareness and rights towards the people with disabilities.

 

 

Governments play a major role in the development and progress of solidarity and inclusion.

    1. Brazil collects municipal statistical and analytical data related to people with disabilities to specifically answer their needs and enhance public services and policies.
    2. Paraguay fights disinformation around studies and scholarships and connects youth with educational organizations

Saudi Arabia and Belarus cover the juridical aspects and fields of the empowerment & inclusion:

    1. The Najiz Portal gathers all Ministries of Justice under a common database, providing Saudi Arabian citizen, residents, and businesses with information and electronic justice services they may need.
    2. This Belarusian initiative focusses on youth, aiming to unlock teenage potential in the juridical field through games and seeks to encourage better behavior in youth communities.

Almost 70% of the 2020 Inclusion & Empowerment nominations are focused on inclusive initiatives towards under-served communities.

  • Providing medical care:

The elderly, people with disabilities and persons in need often require specific medicines, not commonly accessibility. Moreover, the emergency platforms are not prepared to their needs. 2020 Inclusion & Empowerment nominations showcase a real impact easing not only the lives of the persons in-need but also their caretakers.

 

2020 Inclusion & Empowerment nominations are adding to the current public health care system, and provide qualitative and rapid services, creating a network of solidarity and empathy.

 

    1. Avant Care coordinates medical staff within Australia.
    2. Nirvatechs in Palestine has launched a remote-medicine platform to study and analyse mental health diseases.
    3. Chile fractions the pharma-delivery to a hand-to-hand service.
    4. Portugal has developed a wearable braille SOS system for emergency.
    5. Papua New Guinea bridges the accessibility gap created by the ocean with medical cargo planes that can cover wide distances in short time period.
    6. Syria helps children born during the war to overcome their traumas and brain seizures.
    7. Denmark focuses on cancer patient needs.
    8. Spain assists the elderly.

 

 

 

  • Entertainment and leisure time:

 

2020 Inclusion & Empowerment nominations make leisure time possible according to peoples needs and fight the communites marginalization with adaptive entertainment solutions.

 

    1. Pannana application offers audio descriptions that transcends the visual limitations, creating fantasy narrative voice recordings, according to theater, cinema or TV.
    2. Bonocle makes amusement possible for the blind people through a wide offer of partner apps that implement the Bonocle program. As well, it implements other information  in braille from productivity to education.
    3. Parrot one is an inclusive social media platform to help the impaired make friends and ease their integration in the digital era.
    4. Vrvis and  UnitedWeStream make visual art and music inclusive.

 

 

 

 

 

  • Adaptive learning paths:

 

These Inclusion & Empowerment nominations cover fields of education and leaning, targeting diverse audiences.

 

    1. Magrid is an pedagogical program for children -  improving the development of early visual-spatial and mathematical abilities.
    2. Voxikids is a mobile app specialized in speech and language development.
    3. The Indian radio Poquetshalla breaks through taboos, talking about topics such as: menstruation, bullying, growing up, relationships, etc.
    4. Pasión en Contenidos boosts digital inclusion for social companies.
    5. BeCode offers free training in the IT sector to anyone motivated to change their life.

 

  • Autonomy:

One of the biggest challenges people with disabilities struggle with is autonomy. 2020 Inclusion & Empowerment Nominations work towards bridging this gap:

    1. Controlling the house with a smart home voice solution.
    2. Independently surfing the internet with no movement -  eye tracking technology
    3. Inclusive communication for blind people with an e-Sign reader and converter device.
    4. Easing peoples access to restaurants, cafes, bakeries and other catering services through the Digital Menu platform especially focused and easy-to-use for people with disabilities.
    5. WelcoMe is a platform focusing on answering the users needs no matter where they go, delivering better customer service and increasing different business accessibility for people with disabilities.

 

 

  • Inclusion of remote areas:

 

Multiple initiatives work to include remote areas in the development of more reliable and all-embracing communities.

 

    1. Maisha Pay mobile payment method eases financial interactions in the remote areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    2. Pranisheba introduces cattle insurance services in a rural socio-economic areas of Bangladesh. Records of preservation, genetic development, data preservation, breeding, milking and first-aid services are provided.

The empowerment nominations represent 30 % of the 2020 Inclusion & Empowerment nominations. 50% of them are orientated to companies.

 

These projects all around the world showcase how companies adopt inclusive approaches towards the construction of a human oriented environment in the corporate world.

 

The 2020 Inclusion & Empowerment nominations change inclusion policies and the representation of the persons with disabilities in a local scale. These initiatives boost a resilient inclusion towards the construction of empowered communities, building a diversified world towards global peace. 

 

Over the past year, women have showed exemplary leadership in all walks of life by paving the way for families, businesses, and nations during this pandemic. It is important that society recognizes the strength and leadership that women have illustrated during these unprecedented times. The UN has aptly themed this years’ International Women’s Day as #ChooseToChallenge and “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.”

 

Officially recognized as a holiday by the UN in 1975, International Women’s Day brings attention to gender based discrimination and inequality. According to the UN, the world is still sixty years away from full gender equality though, leaving a large gap to be closed.

 

WSA aims to narrow digital divides, be it in access, content, wealth, age or gender. WSA wants to pave the way for more recognition and gender equality in all parts of society, encouraging women to challenge the status quo and to take those leadership positions that they deserve. With women making up less than 40% of leadership positions in companies across all world regions WSA's mission is to warrant a change and help women succeed through community, recognition and better representation.

 

WSA Executive manager, Nora Wolloch explains the importance of gender equality for the global Innovation community of WSA: "In Tech startups and Innovation, gender equality is a Challenge we have to take seriously. We do address it in our WSA activities because digital applications are powerful tools to shape the communities we live in. Digital changes lives."

 

 

 

 

International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate women everywhere, acknowledging their achievements and taking action towards equality. WSA’s “Hack the Gender Gap” panel at the Global Congress, March 22nd-24th, 2021 will highlight the impact that COVID-19 has had on women and the proposed solutions to those problems. The opening remarks will be made by UN Women’s representative, Diana Rusu, and featuring panel members from across the globe.

 

In the framework of the UN, WSA is working towards accomplishing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). During Women's History Month and on International Women’s Day, WSA is taking a focus on SDG #5- Gender Equality & SDG #10- Reduced Inequalities. The empowerment of girls and women in business, sports, society, and STEM fields is crucial to accomplishing these goals. With women making up only 24% of the STEM workforce, it is important for WSA that girls and women are encouraged to participate and create a seat at the table for themselves. Change needs to be demanded and the voices of women and girls needs to be amplified in order to "hack the gender gap".

 

 

"I believe WSA can be a great platform for female entrepreneurs and women in IT, sharing their knowledge and supporting each other. WSA also demonstrates the different challenges women face all over the world – there are different gender divides for women in Austria, Chile, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. It is wonderful to see, when women from all around the world meet, exchange, learn about each other´s challenges and advantages." - Nora Wolloch, WSA Executive Manager.

 

 

WSA is recognizing and connecting women and leaders that are breaking down the barriers that have been created and give women and girls the opportunity to succeed in all fields. Just a few examples of WSA Winners WSA Global Congress; Her Impact, Future Heroes, Natal Cares, and Diversio are working to give girls and women platforms to voice their opinions and create a positive change in our world. These winning projects have exemplified the leadership and forward thinking that will help “Hack the Gap” on gender equality. #ChooseToChallenge

 

At WSA there is a highly diverse set of winners, and the ones featured here are just a few that show exceptional support for gender equality and human rights.

#ChooseToChallenge

Join us for the WSA Global Congress 2021!

 

Featured WSA 2020 Winners in Gender Equality, Health, and Reduced Inequalities:

 

 

Natal Cares combines mobile technology, machine learning and low-cost innovation to combat maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria.

 

 

Her impact is a barrier breaking solutions which responses to the global social problem - the lack of gender diversity in the workplace, especially in manager position.

 

Future Heroes is founded with a mission to make entrepreneurship and leadership accessible for young women, inspired by Marian Wright Edelman’s quote: “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

 

Diversio is a Canadian people intelligence platform that measures and improves diversity and inclusion within organizations.