Announcing the Winners of the Joint Innovation Challenge 2022

300 submissions, 61 countries, and 20 pitches later, we are excited to announce the 10 winners of our Joint Innovation Challenge 2022 “Positioning to Scale: Innovations to Empower Women and Girls”.

In cooperation with with the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the International Telecommunication Union, and the International Trade Centre, we provide funding for social enterprises led or co-led by women providing innovative solutions in the areas of maternal health, sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence.

Our 10 winners sign a 9- month contract with UNFPA and receive an equity-free investment of US$60,000. UNFPA and its partners further support them with targeted mentorship, training opportunities, interactive workshops, and unique access to the UN network.

Meet the 10 Challenge Winners 

Foundation Paniamor, Costa Rica:
Foundation Paniamor develops a novel digital toolkit for adolescent girls to help prevent and respond to online gender-based violence. 

GerHub, Mongolia:
GerHub reaches women and girls in remote areas with information and sexual and reproductive health services through mobile clinics and telemedicine. 

Global Pre-Eclampsia Initiative, Uganda:
A portable diagnostic system that helps pregnant women with early detection, timely referral, and effective management of pre-eclampsia - a life-threatening hypertensive disorder causing up to 10% of pregnancy related deaths in Africa. 

Hillspring Diagnostics, Nigeria:
Revolutionary method to detect ectopic pregnancy, which may cause severe complications and death if not diagnosed and treated on time. 

Impact Innovations Institute, Armenia:
The SafeYou app is a unique digital solution that provides women and girls with security functions to protect them against gender-based violence and offers tools for survivors. SafeYou empowers women, enhances their safety, and transforms their quality of life. 

MecRa, Türkiye: 
An immersive augmented reality experience that uses data-induced challenges to increase empathy levels and promote action to stop gender-based violence by simulating different situations that women experience in real life.

Tirando X Colombia, Colombia:
A digital solution that helps end the cycle of poverty generated by teenage pregnancies through quality sexual and reproductive health information and services for adolescent girls through a super-chatbot enhanced by Artificial Intelligence. 

ToguMogu, Bangladesh:
Creative one-stop family health and wellbeing platform that provides access to family planning tools, reproductive health information, and services for young women and new mothers.

Urukundo Initiative, Rwanda:
Urukundo Life Skills Board Game is the first ever licensed low-tech educational game in Rwanda that helps create a safe space to assimilate evidence-based information on sexual and reproductive health and rights in an accessible fashion. 

Women in Entrepreneurship and Technology (WETECH), Cameroon: 
A community hub and women’s innovation center that offers a digital tool allowing survivors and persons at risk of gender-based violence to connect and seek help via a messaging platform while guaranteeing the security and confidentiality of their experience.