As a first important milestone in our collaboration, a joint project by BLUETOWN and Gapi-SI has been selected as one of the winners of the USAID WomenConnect Challenge. The WomenConnect Challenge is a global call by USAID for solutions to meaningfully change how women and girls access technology, to drive positive health, education, and livelihood outcomes for themselves and their families.
“Investing in women and girls accelerate development outcomes in health, food security, conflict prevention, the list really goes on” – USAID Administrator Green.
The winning proposal, Women In the Network (WIN), outlines a comprehensive approach to address the digital gender divide. The project proposes to integrate BLUETOWN’s connectivity solutions, experience with connecting the unconnected and LOCAL CLOUD platform with the Gapi proven approach to promote rural women financial participation and entrepreneurship skills development in Mozambique.
“We are very excited and proud to be one of the winners of the WomenConnect Challenge. We have high expectations to this project and our partnership with Gapi. We believe that solving the digital divide, including the digital gender divide, requires new models and innovative partnerships. This is exactly what we have found with Gapi, which the WomenConnect grant is a testament of” – Mogens Birk, VP Partnerships & Alliances, BLUETOWN.
The partners foresee that integrating Gapi’s existing rural service delivery with BLUETOWN’s connectivity services and LOCAL CLOUD platform will increase adoption and effective usage of digital tools for women in rural Mozambican communities. This will help more women into the digital agricultural marketplace and give access to new income-generating activities.
“This is an important step in the recognition and support of Gapi’s rural development strategy. We focus on the promotion of women and youth to contribute for a more inclusive development through the rise and advent of startups and small enterprises. Knowing that access to information is vital to the implementation and success of the dreams and endeavors of millions of rural youth, particularly the women, we rely on partnering with credible IT professionals. This is the reason we and BLUETOWN are together.” – António Souto, CEO of Gapi-SI
The project will be initiated in the Nampula province of Mozambique in the beginning of 2019. The partners see this project as the kick-off of a greater partnership to drive meaningful digital adoption, improving rural livelihoods throughout Mozambique. We cannot wait to get started!
Read more about WomenConnect Challenge: https://www.usaid.gov/wcc
Read more about Gapi: http://gapi.co.mz/
Read more about BLUETOWN https://bluetown.com/