New Champions Womensphere Incubator Network

We are building a global ecosystem and incubator network to inspire, educate, train, and empower women and girls in leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts & design, mathematics), and important core skills including problem-solving skills, technology, communication, financial skills, creative & design thinking skills, and personal growth.

Through the New Champions Womensphere Incubator Network, we will inspire and empower women and girls to grow & emerge as leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in their communities and workplaces, all over the world – 1 million women & girls by 2020, and 1 billion women & girls by 2030. 

The New Champions 5050 movement and New Champions Womensphere Incubator Network represent the global initiative for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, by the Young Global Leaders, Global Shapers, Schwab Social Entrepreneurs, Tech Pioneers, and the Foundation communities of the World Economic Forum. Through the New Champions Womensphere Incubator Network, we are building a global ecosystem and an international network of incubators designed to empower women and girls to create the future. We are empowering women and girls around the world be co-architects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and be equal partners in achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, and create a brighter future.

We are offering a digital incubator ecosystem and live, on-the-ground incubator hubs around the world. Each incubator offers five things to develop and empower women and girls holistically: community, connections with inspiring role models and mentors, training and education, recognition and awards, and access to resources, whether scholarships, technologies, or funding sources.

We plan to leverage technology to democratize access to knowledge, wisdom, insights, inspiring role models, and continued education.  We also plan to reach women and girls in underserved urban communities and rural communities who don’t have access to the internet through partnerships, and through mobile technologies. For example, through a partnership with Philippine Senator Bam Aquino, a fellow Young Global Leader, we can reach women in rural areas of the Philippines through a network of over 300 Business/Entrepreneurship Centers he has helped build throughout the country. 

The world shows pervasive gender inequality across all countries. Ultimately, we want to empower 1 billion women and girls to create a better future for this world.  Investment in the empowerment of women and girls goes beyond teaching them specific skills like coding. It’s important to develop women and girls holistically: this means development needs to take into account psychology, economics, culture, personal well-being, and connectedness to a greater purpose. We aim to develop women and girls to emerge as effective leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and champions in their personal lives, in their communities, in their workplaces, and in their countries. 

Empowerment has several dimensions, and a singular intervention is not going to be effective. Thus, we offer an ecosystem of interventions. Research and studies in neuroscience, behavioral sciences, economics, and experience show us aspects to empowering women and girls as leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are creating a brighter future. Our intervention plans to enable these:

• Psychological strength, courage, confidence
• Economic independence
• Intellectual and problem-solving skills
• Connectedness to Community
• Connectedness to Greater Purpose, like care for sustainability

We plan to empower 1 million women and girls by 2020, and 1 billion women and girls by 2030, to actively create a better future for the world. We will deliver services through a combination of digital/online/mobile platforms and live onsite platforms executed via public-private partnerships globally.

This September and October, we will kick off what the world’s largest STEAM-powered global empowerment and mobilization of women & girls to contribute vision and solutions to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development using code, art, and video/media via our Global Codefest, Global Artfest, and Global Videofest, reaching 10,000 women and girls.

Track number of registered participants, track what they created - 5,000 women and girls participate in our Global Codefest, Artfest, and Videofest this Fall 2017

Track number of registered participants, track what they state they learned - 10,000 women and girls participate in our Global Expert Mentoring (GEM) project this year

Track number of registered participants, track impact of the program on their plans/vision - 1,000 women participate in our live, onsite forums and bootcamps this year

Four aspects make our solution unique:

OUR APPROACH:

We take an ecosystem and community approach. For a program to succeed, it needs to be integrated into local communities and within institutions where women are learning and working.

OUR SCALING PLAN:

We make creative, innovative use of technologies and partnerships to scale our impact.

OUR PEOPLE & NETWORKS: 

Our leaders have decades of experience in this space. We have over 100 Young Global Leaders and Global Shapers and our networks involved as mentors and leaders.

OUR PARTNERSHIPS:  

We invest in developing strategic public-private partnerships to scale our impact.

We aim to empower women & girls to create the future, help solve the world’s greatest challenges. This must happen locally, in their communities/institutions. We have a global template/blueprint/modules for  our incubator plan. We also run a Global Expert Mentoring (GEM) program. But: We co-design local programs (via partners). We encourage local solutions. For example, this fall, we are running a Global Codefest, Global Videofest, and Global Artfest targeting women in school globally. Through technology, they can join this global event. To participate, they must create – code/apps, video, and art – that are relevant to them/their communities/countries.

People will access our solution through digital platforms (online and mobile), and through live, on-the-ground programs and incubator hubs that we co-develop with global and local partners.