Meet the 2020 EQUALS in Tech Awards finalists
The 2020 EQUALS in Tech Award finalists have been selected, with 25 finalists announced for the annual flagship event of the EQUALS global partnership, in which ITU is a proud participant.
The awards recognize outstanding projects and initiatives around the world that are helping build a brighter digital future for girls and women.
This year, more than 340 nominations from around the globe were received, including submissions from a wide range of initiatives working to bridge the gender digital divide.
Prizes are awarded for outstanding achievement and innovative strategies in five categories: Access, Skills, Leadership in Technology, Leadership in SME (small and medium enterprises) and Research.
The 25 finalists come from 19 countries and represent an innovative set of initiatives that have achieved concrete results in areas of the world where women are most excluded from the benefits of digital technology, and in those where work remains to be done.
The 2020 EQUALS in Tech Award finalists are:
Access Category
Safetipin (India)
Set of technology applications designed to make public spaces safer and more inclusive for women.
App Laudelina (Brazil)
Mobile app offering Brazilian domestic workers access to information that improve their work conditions and empower them.
Sehat Kahani (Pakistan)
IT-enabled solutions to empower female doctors to re-join the workforce and deliver quality healthcare to patients located far away
Tiny Totos (Kenya)
Online network that gives private, slum-based informal daycares in Nairobi the knowledge and tools they need to offer high-quality, reliable and sustainable service
Digital Grassroots (Zambia)
Female-led organization aiming to engage youth in internet governance; connect communities to institutions that enhance their autonomy in digital citizenship; and create services that respond to the digital needs of underserved communities.
Skills Category
She Codes (Israel)
Community of female software engineers in Israel, established with the goal of reaching 50% female software engineers in the Israeli hi-tech industry.
Visiola Foundation (Nigeria)
Organization that educates, trains, and mentors African girls and young women from underserved communities and disadvantaged backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Pro Futuro Digital Education Campaign (Spain)
Digital education program that aims to use technology to improve the education of millions of girls and boys around the world through technology.
WETECH Women’s Innovation Center (Cameroon)
Platform and innovation center aimed at promoting and supporting African women in the fields of technology and entrepreneurship.
Sisters of Code (Cambodia)
First female coding club in Cambodia; encourages female students to study technology, thus directly improving their opportunities for better-paid jobs in the future.
Leadership in Technology Category
The Women Empowerment Program in Technology (Saudi Arabia)
National program providing opportunities for all, and particularly women, providing trainings on emerging technologies and empowering digital champions.
Gender and Technology Initiatives (GATI) (India)
ICFOSS gender and technology targeted interventions to bridge the gender digital divide by holding events and activities such as Women Hackathons, She Fellowship, Workshops, Winter Schools, and Back to Work.
STEMbees: Empowering Ghanaian Girls to Break Barriers in STEM (Ghana)
Programmatic efforts designed to develop young girls in STEM and help them remain in the STEM pool.
Rights Tech Women (Switzerland)
Organization advancing the human rights of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields through human rights advocacy in the United Nations and in other relevant international organizations.
DEVELOP[HER] ZERO to [HER]O (United States)
Career development platform founded by Lauren Hasson that offers women in tech a repeatable, scalable framework to build their value, increase their earnings, and bridge the gender wage and opportunity gap.
Leadership in SME Category
Human Resources Development Fund Leadership Program (Saudi Arabia)
Program to prepare private sector women employees to be national future leaders through coaching, projects, best practices, follow-up and direct teaching with international experts in building leadership.
African ChangeMakers Initiative (Nigeria)
Organization that aims to identify and spark new ideas, nurture creative innovation and develop engaged change-making leaders and communities that will bring about transformation and impact across Africa and beyond.
PÁNUM-Digital (Equatorial Guinea)
Offers education, training, technical assistance and advisory services to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people, which are most often young women and girls.
Program CODDA (Benin)
Program that strengthens the capacities of girls and young women, and increases their autonomy through sustainable projects and activities in urban, peri-urban and rural areas.
Cyber Ladies NYC (United States)
Community for women who work in the cybersecurity industry and for women who want to join the industry. As part of their activities, they provide free workshops and panels.
Research Category
Encouraging Talented Women and Supporting them to Participate (Saudi Arabia)
Project created by the College of Computer Science and Information Technology; goal is discovering talented women and developing their skills.
Namibia Women’s Online Engagement Report (Namibia)
Not-for-profit association with a mission to promote the development of Internet policy; score card showed gender digital inequality, lack of online safety and no collection of sex-disaggregated data.
Stereotypes about Women and their Consequences (Russian Federation)
Study that set out to examine the mindsets in Russian society that cause gender inequality in the digital economy.
La Red Argentina de Género, Ciencia, y Tecnología (Argentina)
Objective is to create a space of exchange about women’s situations in the scientific and technological sector and to make a diagnosis of the situation of women in science and technology and its evolution in recent years.
Student-Led Scientific Conference (Saudi Arabia)
Scientific educational gathering for female students in which they present the reports of their research projects and then discuss them and exchange views in a three-day open dialogue.
The finalists in each category were selected through a rigorous evaluation process conducted by the EQUALS in Tech Award Advisory Group – comprising previous awards winners and other experts – in addition to members of the four EQUALS Partnership Coalitions (Access, Skills, Leadership and Research).
The winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on 6 November 2020, during the Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2020).
To find out more, visit: EQUALS.org/awards
