FIVE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS SELECTED AS AWARDEES FOR THE 2022 WE EMPOWER UN SDG CHALLENGE
The Global Business Challenge honors women who are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and inspiring entire communities to act to create the world we want by 2030
Washington, DC, July 14, 2022 – The WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, a global business challenge led by Vital Voices Global Partnership and Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU, today announced the five social entrepreneurs selected as their 2022 Awardees, who are:
- Yetunde Ayo Oyalowo, Founder, Market Doctors (Nigeria)
- Bharti Singh Chauhan, Founder & CEO, PraveenLata Sansthan & Carvers India Trade LLC (India)
- Dina Abdul Majeed, Founder & CEO, 360Moms (Jordan)
- Priyanka Srinivas, Founder, The Live Green Co. (Chile)
- Danielle J. Harris, Managing Director of Engagement & Innovation, Elemental Excelerator (United States)
Each entrepreneur was selected on the basis that they lead an enterprise committed to advancing one or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and leverage their businesses to push for progress in their communities.
“The past two years have proven that women leaders have a remarkable resiliency during unprecedented times and that women, in particular, possess unique abilities to be able to successfully navigate their companies and communities through uncharted areas in the aftermath of the global pandemic,” said Zoe Dean-Smith, senior vice president of Leadership and Social Impact at Vital Voices. “It is an honor to recognize this year’s five WE Empower Awardees and the great work they are doing to advance humanity through taking on the world’s greatest challenges. I look forward to seeing their enterprises grow and expand as a result of the support and investments that Vital Voices and our partners have committed to making in them.”
The opportunity recognizes entrepreneurs for their ground-breaking work. As Awardees, the five women leaders will participate in capacity-building training sessions, connect with renowned business experts from around the world and gain access to the Vital Voices global network of more than 20,000 women leaders across 184 countries and territories. The WE Empower Awardees will also participate in a dynamic pitch competition, hosted by philanthropist, activist and Vital Voices Board Member Diane von Furstenberg, to present their business for the opportunity to receive a $20,000 grant.
“The 2022 WE Empower UN SDG Challenge awardees are leading exemplars of the diversity of women entrepreneurs around the world who are committed to creating better global futures through supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals” said Amanda Ellis of ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab, a former UN Ambassador. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disproportionately impact women entrepreneurs, it is more important than ever to recognize and support trailblazers like the 2022 awardees. These incredible women are both role models and advocates in their local contexts. They inspire and smooth the path for others aspiring to solve today’s big challenges through sustainable and inclusive business practices, for purpose as well as for profit. ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab is proud to elevate the voices and experiences of these women entrepreneurs through the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge.”
The WE Empower UN SDG Challenge aims to invest in the most inspiring and transformational women entrepreneurs by providing unique trainings, capacity building, a network of their peers, visibility and credibility for their work. It ignites awareness of the valuable contribution women entrepreneurs make to the SDGs and the world’s greatest challenges.
The program is led in partnership by Vital Voices and Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU, with support from our partners at- Bank of Montreal (BMO), Diane von Furstenberg, GroYourBiz, Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, Mary Kay, Match Group, New Theory Ventures, Oxford University Said Business School, P&G, Salesforce, UN Foundation and the World Bank.
###
ABOUT VITAL VOICES GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
Now celebrating 25 years since its founding, Vital Voices Global Partnership has directly invested in more than 20,000 changemakers across 184 countries and territories since its inception in 1997. Driven by the universal truth that women are the key to progress in their communities and nations cannot move forward without women in leadership positions, Vital Voices has provided early support for leaders who went on to become Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, U.S. Youth Poet Laureates, Prime Ministers, award-winning innovators, pioneering human rights defenders, and breakthrough social entrepreneurs, including Amanda Gorman, Malala Yousafzai, and more. In an effort to advance and expand this work, in 2022 Vital Voices opened the doors to the world’s first global embassy for women, the Vital Voices Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership —a first-of-its-kind space that allows for convening, innovation, planning, and action — all in the pursuit of tackling the world’s greatest challenges.
Serving as a “venture catalyst,” Vital Voices identifies leaders with a daring vision for change and partners with them to make that vision a reality. It provides connections, increased capacity, a peer network, financial support, skills training, and increased visibility for their work, which ranges from gender-based violence and climate justice to economic inequities and political disempowerment, and more.
Visit www.vitalvoices.org to learn more.
ABOUT JULIE ANN WRIGLEY GLOBAL FUTURES LABORATORY AT ASU
The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University represents the urgent belief that we can and must make a meaningful contribution to ensuring a habitable planet and a future in which well-being is attainable. The Global Futures Laboratory is the world’s first laboratory dedicated to the health of the planet and its inhabitants. It is built upon the deep expertise of ASU and leveraging an extensive network of partners for an ongoing and wide-ranging exchange across all knowledge domains to address the complex social, economic and scientific challenges spawned by the current and future threats from environmental degradation. This platform positions a new world headquarters for an international array of scientists, scholars and innovators and lays the foundation to anticipate and respond to existing and emerging challenges and use innovation to purposefully shape and inform our future.
For more information visit globalfutures.asu.edu.
For more information on how you can support WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, please contact Tunde Wackman at TundeWackman@vitalvoices.org.
For media inquiries or interviews with the Awardees, please contact Markette Sheppard at media@vitalvoices.org.
2022 WE EMPOWER Finalists
