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ToguMogu, Bangladesh wins UNFPA’s Joint Innovation Challenge


Published : 12 Aug 2022 01:41 AM

 ToguMogu, Bangladesh has become one of the ten winners of the UNFPA’s first-ever Joint Innovation Challenge, a competition to provide funding for social enterprises with innovative solutions that advance the empowerment of women and girls worldwide.

The UN sexual and reproductive health agency says ToguMogu, Bangladesh is a one-stop family health and wellbeing platform that provides access to family planning, reproductive health information, and services for young women and new mothers.

According to the ToguMogu website, it is a venture that revolutionizes how parents discover every child-rearing support for their families. “We are the one platform that brings all the help and support a new parent needs to have in one place.”

Other winners include Foundation Paniamor, Costa Rica; GerHub, Mongolia; Global Pre-Eclampsia Initiative, Uganda; Hillspring Diagnostics, Nigeria; Impact Innovations Institute, Armenia; KızBaşına, Turkey; Tirando X Colombia, Colombia; Urukundo Initiative, Rwanda; and Women in Entrepreneurship and Technology (WETECH), Cameroon.

UNFPA says all the ten winners are women-helmed organisations hailing from five different regions globally.

They pitched a range of innovations, from a portable diagnostic system for pre-eclampsia to a board game that disseminates information on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

UNFPA’s Equalizer Accelerator Fund financed the award, implemented in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the International Trade Centre (ITC).

“Creative thinking and innovative solutions are key to accelerate progress for women and girls around the world,” Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director was quoted as saying in a statement.

“Through the Equalizer, UNFPA is pleased to support a dynamic group of entrepreneurs and their game-changing ideas. Thanks to funding from the Governments of Luxembourg, Finland, and Denmark, life-changing projects like these are possible.”

The Challenge received 300 submissions from 61 countries. After 20 finalists pitched to an expert panel, the 10 winners signed nine-month contracts with UNFPA and received an equity-free investment of $60,000.

The funding will allow these organisations to move from pilot stage to scale. UNFPA and its partners will further support the social enterprises with targeted mentorship, training opportunities, interactive workshops, and unique access to the UN network.

Launched in 2021, UNFPA’s Equalizer Accelerator Fund invests in projects that will expand access to contraception and maternal health services for women and girls and end gender-based viomjoo9ij,lp9ilence.

The fund provides equity-free investments in social enterprises that are led or co-led by women and can show evidence of the impact they will have, enabling them to test and scale up their projects.