A Tanzanian woman, Lucy Odiwa is among the Global winners of the SDGs&Her competition for women micro-entrepreneurs who are helping to achieve the SDGs.

The World Bank Group in partnership with UNDP, UN Women, The Wharton School’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, will hold an event on Monday the 24^th of September in New York to award the 2018 winners of the SDGs&Her competition for women whose business help to achieve the global goals.

The winning entry of Tanzania-based WomenChoice Industries is owned by Lucy Odiwa. Her micro-enterprise seeks to empower women and girls in Tanzania by promoting safer menstrual health hygiene management (MHM), sharing information, products, and related services. Odiwa says, “The lack of Menstrual health hygiene products often affects the ability of low-income women and girls to attend school and to work.”

WomenChoice Industries produces reusable sanitary pads, post-partum maternity pads, child and adult diapers, and promotes MHM in schools to promote quality education for all, helping Tanzania to achieve SDG target 3.7 (Women’s health), and SDG target 4.1 (Girls’ access to education).

The second-place winner is Mukuru Clean Stoves of Kenya, owned by Charlot Magayi.  The enterprise recycles waste metal to produce improved, reliable, and affordable cook stoves to reduce indoor air pollution, which is a major health challenge in the developing world.  Her business addresses SDG8 (Decent Work), SDG1 (End Poverty), and SDG3 (Good Health).

Odiwa and Magayi have been flown to New York City this September to attend the UN General Assembly and to discuss their work and impact,and may also receive leadership training and mentoring from partner organizations.

Over 1,200 entries from 88 countries were submitted, and while nearly half of the entries were from Sub-Saharan Africa, submissions were received from every region of the world, including Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, the Middle East and North Arica, Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific.

The SDGs and Her competition seeks to increase knowledge about the SDGs and their potential impacts on women, as well as to collaborate with private sector partners, and share best practices and innovative ideas.

SDGs and Her is open to women who own and/or lead microenterprises, have nine or fewer employees, and which have loan eligibility under USD $10,000 or annual sales under $100,000.  Applicants were required to complete a short online template describing their work and linking their initiative/product to one or more SDGs. Entries will be accepted for the 2019 competition between September 24 and December 31, 2018. Winners will be announced in early 2019.

The winners were chosen based on their impact on the SDGs, vision and purpose, and clarity of the entries. The final judging panel included: Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Achim Steiner; United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka; World Bank Group Senior Vice President, Mahmoud Mohieldin; Lecturer and Senior Fellow, Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at Wharton School, Djordjija Petkoski; Senior Director for Gender at the World Bank Group, Caren Grown; and Head, Gender Secretariat, International Finance Corporation, Henriette Kolb.

In 2015, all 193 United Nations member countries signed on to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to “create the future we want in 2030.” To learn more about the SDGs, the SDGS and Her Competition, visit worldbank.org/sdgs.

Back ground:

SDGs&Her is an online competition for women entrepreneurs to showcase how they are supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their business operations. The objectives of the initiative are to:

• recognize women implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including women business owners of microenterprises;
• increase knowledge about the SDGs and their potential impacts on women among non-traditional audiences; and
• collaborate with private sector partners on all SDGs, but SDG5 in particular; to share best practices and innovative ideas.

Eligibility: The competition is open to women who own and/or lead microenterprises (1-9 employees; under USD $10,000 loan eligibility OR annual sales under $100,000).

To Enter: Applicants complete the short online template visit: worldbank.org/sdgs. describing their work and linking their initiative/product to 1 or more SDGs.