Women’s Villgro PH and The Incubation network to host virtual program to solve the waste management challenge with a special focus on gender.
Women, however, primarily constitute a large portion of the Philippine informal sector and are typically found in small home businesses and other underdeveloped sectors of the economy including waste and recycling. Their participation in the overall waste management value chain is notable, such as picking recyclables from municipal waste, dumpsites or landfills; yet the waste sector is a largely unregulated sector facing social stigma and economic deprivation.
Working in this informal, or grey economy, as it’s sometimes called, leaves women often without any protection of labour laws, social benefits such as pension, health insurance or paid sick leave. They routinely work for lower wages and in unsafe conditions, including risk of sexual harassment. The lack of social protections has long-term impact on women.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
Ways4Waste Innovation Challenge
Villgro Philippines is excited to announce the launch of ‘Ways for Waste Innovation Challenge’, in association with The Incubation Network (TIN).
Hosted by Villgro PH, Ways4Waste Innovation Challenge is a 10-week virtual program that seeks to support Filipino innovators solving challenges at the nexus of climate and gender, with a particular focus on waste management systems and female informal workers.
Over the course of 6 weekly sprints, teams will go through the iterative design thinking process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. After an initial round of testing, participants will pitch to a panel of judges and 3 winning teams will receive PHP 250,000 to further validate ideas, and pilot lean experiments to get their solutions off the ground. They will go through 4 additional weeks of lean incubation with a focus on business model development and further rounds of prototyping and testing, coupled with customized mentorship from Villgro’s and TIN’s networks.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
- Teams of 3 – 7 members
- Team members must be 18 years old and above
- Residing in the Philippines
- Passionate about solving challenges in waste management and the informal economy
- Willing to commit to attending a 6 – week program
BENEFITS OF THE PROGRAM
- Cash Prize : winning teams will receive PHP 250,000 in cash prizes from Villgro Philippines and partners
- 4 Weeks Lean Incubation Support : diagnostic panels and mentoring sessions together with investment readiness and fundraising strategy support
- Go-To-Market Accelerator : selected teams will also get access to a 3-month go-to market accelerator.
The deadline to apply is Thursday, July 29
For more questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to the team at [email protected].
