While innovative, women-led startups are becoming more common in the region, women face significant barriers to entrepreneurship, such as lack of access to finance and discriminatory gender norms.

The UNDP Women Innovators Programme (WIP) in the Arab Region is an intensive mentorship programme connecting women innovators from Arab countries with their international network of mentors to help them overcome some of these barriers.

Following a successful first edition in 2021, 4YFN and UNDP have, once again, joined forces to support women startup entrepreneurs based in the Arab region. Towards the 2022 edition, hundreds of female-led startups applied, coming from a variety of fields like Digital Health & Well-being, EdTech, Agri-food and more – all working to promote the SDGs; all looking to connect to international mentors and seek their advice.

About the Demo Day:
The Demo Day marked the completion of the 5-week mentoring period. It is the culminating moment in which the innovators get the chance to pitch their projects to international investors and get their feedback. Following a plenary session with talks by senior UNDP and GSMA representatives, including GSMA Ltd. CEO John Hoffman, the innovators pitched in 5 different break-out rooms dedicated to Health & Well-being, EdTech & Talent, B2B & Consultancy, Agri-food & Cultural Heritage, and Social Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, Chairman & CEO of IM Fndng, was invited to take part in the B2B and Social Entrepreneurship break-out room, where he and other investors provided feedback and asked questions to the mentees about their projects.

The Demo Day was an open event, and was attended by more than 100 participants.

“There was such passion and energy in all the female founders; they’re accomplishing quite a lot of traction within their environment,” said Nicolas Rouhana. “I hope we’ll see more achievements 4 years from now and we’re here to support as much as possible,” he added.

More info can be found here.

Women Innovators Programme selected candidates: WIP Innovators | 4YFN 2022

The international investor panel for the Demo Day: Investor Panel | 4YFN 2022