The Australian and Irish embassies in Hanoi on March 6 launched a national competition titled ‘Technologies for Equality’ to promote the application of technologies to empower rural women’s lives.
Vice Minister for the Ministry of Science and Technology Bui The Duy speaks at the event. Photo: Australian embassy
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The objectives of the national competition are to: a) sponsor potential high impact technology-related initiatives for the empowerment of rural women; b) provide support for the technologies, and their scale up; c) improve awareness in society of the need for the empowerment of rural women; and d) improve understanding of how technology can be used to reduce poverty and raise living standards for rural communities.
The successful entrants will receive prize money (1st prize – AUD10,000, 2nd prize – AUD5,000, and 3rd prize AUD3,000). They will also receive acceleration and incubation support for the winning technologies by WISE.
To be eligible, applicants must be a Vietnamese woman (individual, or group led by a woman), residing in Vietnam, and have a technology-related solution that improves the lives or productivity of rural women. Solutions should be at least at minimum viable product stage, and demonstrate that the benefit of the technology can last three to five years. Applications close on April 6 and the winners will be announced on April 21, 2019 - World Creativity and Innovation Day.
The event showcased technologies that has been supported by the two governments to improve the lives of rural women. The first was a mobile application called Safe Journey – job matching and accommodation advice for migrant women, developed by PLAN International Vietnam with the support of Australia.
The second was a tea processing facility supported by the Center for Development and Integration with funding from the Embassy of Ireland, which helps female ethnic minority tea farmers in Muong Do, Son La province to improve post-harvest processing and product quality to meet the Vietfarm standard and make branded and higher value tea products.
Tea products produced with a processing facility supported by the Center for Development and Integration with funding from the Embassy of Ireland. Photo: Australian embassy
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