2020 Mission Billion Challenge: Global Prize
VOICE Global Sovereignty for Women/Girls
One-line solution summary:
Amplifying Voices and Gaining Independence for Women & Girls in Conflict Affected Countries
Pitch your solution.
VOICE is building a global network of women and girls impacted or at risk of violence that uniquely affects them -- because they are female -- to promote greater livelihood and economic sustainability. The VOICE Network and Information Hub will ensure that women and girls have influence and voice in a range of issues that affect them, including the best solutions to mitigate their varied risks to violence in the home, on the street, in schools and in workspaces. This network will actively look at tech and non-tech solutions to cross-cutting issues such as access to national identity cards, passports, birth registration and certification and nationality that increase their risks and pose barriers to their safe movement and full participation and agency.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
The need for effective connections to support women and girl’s organizations has never been more acute, with over 168 million people worldwide predicted to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. COVID-19 has also posed a threat to millions of women/girls, especially with ages 13-55, through increased violence and a lack of access to testing, resources, and treatment. Women/girls are the front-line responders to crises, yet often have limited access to information, resources and capacity to build economic livelihood.
Many of these women/girls, in vulnerable communities globally, do not have access to provided benefits due to lack of proper identification, and have no safe way to acquire identification. Identity is a universal human right, without reliance on any single government or institution or individual (spouse or otherwise).(1) And, while digital technology is increasingly becoming essential for full participation in the modern economy, there is a gender divide in access that excludes women/girls, limiting their potential.
Failing to address safe digital access for women and girls will not let us address our mission.
(1)The World Bank research notes significant gender gaps to accessing identification in low-income settings, with 45% of women as compared to 28% of men lacking identification documents.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
VOICE’s solution serves marginalized and vulnerable women and girls in the world’s most economically depressed countries with the highest known rates of violence against them. It is projected that over 5,000 women and 1,000 girls will benefit from this initiative, with the possibility of that extending by many thousands, and eventually millions more, through our local partners and by influencing strategic digital technical policy decisions now and in the future.
Participants identified through and participating in the VOICE network will be invited to feed into all digital technologies efforts to feed into their design in following years. VOICE’s team of experts, who collectively have over 150 years of experience working in some of the most intense natural and human made disasters and conflicts around the world, will work directly with local women and girl leaders to drive this action. Our work will be guided by women- and girl-led organizations, and women and girls themselves.
VOICE is standing beside a deep network of women and girl-led organizations/activists on this issue, working toward a world where women and girls are respected leaders in designing/implementing solutions to eradicate violence and are capable of achieving greater levels of economic empowerment.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Mission Billion Challenge Global Prize and your selected dimension.
VOICE’s solution serves marginalized and vulnerable women and girls in the world’s most economically depressed countries with the highest known rates of violence against them. It is projected that over 5,000 women and 1,000 girls will benefit from this initiative, with the possibility of that extending by many thousands, and eventually millions more, through our local partners and by influencing strategic digital technical policy decisions now and in the future.
Participants identified through and participating in the VOICE network will be invited to feed into all digital technologies efforts to feed into their design in following years.
Where is your solution team headquartered?
New York, NY, USAWhat is your solution’s stage of development?
Who is the primary delegate for your solution?
Mendy Marsh, Founder and Executive Director
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
Describe what makes your solution innovative.
Organizations such as Caribou Digital, Bitnation’s Refugee Emergency Response, IDBox, UNICEF, etc. exist in this space, and have the capacity to serve a similar audience with a focus on: Barriers of information, access, ownership, societal expectations and intersectionality.
VOICE will support relevant initiatives in countries we serve and align with programs that are working advantageously. Our approach is innovative and different since programming extends further into root cause issues exploring solutions with the women and girls that are facing them, so the fundamental reasons why ID’s cannot be obtained is addressed, not just the actual ID system. We are the only organization addressing these issues with an approach derived from listening to women and girls, and the unique challenges that they face in accessing ID systems. VOICE also works with women and girl-led organizations locally to ensure the systems implemented are safe and sustainable.
Our in-depth partnership and on-going consultation in our safe network will allow us to further unearth realities, that if they go unheard, will create additional negative unintended consequences through new and existing digital platforms where women and girls suffer additional abuses rather as opposed to promoting their access to life-saving identity systems and other digital technologies that will support their access to education, work, access to information and services, and how ideas for social change are promoted.
Provide evidence that your solution works.
VOICE’s work addresses the lifecycle of violence against women and girls in conflict-affected countries and builds innovative solutions for local response and involvement. Our networks are designed for scalability so that they will ultimately cascade out to other countries informed by data-driven, women- and girl-led results. The women- and girl-led organizations we work with are strategically positioned to define, develop and implement gender-inclusive strategies that are responsive to the needs/perspectives of the most impacted women and girls.
The models of intervention that VOICE designs in concert with women and girls can be scaled and linked to VOICE’s wider body of work and overall women’s rights movements. This makes our work efficient and effective and draws connections to the whole body of global feminist-informed women’s rights work.
VOICE is committed to maintaining confidentiality, mitigating the potential for data surveillance, online abuse/harassment, and ensuring the safety of activists and practitioners from backlash, while keeping vulnerable women and girls central. These concerns are central to the development of all VOICE efforts that are grounded in our mission to create new resources and modalities to help women and girls affected by crisis to broaden their sphere of influence and ultimately meet their goals, missions, and visions for a world where women and girls are safer, healthier, and free from violence, both physically and digitally.
These articles speak to the benefit of the technology suggested for this solution:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc....
https://www.engineeringforchan...
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
What is your theory of change?
VOICE’s work is organized around three broad pillars of change:
Pillar 1. Showing up and shaping humanitarian action.
VOICE aims to ensure humanitarian responses are delivered in ways that are safe, inclusive, and bolster local women’s and girls’ participation. These efforts utilize participatory techniques, innovative digital- and non-technology, arts-based programming and cross-sector partnerships to: (1) enable women and girls to engage with the aid sector, their local community, conflict-resolution system and beyond; and (2) provide aid actors and donors with new ways to address the needs of women and girls impacted by crisis and conflict.
VOICE deployment teams work to ensure that the emergency response is of high quality and meets international standards. Together they develop and provide innovative high and low technological solutions to enable the safe delivery of goods, services and early warning systems that aid the protection of girls and women.
Pillar 2. Amplifying voices: Building a global network of women who are local expert practitioners. We know that fragile, conflict-affected and peacebuilding responses are most effective when women are involved. To increase international visibility and respect for local women- and girl-led organizations, VOICE is building a global network of women expert practitioners who are ready to lead and drive the aid sector in their own communities.
Pillar 3. Growing resources and partnerships: Strategies to increase investments in local organizations and systems led by women and girls. Even when donors are committed to ending GBV, they often struggle to identify and connect with organizations doing effective work. VOICE will address these barriers through the development of tools, research and capacity building for women’s rights organizations, including identification systems. We analyze what works to advance women’s leadership and address GBV from their perspectives, and we support organizations to document and evaluate program methods so that critical lessons and adaptations are not lost.
VOICE will work with local women- and girl-led organizations to develop tools, guidance and capacity building opportunities, including tools to address issues of financial assurance. This work stream will help to grow financial resources while also supporting the growth of local-led expertise in the aid sector.
How can your solution be incorporated into identification systems?
The countries were VOICE works represent diverse fragile contexts impacted by violent extremism, terrorism and conflict, as well as significant levels of violence against women and girls. The projects are structured in a way that scalability is achievable to other countries in conflict settings. When travel is not possible due to COVID-19 or when VOICE is not granted access to support women- and girl-led organizations directly on the ground at a national and sub-national level, VOICE provides intensive virtual support.
VOICE projects use participatory data collection and feedback mechanisms such as group discussions, listening circles, semi-structured interviews, household surveys, and community meetings to co-create interventions with affected populations. Gender and Risk Analyses are conducted during project planning to inform design. These analyses use secondary data, which is initially conducted through consultative and participatory processes to understand the gender dimensions in each country. This process contributes to a deep understanding of the shifting dynamics for women and girls and how they are impacted by crises.
With this needed data, VOICE is able to invite identified women- and girl-led organizations and other networks of women and girls to participate in the program and become part of the VOICE network, which is where the process and procedure for digital ID systems will be consulted on. Implementation will occur with the secondary level of beneficiaries (women and girls) in this process to ensure root cause issues are identified in the region, and localized solutions are purposeful.
Describe how 'user friendly' your solution is to incorporate into a digital identification system.
VOICE’s programmatic platform has been designed for ease of implementation and entry. The women and girls that VOICE supports have been unduly impacted by violence, including wide scale marginalization and abuse, both in person and often via digital platforms. Thus, incorporating a digital identification system and other digital technologies must be as safe and seamless as possible, and they have to be grounded in the wisdom of the lived experiences of women and girls who give their lives daily to protect their families and communities from extreme levels of human right abuses, often to the neglect of themselves and the individual freedoms that they should be able to actualize if the world weighted their knowledge the way that it should.
VOICE has an ongoing global consultation process with women and girls across geographical regions and in diverse conflict-affected contexts. Connecting to women and girls in need, designing the network in partnership with them and based on their defined outcomes in mind, ensuring safety and security, and having an effective platform that allows women and girls the opportunity to successfully achieve a basic human need of engaging in new digital technologies, including establishing identity will all be key aspects of this project. Using a phased approach, VOICE engages with and listens to women and girls, gathering their critical ideas, priorities and input into VOICE’s work, strategies and messaging. VOICE will work through ensuring this solution is women- and girl-user friendly, as it moves from ideation to planning and concept stage.
Explain how your solution is interoperable with existing technologies and open standards.
The concept of identification systems is not new, however it is still challenging when working with a vulnerable and marginalized population to design an effective system. VOICE is looking to incorporate digital solutions that are accessible via smart phones, tablets and PC’s that work with existing technologies and can be safely accessible via a public platform. However, safety and security will be of the utmost importance when working with women and girls in our programs. VOICE will ensure a secure platform is available for women and girls in our network for our online digital access, including for our digital ID program efforts. We will work with values aligned providers that are heavily vetted based on criteria we define with our network partners rather than making the solutions solely dependent on one provider or one system or adversely put women and girls at risk with the design.
How does your solution account for low connectivity environments and for users with low literacy and numeracy levels?
While there are new opportunities coming through for collective social impact work in the era of blockchain, the voices of women and girls must help drive these changes. With varied access to technology, wifi access and literacy rates in some locations certain technology applications will not work for women/girls unless we make sure that they have platforms to engage and have non-tokenistic opportunities to meaningfully connect and inform solutions.
VOICE’s programming regularly includes remote connectivity in countries and regions with low connectivity and women and girls in VOICE programs do experience low literacy and numeracy levels. In our programs low literacy and numeracy levels will be addressed through training and support from VOICE partners. Women and girls will also be supported with tech training and access to devices to engage in the network being designed in partnership with and developed for them. Low connectivity environments will be addressed on a case by case basis, with infrastructure improvements when they are low cost and can be addressed quickly, and VOICE will also use mobile hotspots to address access issues for women and girls in low connectivity environments.
While we know that we are more likely to have effective, efficient and durable humanitarian responses when women are given a seat at decision-making tables, we sadly still live in a world where the humanitarian system still largely sidelines women and girls and the organizations that they lead.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
Through research and innovative technology, VOICE amplifies locally driven, sustainable and evidence-based solutions from some of the most challenging conflicts and disaster-prone areas of the world. We are currently supporting over 400 women- and girl-led organizations, thus reaching over 1,000. In year one we expect this number to increase significantly and within five years, we expect that we will be reaching at least 5,000 women- and girl-led organizations and frontline women practitioners. If each of at least 1,000 organizations were benefiting from our support in some way, we would be reaching at least 30,000.
But this is a low estimate, because once we start making sure that our network is informing blockchain developments in relation to identification in low-resource settings, our reach will be well into the millions given the vast number of refugee and displaced individuals and families around the world.
VOICE’s team of experts, who collectively have over 150 years of experience working in some of the most intense natural and human made disasters and conflicts around the world, will work directly with local women and girl leaders to drive this action. Our work will be guided by women- and girl-led organizations, and women and girls themselves.
VOICE is standing beside a deep network of women and girl-led organizations/activists on this issue, working toward a world where women and girls are respected leaders in designing/implementing solutions to eradicate violence and are capable of achieving greater levels of economic empowerment.
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
Within the VOICE network we will identify a cohort of women and girls from low-income crisis affected settings whom we will make sure are very informed about a variety of digital technologies, including blockchain. Starting will thousands and extending into millions will be a 5 year goal.On an on-going basis we will work with our co-hort to identify ways to advance their influence and to be part of key design, thought-partnering and decision-making consultations and events to make sure that emerging digital technologies, such as blockchain for increased access to identification decisions that will impact them directly are informed by their lived experiences and what is feasible from a low-tech to no tech and low literacy and numeracy reality.
The goal of reaching millions of women and girls through this project will be a key focus of our work. Starting with the right partnerships to advance this effort to scale, we will advance our efforts greatly and allow for replication of our work across all of the countries we serve and intend to serve.
What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?
The concept of blockchain and digital technologies may be especially uncomfortable with individuals and groups who have had few to zero opportunities to own or access their own identity formally. In many countries where VOICE works, many women are still dependent on men in their lives to allow them to hold an identity card or to register the birth of their child. Even more, many of the women and girls we serve are survivors of state-wide persecution and severe monitoring by people who wish to keep them from making progress on women’s rights. Women and girls who have had access to digital technologies often face active exclusion that occurs uniquely to them due to online harassment and abuse.
Backlash against women’s rights defenders is significant and our work with women- and girl-led groups reveals that COVID-19 has only amplified these risks both in person and virtually.
GIven the nature of our work, VOICE has significant safety and security protocols in place to guide our current remote/virtual support to women- and girl-led organizations. Smartphone and overall tech access is limited, especially for women and girls in many situations. If there is a phone, women and girls may not have access to it or control over it. Acceptability for women in tech will be an issue VOICE is conscious of and will focus on solving. It is only natural that the feminst warriors that we work with might be sceptical of technologies that they do not have sufficient opportunities to influence.
How do you plan to overcome these barriers?
In recognition of the gender divide in digital access that excludes women and girls, VOICE will address the active exclusion of women and girls and their organizations that occurs due to limited access to literacy and information technology. In particular, VOICE will tackle the online harassment and abuse of women and girls, which further restricts their use of technology–particularly social media–and how this is changing in light of COVID-19. This will involve the identification of various tech and non-tech solutions for connecting with these groups and sharing up-to-date and essential information to women and girls on COVID-19 and VAWG.
Whatever solutions are developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will further advance the already existing networks of women- and girl-led organizations. These will provide new resources and modalities to help them broaden their sphere of influence and ultimately meet their goals, missions, and visions for a world where women and girls are safer, healthier, and free from violence.
Forming and activating non-traditional partnerships is also a critical component to all aspects of VOICE’s work. Developing private sector partnerships with a focus on women-led/owned technology and management consulting firms to generate tech and non-tech solutions in partnership with VOICE and our network how we work.
Exploring partnerships with groups such as Women in Blockchain, Women Who Invest in Women etc. to strategically develop digital technologies, including blockchain for identity access will be essential to our efforts.
What type of organization is your solution team?
If you selected Other, please explain here.
Executive Director: Provide oversight, build out solutions along with the Team to establish goals and outcomes.
Operations/Partnerships Manager: Provide technical leadership on project design/implementation; ensure global best practices.
Head of Technology/Innovation: Manage the identification/development of technologies. Define and execute a program to bring technologies/partners to VOICE.
Research Coordinator: Manage and project-related administrative duties/timelines; co-create environments that are inviting to diverse feminist perspectives.
Movement Building Leader: Design/implement programs for feminist movement building with women- and girl-led organizationst; develop technical tools for program support.
Monitoring, Evaluation/Learning Lead: Examines ongoing progress/implementation of the project.
How many people work on your solution team?
Solutions Team-6 members
Executive Director: Full-time employee
Operations/Partnerships Manager: Full-time employee
Head of Technology/Innovation: Part-time employee
Research Coordinator: Full-time employee
Movement Building Leader: Full-time employee
Monitoring, Evaluation/Learning Lead: Part-time employee
How long have you been working on your solution?
VOICE has been working on solutions focused work to issues of violence against women and girls globally for 2 years as an organization. This idea has been an ongoing issue with our scope of work and continuously arises as a significant hindrance for women and girls to achieve independence effectively. The VOICE expert team working on this solution includes over 150 years of experience working in some of the most insecure environments in the world on women’s rights issues.
Why are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
VOICE works on crisis preparedness in conflict/disaster settings to promote equality, create leadership opportunities, and eradicate violence. The VOICE co-founders alone, bring over 40+ years of professional experience working in countries throughout the world as experts on violence against women and girls in conflicts, disasters and development settings. They both have significant experience in shaping UN/donor policies; raising millions of dollars; defining cutting-edge interventions; and driving UN entities, NGOs and research groups to develop innovative tools. The vast majority of VOICE’s work has taken place in fragile and conflict-affected countries.
VOICE has a proven track record of holding the humanitarian sector accountable for its promise to protect women and girls in humanitarian settings. Among other things, VOICE has raised the alarm bell on shortfalls in funding for GBV in emergencies; VOICE has advocated in mainstream news to amplify the voices of over 600 women humanitarian workers on the harassment they face in the sector; and VOICE has deployed teams to improve interventions and accountability to women and girls in humanitarian settings with high refugee case-loads.
Considering the recent COVID-19 reality, VOICE is supporting women-led organizations in countries in over fourteen countries. VOICE is expanding these efforts by hosting virtual learning sessions, facilitating network building, implementing capacity-sharing workshops, and defining a partnership model that centralizes women’s rights organizations – all while documenting the impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls in emergency settings.
What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?
VOICE is currently supporting over 400 women- and girl-led organizations, in conflict-affected areas within regional- and country-level networks, where they benefit from connection, collaboration, shared learnings and resources, and collective advocacy.
Key partners include: the Equality Institute, UNICEF, UN Women, the International Rescue Committee, Humanitarian 2 Humanitarian, RedR UK, the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria.
What is your business model?
VOICE is creating a global network of women and girl leaders, while supporting existing ones, to transform outdated humanitarian responses and build innovative solutions. VOICE is partnering with and mobilizing women and girl-led organizations to help aid agencies do better. We are creating a unique model to help these groups break free from the current hierarchical and restrictive system that does not value local knowledge, especially the lived and expert knowledge of women and girls.
To succeed, VOICE must help challenge powerful institutions’ assumptions about working with women- and girl-led organizations. We will do so by increasing opportunities for understanding and communication between the two. VOICE is leveraging its experience with both sides––understanding the complex humanitarian and peace-building industry system, approaches and processes, as well as the perspectives and methods of local groups––to bridge the gap, facilitate dialogue, and establish mutually beneficial collaboration. Through research and innovative technology, we amplify locally driven, sustainable and evidence-based solutions from some of the most challenging conflicts and disaster-prone areas of the world. When combined with tool development and capacity building of both humanitarian actors/donor agencies and women- and girl-led organizations, this will result in greater direct resourcing of these organizations and their solutions to addressing VAWG. These efforts will also lead to long-term gains in furthering gender equality.(1)
(1) Global Women’s Institute and International Refugee Committee (2016). Evidence brief: What works to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in conflict and humanitarian settings?
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, or to other organizations?
What is your path to financial sustainability?
VOICE is building financial sustainability in a manner that combines grants, donations, fee for services models and raising investment capital. Early funding has allowed VOICE to quickly scale toward being a $3million organization during the start-up phase, while looking to triple it’s capacity in the next 5 years. VOICE’s approach is unique and innovative, but the work however is not, humanitarian organizations have been failing women and girls for decades in disaster-prone areas and conflict-challenged regions for decades and the existence of violence against women and girls in these regions remain at an all time high. VOICE’s funding model creates an opportunity for foundation and governmental funding to build and sustain key programming, while fee for service, individual donations, and investment capital can begin to support the long-term vision for growth. VOICE will remain open to seeking funding sources that align with mission, support those we serve and create opportunities to build the agency internally and externally in regions we serve.
If you have raised funds for your solution or are generating revenue, please provide details.
VOICE is starting the fundraising process for this solution at this time.
If you seek to raise funds for your solution, please provide details.
VOICE is working toward sustaining a $3 million budget within 3 years and a $10 million budget in 5 years to amplify locally driven, sustainable and evidence-based solutions from some of the most challenging conflicts and disaster-prone areas of the world. VOICE has received and is pursuing funding from multiple sources including foundation and governmental funding, donations, investment capital and fee for services models.
What are your estimated expenses for 2020?
VOICE 2020 Budget
Program Support: $750,000
Administration: $150,000
Equipment and Supplies: $50,000
Why are you applying to the Mission Billion Challenge Global Prize?
VOICE is applying to the Mission Billion Challenge Global Prize because we believe that our approach to crisis preparedness in conflict/disaster settings to promote equality, create leadership opportunities, and eradicate violence is unlike any other seen before, with industry-leading innovation that specifically takes the voices of women and girls into account. Access to digital technology has become essential for full participation in the modern economy, yet there is a gender divide in digital access that excludes women––limiting their potential, and undermining gains made in gender equality in recent decades. When women have access to technology, their freedom to engage fully with the opportunities it affords can be limited, and can often mean that they are at increased risk of abuse and exploitation. The root cause issue of violence against women and girls creates many long-term problems, in which VOICE addresses head on.
When women have access to technology, their freedom to engage fully with the opportunities it affords can be limited and can often mean that they are at increased risk of abuse and exploitation.
It is time that this reality is given space on the World Bank/IMF stage. We need partners in this space, but an organization like VOICE that exists to support women- and girl-led organizations maximize their potential, needs to be in the lead to support the voices of women and girls to be heard and to lead the change that is needed.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?
VOICE is looking to engage in private sector partnerships with a focus on women-led/owned technology and management consulting firms to support with pro-bono initiatives to generate tech and non-tech solutions to the connectivity challenges as well as creative content-creation.
We are looking towards high-level partnerships like with the African Union Task Force on COVID-19, to strategically amplify the voices of women and girls, and elevate their needs in new ways as well as to reach organizations that women and girls lead.
In recognition of the gender divide in digital access that excludes women and girls, VOICE will address the active exclusion of women and girls and their organizations that occurs due to limited access to literacy and information technology. In particular, VOICE will tackle the online harassment and abuse of women and girls, which further restricts their use of technology–particularly social media–and how this is changing in light of COVID-19 and we are looking for partners to help us do this (Girls Who Code, might be a partner in this space for VOICE). This will involve the identification of various tech and non-tech solutions for connecting with these groups and sharing up-to-date and essential information to women and girls on COVID-19 and VAWG. This will be based on consultations with a range of different groups and organizations to identify needs, including access to technology and preferences for the global platform to be created. Potential partners might include, Re-coded, Ionixxtech, Verizon, Microsoft, Slack Consensys, Zain, etc.
Please explain in more detail here.
VOICE's focus will be on identifying innovative organizations and companies that we can work with in different parts of the world given our focus on building local to global that align with VOICE’s mission and seek to make bold and lasting change.
Solution Team
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Mendy Marsh Executive Director, VOICE
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Solution Name:
VOICE Global Sovereignty for Women/Girls