The Arab Women Organization announces the winners of the AWO FAO Competition on “Innovations to Empower Rural Women in the Arab Region through a Mobile Application- 2020 “

 Today, Wednesday, September 30, 2020, the Arab Women Organization (AWO) announced, at its headquarters located in Cairo, Egypt, the winners of the AWO FAO Competition on “Innovations to Empower Rural Women in the Arab Region through a Mobile Application- 2020 “, launched by (AO) in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) earlier this year.

Members of the jury committee witnessed the launching as well as representatives of partner organizations, and media reporters.

The General Director of the Arab Women Organization, Prof. Dr. Fadia Kiwan, said, "This competition came within a program aimed at improving the lives of rural women in the Arab region by reviewing the status of gender equality in the agricultural field and monitoring the obstacles and challenges that hinder achieving gender equality in rural communities in the Arab region.

In addition to FAO as a main partner, AWO cooperated with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO), in preparing for this competition which was launched last April to coincide with the International Day for Girls in Information and Communication Technology.

The target groups were ICT companies, small enterprises or startups, preferably led by young women developers, young Freelancer developers. In addition to Special Awards for girls under the age of 18.

The competition included three scopes:

First: Better management for crops and farms.

Second: Easy access to local markets.

Third: addressing the challenges facing rural women, which includes confronting natural disasters and social obstacles.

The submitted works were judged by a high-level committee consisting of Engineer Rouda Al Amir Ali, Program Officer at the International Telecommunication Union, Dr. Hoda Dahroug, Head of the Central Department for Community Development at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Eng. Ahmed Al-Thunaibat, Technical Officer in the Arab Administrative Development Organization and Ms. Amy Davidson as a representative of the FAO.

In order to evaluate the submitted works, AWO designed an electronic application, and the results came according to a high- level criteria were carefully developed for this competition, included the originality of innovation, the ease of use as well as the design and technical aspects.

The results of the competition were as follows:

First –Individuals and companies:

The Golden prize went to Tebian Muhammad Al-Tayeb Abdel-Qader from Sudan for application (it). Its idea was about providing legal, educational, medical and social services to rural women.

The silver prize went to Maryam Abdul-Rahman Al-Nuaimia and Meera Suleiman Al-Ezzaniya from the Sultanate of Oman and Inas Shadoul Mohamed from Sudan for application (Shatla), which has a voice feature to support rural women who are unable to read.

The bronze prize went to Mary Elian Abboud, Gina Fayyad and Centia Youhanna from Lebanon for (Montana) application, which establishes a platform that brings together all interested women and allows them to be linked with the consumer who can compare products and prices.

Second - Girls under the age of 18:

Wafa Hassan Al-Hayek and Dina Laith Al-Duwairi from Jordan won for the "Bayt Al-Sha'r" application that consists of three interfaces to benefit female employees, local business owners and customers.