Bangkok ‒ The IIX-N-Peace Innovation Challenge 2015 is now open for applications to encourage Impact Enterprises (IEs) to show how they are building peace through market-based solutions for development challenges. Six IEs will win the Challenge and get a chance to showcase their work at a special UNDP-hosted event in New York.
Starting with six countries this year - Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines, the IIX-N-Peace Innovation Challenge is a platform for existing Impact Enterprises (IEs) to showcase how their business and social impact are creating sustainable and inclusive peace. IEs include mission-driven social enterprises, SMEs with positive social impact, and non-profits that generate revenue.
The Challenge invites IEs to showcase their impact based on any of the three focus areas - empowering women, engaging the youth, and catalyzing innovation and technology for peacebuilding.
“Innovative technologies that allow us to easily interact with people worldwide and give voice to the marginalized, such as women and youth, offer us unprecedented opportunities to build and spread lasting peace across the world,” said Ms. Caitlin Wiesen-Antin, Chief of Regional Policy and Programme, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP initiated N-Peace Network, a multi-country network of peace advocates in Asia that supports women’s leadership for conflict prevention, resolution, and peacebuilding.
"By empowering women and youth to participate and lead in peace building, we can rapidly transform communities, intensify the drive for peace and strengthen a country's resilience to conflict," Ms. Wiesen-Antin added.
"Impact Enterprises are the perfect fit in the nexus of peacebuilding and impact investment. Many such enterprises already have their social impact aligned with critical development agendas such as health, education, and financial inclusion, and they are well-poised to scale transformative peace through their work," said Durreen Shahnaz, Founder and Chairwoman of Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), a leading organization in the global impact investing space whose mission is to impact 100 million lives by 2020 by linking development with finance.
Winning IEs will potentially have the opportunity to join IIX's Impact Partners - Asia's largest private placement platform of over 400 Impact Investors - and be equipped with investment readiness support and tailored mentorship to help them raise capital and reach the next stage of growth.
IEs operating in or that have an impact in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines are most welcome to apply. Applications will close on 18 September 2015, Friday.
About the IIX-N-Peace-Innovation Challenge
The IIX-N-¬Peace Innovation Challenge 2015 is an Impact Enterprise (IE) competition that aims to accelerate Asia’s inclusive peacebuilding agenda by identifying and supporting IEs working to empower women, engage youth, and catalyze innovation and technology in a scalable and sustainable way. Starting with six countries this year - Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines, the Challenge is a platform for existing mission-driven social enterprises, SMEs with positive social impact, and non-profits that generate revenue to showcase the positive impact they are creating to transform lives and magnify their ability to create sustainable and inclusive peace using market-based solutions. Six winners will be equipped with tools, networks and resources to deepen and scale their impact by providing them with tailored mentorship, impact assessment frameworks and intensive investment readiness services. The winners will be embraced as part of IIX’s community and connected with its network of +400 Impact Investors to help them raise capital to reach the next stage of growth. The IIX-N-Peace Innovation Challenge is a joint initiative by the N-Peace Network, an inclusive peacebuilding initiative that promotes women’s leadership for transformation, and Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), whose mission is to impact 100 million lives by 2020 by linking development with finance.
About UNDP
UNDP works in more than 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.
About N-Peace Network
N-Peace is a multi-country network of peace advocates in Asia seeking to advance Women, Peace & Security (WPS) issues. It supports women’s leadership for conflict prevention, resolution and peace building, and promotes the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, and related resolutions, at regional, national and community levels. N-Peace is currently active in Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and Afghanistan, and have also held activities in Timor-Leste and Sri Lanka. Our members represent civil society, government, non-government organizations, academia, United Nations agencies, religious groups and the media. N-Peace’s mission is to Engage for Peace, Equality, Access, Community and Empowerment. N-Peace was established in October 2010 by women peace advocates at a meeting held by the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Asia-Pacific Regional Centre to mark the ten-year anniversary of UNSCR 1325. Today, over 2400 practitioners are connected though this vibrant network.
About Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX)
IIX is a Singapore-based organization with a mission to provide Social Enterprises (SEs) in Asia greater access to investment capital, allowing them to more rapidly expand the impact of their activities. IIX now offers three investment platforms – Impact Accelerator™, Impact Partners™ and Impact Exchange™. Impact Accelerator™ provides seed-stage SEs with mentorship and private capital through a structured and customized process. Impact Partners™ connects accredited impact investors to selected growth-stage SEs who are looking to raise investment capital. Impact Exchange™, the world’s first social stock exchange operated by the Stock Exchange of Mauritius in collaboration with IIX, is a regulated stock exchange dedicated to listing and trading securities issued by mature SEs and other socially-driven organizations. To date, IIX has facilitated $11 million of investment impacting more than 8.2 million people across Asia with $19.5 million in social value created. IIX is based in Singapore. For more information, visit asiaiix.com and follow us on Twitter @asiaiix and Facebook at facebook.com/asiaiix.
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