Impact Stories

• 

  Fellow(s): Saida Yusupova, Elena Selezneva

  Country: Uzbekistan

  Region: CSA

  Cohort: 2016

  Project/Action: Fellows establish Uzbekistan’s first green tech accelerator

  Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth

  Recently, 2016 fellows Saida Yusupova and Elena Selezneva organized
  Uzbekistan’s first green startup accelerator program. The accelerator,
  Water Solutions Innovation Lab, was established for green business
  startups that are working to advance green technologies and solve water
  challenges.
  The accelerator was implemented by Saida’s company, Green Business
  Innovation, and founded with a mission to create awareness about
  environmental challenges and bring the latest innovative technologies to
  the agricultural and environmental sectors within the country. Earlier this
  year, the innovation lab accepted 12 startups into an intensive six month
  program, and became the first Uzbek program to partner with
  ClimateLaunchpad, the world’s largest green business ideas competition.
  During the program, ClimateLaunchpad’s founder and lead trainer
  traveled to Uzbekistan to conduct a two-day bootcamp for participating startups.
  The program culminated with a Demo Day in August, held in partnership with ClimateLaunchpad, where the teams pitched a group of judges and local investors. The two winning startups were invited to the ClimateLaunchpad Grand Finale in Amsterdam, which will be held in November. VIOM, the team that won first place, consists of two women who are producing water-soluble and biodegradable products for agricultural applications.

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  Report Date: 9/2/19

• 

  Fellow(s): Afnan Saqr, Janet Leparteleg

  Country: Jordan, Kenya

  Region: MENA, SSA

  Cohort: 2015, 2017

  Project/Action: Fellows win Chevening scholarship

  Policy Area(s): Professional Growth

  This week, it was announced that 2015 fellow of Jordan Afnan Saqr and 2017 fellow of Kenya Janet Leparteleg are recipients of the Chevening Scholarship. With over 50,000 alumni worldwide, the program awards global leaders fully-funded scholarships to pursue a one-year master’s degree at a UK-based institution.
  Afnan is one of 15 Jordanians selected out of the 750 applications that were submitted from the country. She will be studying innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Warwick, one of the UK’s top 10 universities. Janet will be pursuing a master’s in cybersecurity at Lancaster University. During TechWomen, Janet was hosted at Symantec, a cybersecurity software company. “My time at Symantec during TechWomen shaped my career path a lot,” said Janet. “There, I had time to meet and talk with people in the cybersecurity field, and their insights changed my thinking and enabled me to plan well for my career.”

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  Report Date: 9/2/19