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Draft: 14 November 2018

Programme Document

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents ...................................................................................... 1

1. Abbreviations and Acronyms .................................................................. 2

2. Background ....................................................................................... 3

3. Women Empowerment in Science, Technology and Innovation ........................... 4

4. Partners ........................................................................................... 5

5. Objectives of the Challenge ..................................................................... 6

6. Thematic Focus and Participation ............................................................. 7

7. Timeline ........................................................................................... 7

8. Key Stakeholders ................................................................................. 9

9. Benefits to the Entrepreneurs/ Innovators ................................................. 12

10. Sustainability of the Challenge ............................................................. 12

11. Finance Personnel............................................................................ 13

12. References .................................................................................... 14

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1. Abbreviations and Acronyms

ICT Information and Communication Technology

MSME Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

NCRST National Commission on Research, Science and Technology

NDP-5 5th National Development Plan

NPRSTI National Programme on Research, Science, Technology and Innovation

NYEP National Youth Enterprise Promotion

RST Research, Science and Technology

SADC Southern Africa Development Community

SAIS Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme

SDG Sustainable Development Goal

STI Science, Technology and Innovation

TRL Technology Readiness Level

UN United Nations

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2. Background

For generations, women have been disadvantaged with regards to many spheres of life; from

politics, economics and education. While some parts of the world have made significant

strides in narrowing this gender gap, significant disparities are still conspicuous, especially

in the global south region of the world.

Goal No. 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs on Gender Equality clearly states:

“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (UNDP, 2015). Similarly, SDG-

9 is on promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization through fostering innovation.

At the moment, there are platforms which are sorely dedicated to empowering women,

including UN Women, a branch of the United Nations dedicated to dealing with women

affairs around the world. Notably, there is also a platform called Technovation, which

promote innovation in women and girls by offering girls around the world the opportunity

to learn the necessary skills to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders.

In terms of the African aspirations as outlined in Agenda 2063, one of the aspirations

indicated is “the desire for shared prosperity and well-being, for unity and integration, for a

continent of free citizens and expanded horizons, where the full potential of women and

youth, boys and girls are realized, and with freedom from fear, disease and want”

(Commission, 2014). The ultimate goal is that Africa has empowered women to play their

rightful role in all spheres of life specifically as the path breakers of the African knowledge

society, contributing significantly to innovation and entrepreneurship.

In same vein, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has expressed its

commitment to the empowerment of women and girls in its Protocol on gender and

development (SADC, 2008). The very first objective of the protocol is ‘to provide for the

empowerment of women, to eliminate discrimination and to achieve gender equality and

equity through the development and implementation of gender responsive legislation,

policies, programmes and projects. Related to that, the SADC protocol on Science,

Technology and Innovation (STI) calls for the gender equity and equality in STI.

Through its 5th National Development Plan (NDP-5) Namibia aims to ensure financial

inclusion for women in MSME, especially in agri-business, blue economy and extractive

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industries, and ensure that women, who form over 60% of the informal sector, are integrated

into the formal economy and receive targeted interventions (NPC, 2017). Moreover,

Namibia’s gender policy specifically aims to ensure gender equality and empowerment of

girls and women empowerment, and mobilise communities towards economic

empowerment and skills development (MGECW, 2010).

Despite all the good intentions in terms of women empowerment and participation the

mainstream economy, currently only 30% of professionals in science and technology

worldwide are women (UN-Women, 2018). In Namibia the female unemployment rate stood

at 38% compared to 29% for men in 2016 (NSA, 2016).

3. Women Empowerment in Science, Technology and Innovation

The National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST) is a State-Owned

enterprise established under Research, Science and Technology (RST), 2004 (Act, no 23 of

2004) The NCRST is tasked to coordinate, develop and promote Research, Science,

Technology and Innovation in Namibia.

As part of this mandate, the NCRST has implemented several innovation support

programmes, including the Innovation Fostering Platform, Technology Stations Programme

and FemBioBiz, a business acceleration programme that is targeted towards women in the

Biosciences. The NCRST also serves as the national focal coordinating agency to the

International and regional innovation support programmes such as the Southern Africa

Innovation Support Programme (SAIS) and DEMOLA.

The NCRST in collaboration with GIZ and HIVOS intends to enhance RSTI contribution

toward industrialization in the country by running a National Innovation Challenge for

Women/ FemBioBiz III Programme in all 14 regions. This challenge intends to reach seventy-

five ( 75) participants and priority will be given to products and services with high socio-

economic impact targeting female students or business in Agri-food, Nutrition, Health,

ICT/tech, Waste (upcycling), Cosmetics and Better agriculture services.

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The NCRST has in the past run two successful FemBioBiz Programmes. A number of

innovators with innovations at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3-8 were afforded

intensive training. Some of these innovators have taken their products and services to

market. In line with the positive outcome of the previous Programmes, the NCRST and

partners intends to have a bigger challenge reaching a target number of 75 women.

Development of an RSTI ecosystem requires providing innovators and entrepreneurs with

access to funding, access to markets, and integration into local and global supply chains.

Other key elements required to foster innovation include the provision of business

incubation services and mentorship, business skills development services, and training. This

challenge would involvement of more stakeholders in the RSTI ecosystem to achieve the

requirement outlined above.

Due to the myriad of needs that are required to close the innovation chasm, effective

coordination and harmonisation is required to ensure that individual institutional efforts into

entrepreneurship development are done as a national effort which will ultimately yield

better results and have a greater impact. It is essential for NCRST, as a national coordinating

agency for innovation, to work with people, companies and partner organisations such as

GIZ and HIVOS, to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the

Namibian economy – delivering productivity, new jobs and value-added products and

exports. Hence, the National Innovation Challenge for Women/ FemBioBiz III Programme.

4. Partners

GIZ

GIZ supports initiatives that improve access to finance for small businesses. Access to finance

is a key constraint for businesses, especially MSMEs. To improve access for Namibian

enterprises, a number of reforms and specific measures are foreseen in the Namibia Financial

Sector Strategy (NFSS). To support these efforts, the Promotion of Business and

Transformational Services (ProBATS) is cooperating with the Bank of Namibia, the Namibian

Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA), the Development Bank of

Namibia and others in adapting regulations, as well as setting up new financing instruments,

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such as venture capital, and a credit guarantee schemes. With support from GIZ, NCRST will

be able to train up to 75 Women in Business Canvas Model, Financial Management,

Intellectual Property, Legal and Human Resources as well as Pitching. Motivational talks

with previous participants to the programme will form part of the training programme.

HIVOS

Since 2015, as part of the Youth and Gender Mainstreaming activities, NEPAD SANBio with

support from the Finnish-Southern Africa Partnership Programme to Strengthen

NEPAD/SANBio (BioFISA) initiated the FemBioBiz Season I, II Programme to support

women entrepreneurs in biosciences. FemBioBiz III Programme will be implemented in

collaboration with Hivos, an international NGO that has been working on gender inclusion

and entrepreneurship support for over 50 years (including setting up over 100+ co-working

spaces, supporting CSOs, implementing microfinance and SME finance since the 1980s.

HIVOS aim to support the National Innovation Challenge for Women / FemBioBiz III

Programme in order to create a network of women bioentrepreneurs in the region, provide

support to the entrepreneurs for acceleration of their businesses, and by so doing, create

awareness for women on the potential careers in the biosciences sector. National Innovation

Challenge for Women / FemBioBiz Season III will be coordinated in three phases over a

period April 2019 to October 2019.

5. Objectives of the Challenge

The main objective of this innovation challenge is to build capacity of the Namibian women

innovators and entrepreneurs and accelerate their innovations into businesses that can have

immediate economic and social impact.

The specific objectives of the challenge are to:

• By end of 2019, the National Innovation Challenge for Women / FemBioBiz

Season III Programme (phase 3) has significantly contributed to the visibility of

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and opportunity for (young) women in Agri-food, Nutrition, Health, ICT/tech,

Waste (upcycling), Cosmetics and Better agriculture services in Namibia and

Southern Africa.

• By end of 2019, the National Innovation Challenge for Women / FemBioBiz

Season III Programme (phase 3) and its network have significantly contributed to

the capacity-level (business and technical skills) and investment-readiness of

women-led businesses in the Agri-food, Nutrition, Health, ICT/tech, Waste

(upcycling), Cosmetics and Better agriculture services in Namibia and Southern

Africa.

• By end of 2019, the National Innovation Challenge for Women / FemBioBiz

Season III Programme (phase 3) has significantly contributed to the

entrepreneurship ecosystem in Southern Africa (including access to finance,

knowledge and enabling policies/ government involvement) business

ecosystems and regional and international networks tailored for female

entrepreneurs

6. Thematic Focus and Participation

For FemBioBiz II programme, the programme only benefited 23 participants in Phase 1, 15

participants in Phase 2 and 4 Participants in Phase 3. The current Programme is targeted at

75 participants for Phase 1, 48 participants for Phase 2 and 8 Participants for Phase 3.

FemBioBiz II programme was focused on businesses in the thematic areas of Health and

Nutrition. The new programme is expanded to 7 thematic areas namely

1. Agri-food

2. Nutrition

3. Health

4. ICT/tech

5. Waste (upcycling)

6. Cosmetics

7. Better agriculture services

7. Timeline

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The innovation challenge is expected to be implemented over 10 months, from March to

December 2019.

Phase 1:

• Three trainings for 25 participants per training, two in Windhoek and one in the

regions (subjected to the location of applications):

• Phase 1, entailing a 4-day (May/June 2019) Business Model Canvas and Pitch

training.

Phase 2:

• Two trainings 24 participants per training both in Windhoek, each training will be

divided into Bootcamp 1 and 2 trainings respectively;

• The Phase 2 workshop is planned for June 2019, starting with a 4-day Bootcamp 1

training focusing on business strategy, marketing and financial training as well as

pitch preparation and exercises. The Bootcamp 2 training will take place in July 2019,

focusing on areas such as intellectual property (IP), legal and human resources. A 1-

day pitch competition will take place after Bootcamp 2 training to select the in-

country (national) winners.

Phase 3:

• The national winners will compete in the regional competition and other

international competitions yet to be confirmed.

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8. Key Stakeholders

Due to its coordination function, the NCRST identified key stakeholders to participate in the

National Innovation Challenge for Women/ FemBioBiz III Programme. All these

stakeholders form part of the innovation ecosystem and have one or another interest in

gender mainstreaming, women’s development, economic advancement, or enterprise

development.

These are as follows:

Stakeholder Organizational Function / Strategy Proposed role in (contribution to) National Innovation Challenge for Women/ FemBioBiz III Programme for women

Bank Windhoek

Aims to:

• support and develop entrepreneurship skills

• support job creation initiatives

Add winners and/or runner ups to business funding pipeline

Standard Bank Within its SME Division, STANDARD BANK caters to SMEs with a turnover of 0-10Mil N$.

Add winners and/or runner ups to business funding pipeline

Business and Intellectual Property Authority (BIPA)

Administration and protection of business and intellectual property

Intellectual property protection training

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Business registration advice

City of Windhoek

SME Development and Promotion in the City of Windhoek

Training;

Business incubation services as a prize

Development Bank of Namibia (DBN)

Provides financing for SMEs, large enterprises and infrastructure that promotes Namibia’s economic development

Add winners and/or runner ups to business funding pipeline

Ministry of Gender Equality & Child Welfare

Ensure gender equality and empowerment of girls and women;

Mobilise communities towards economic empowerment and skills development

Advocacy and promotion of programme

Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and SME Development

Responsible for the strategy for executing the Industrial Policy, known as ‘Growth at Home’ through 3 key intervention areas namely, supporting value addition in production, securing market access and improving the investment climate

Equipment prize through Equipment Aid Scheme (Manufacturing track)

Namibia Business and Innovation Institute

Supports innovation, entrepreneurship and social upliftment through exploring, researching and developing ideas, bridging the technological divide, and incubating sustainable businesses

Training of innovators

Incubation space for national winners & runner ups

Nedbank

Supports innovation Add winners and/or runner ups to business funding pipeline

One Economy Foundation

Facilitates ONE Nation Fund collateral free lending

Mentorship

Add winners and/or runner ups to funding pipeline

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SME’s Compete Namibia

Helps Namibian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) grow business, create wealth and generate employment.

Training in Basic Human Resources

Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme (SAIS)

Supports the growth of new businesses through strengthened innovation ecosystems and cross-border cooperation.

Fund networking engagements and pitches at innovation functions e.g. SA Innovation Summit; SLUSH, Finland

Southern Africa Network for Biosciences (SANBio)

Shared biosciences research, development and innovation platform for working collaboratively to address some of Southern Africa's key biosciences issues in health, nutrition and health-related intervention areas such as agriculture and environment.

Co-funding of Biosciences category (FemBioBiz 3)

Telecom Namibia

Leader in ICT innovation Sponsor ICT related prizes to ICT category winners

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Since 2000, UNDP, together with our UN partners and the rest of the global community, has made gender equality central to our work.

Social outreach partner (winners

raise awareness on gender equality as part of T’s and C’s)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

UNFPA’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017 calls for “increased adaptability through innovation, partnership, and communications” as central to strengthening organizational effectiveness and efficiency. In 2013, UNFPA adopted “promoting innovation and creativity” as a corporate priority.

Social outreach partner (winners

raise awareness on GBV as part of T’s and C’s)

Women’s Action for Development

Socio-economic and socio-political empowerment of rural women and men.

Advocacy and promotion of the programme

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Apart from the roles outlined above, the stakeholders will also serve on the adjudication

panels at various stages during the innovation challenge.

9. Benefits to the Entrepreneurs/ Innovators

The National Innovation Challenge for Women/ FemBioBiz III Programme for women has

the potential of reaching many female innovators in all the 14 regions of the country.

Innovators who participate in this challenge have a chance to be exposed to different types

of capacity building initiatives on how to manage their business and how to financially plan

amongst others. They will also gain skills in the elevator’s pitch and the investor pitches.

With the learnings from this Challenge, innovators will be better equipped to participate in

other national, regional or international business innovation initiatives and competitions and

be able to kick-start their enterprises.

The programme is tailored as a capacity building and business acceleration initiative, in as

much as it is also a competition. At least 75 participants will be trained on business

development and management principles. The winners of the challenge will receive prizes

in the form of vouchers dedicated for the specific immediate needs of their business.

Nobody really loses in this Challenge as all participants will receive a variety of trainings on

business development concepts and principles. Participants will also receive advise on their

business model and this will aid in creating a positive momentum toward the attainment of

the national goals as set out by NDP 5, the Growth at Home Strategy and the Harambee

Prosperity Plan with respect to the Youth Enterprise Development and overall

entrepreneurial development in the country. Regionally it will respond to the SADC

industrial strategy and road map of 2015 -2063.

10. Sustainability of the Challenge

The intention is for this challenge to run on an annual basis, depending on the funds that

each partner commits to the challenge. In terms of the NCRST, this programme will become

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part of the already existing Innovation Fostering Programme, specifically tying in with the

grassroots and inclusive innovations section of the programme. The services to be provided

in this Challenge is not only monetary but also include knowledge and technology transfer

and levelling out the road to market, thus facilitating the commercialisation process for

innovators.

11. Finance Personnel

Mr. Simon Nghipangwa, (t: +264 61 431 7000 (7078) | c: +264 811 623 572| f: +264 61 431 7094

e: SNghipangwa@ncrst.na) the current manager for the Corporate Finance division will be

the person to contact for finance matter. In his absence, Ms. Ester Ambondo (Accountant, t:

+264 61 431 7000 (7021) | c: | f: +264 61 431 7094, e: EAmbondo@ncrst.na ) and Ms. Mechtilde

Amalwa ( Fund Accountant, t: +264 61 431 7000 (7017) | c: | f: +264 61 431 7094, e:

MAmalwa@ncrst.na) can be contacted with regards to Finance matters.

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12. References

Commission, A. U. (2014). Agenda 2063 . Addis Ababa: African Union Commission.

MGECW. (2010). National Gender Policy. Windhoek: Ministry of Gender Equality and Child

Welfare.

NCRST. (2014). National Programme on Research, Science, Technology and Innovation .

Windhoek: National Commission on Research, Science and Technology.

NCSRT. (2018-2019). Strategic Plan. Windhoek: National Commission on Research, Science

and Technology.

NPC. (2017). Namibia’s 5th National Development Plan (NDP 5). Windhoek: NPC.

NSA. (2016). Namibia Labour Force Survey 2016. Windhoek: Namibia Statistics Agency.

NYC. (2004). Youth Enterprise Promotion Policy. Windhoek: NATIONAL YOUTH COUNCIL

(NAMIBIA).

OPM. (2016). Harambee Prosperity Plan. Windhoek: Government of the Republic of Namibia.

SADC. (2008). SADC protocol on Science, Technology and Innovation. Gaborone: SADC.

UNDP. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals Booklet. New York: UNDP.

Women, U. (2018, February 14). Women and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Retrieved from UN Women: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-

focus/women-and-the-sdgs

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