Category: Georgette Tan

Project Inspire Announces New Prize for Early Submissions

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“Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World” announced an exciting addition to the award-winning, global, youth social entrepreneurship challenge, wherein applicants now stand the chance to win exclusive preliminary feedback for early submission of entries this year.

Up to 10 submissions will be reviewed by UN Women, Singapore Committee with detailed suggestions provided back to the candidates as to how their application could be improved. Applicants are then able to re-submit their application, adding an exciting element to the challenge.

To be eligible for this fantastic opportunity, applicants must submit their project proposal no later than Friday 22nd May, 2015. The winners of the Early-Application Incentive prize will be announced on Monday 25th May 2015. Their feedback will be communicated by June 1st, giving them a month to resubmit their application before the deadline.

“The early incentive prize draw is the perfect opportunity for Project Inspire applicants to place themselves ahead of the competition. Having sorted through over 1800 submissions in the last four years, Singapore Committee for UN Women’s expertise will allow the prize recipients a significant competitive advantage,” says Trina Liang-Lin, President, Singapore Committee for UN Women.

“The quality of the entries we’ve received each year has been remarkable. They are great examples of the kind of passion young people around the world have to drive change and improve the lives of disadvantaged women and girls,” said Georgette Tan, Group Head, Communications, Asia Pacific, MasterCard.

This year’s challenge welcomes back long-term and committed partners to women’s empowerment and social entrepreneurship: knowledge partner INSEAD: The Business School for the World; strategic partner Bain & Company; & supporting partner Hilton Worldwide.

Project Inspire celebrates 5 years of supporting social entrepreneurs impacting women and girls around the world

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Singapore Committee for UN Women and MasterCard announce the annual launch and call for submissions for Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World. Celebrating five years of supporting young social entrepreneurs around the world, 2015 promises to be an exciting year.

With over 1,800 ideas submitted from 72 countries around the world, Project Inspire is now a multi-award winning initiative and one of the most high profile CSR programs in the Asia Pacific region. This year’s challenge welcomes back long-term and committed partners to women’s empowerment and social entrepreneurship: knowledge partner INSEAD: The Business School for the World; strategic partner Bain & Company; & supporting partner Hilton WorldWide. Project Inspire 2015 also welcomes new supporting partner, Top3 Media.

Launched in 2011 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and the 25th anniversary of MasterCard in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, “Project Inspire: 5 minutes to change the world” is a global challenge that presents 18-35 year olds with a 5-minute platform to pitch their inspired idea to the world. With a US$25,000 Grand Prize and US$10,000 Runner-Up Prize on offer to make their idea a reality, Project Inspire 2015 will take on the theme of ‘Technology or Design for Economic Empowerment’. Applicants will be asked to demonstrate how they use design or technology as a tool in the work they are doing to enable and empower women economically throughout Asia, the Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

“Celebrating five years of Project Inspire is a milestone that I am incredibly proud of. The strong partnership with long standing partner and co-founders, MasterCard as well as the much welcomed support from INSEAD: The Business School for the World, Bain & Company, Hilton WorldWide and Top3 Media are a testament to how much the competition has grown, and continues to grow over the years,” says Trina Liang-Lin, President, Singapore Committee for UN Women. “The impact that we’ve seen since 2011 through the competition for women and girls around the world, has truly cemented Singapore as the perfect environment to profile and catapult young social entrepreneurs on a global stage.”

Georgette Tan, Group Head, Communications, Asia Pacific, MasterCard, adds, “It’s vital that more is done to empower and encourage women to break the glass ceiling in the traditionally male-dominated fields of technology and design. Careers in these fields afford women the opportunity to be financially self-sufficient and positively impact the world through their leadership and creativity. MasterCard is incredibly proud to partner with the Singapore Committee for UN Women and witness the impact Project Inspire has already had in just five years. We are committed to supporting women of all ages and look forward to helping cultivate the next generation of young social entrepreneurs around the world in 2015 and beyond”.

Applicants must submit a five-minute video detailing how the US$25,000 grant will be used to improve the lives of women and/or girls. The competition commenced on Wednesday, 25th February, 2015, and submissions can be made via the Project Inspire website; www.5minutestochangetheworld.org.

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, 1st July 2015. This year, Project Inspire will choose twenty semi-finalists to progress to a crowd-funding stage of the competition. From the semi-finalists, finalists will be chosen to attend the Grand Finals in Singapore where they will pitch their inspired idea to a panel of judges. The remaining semi-finalists stand a chance of winning a wild-card ticket to pitch their inspired idea at the Grand Finals in Singapore by securing the most amount of supporters during the crowd-funding stage of the competition. Winners are decided by a judging panel and will be announced at an event in Singapore on Friday, 13 November, 2015.

Study Reveal Surprisingly Different Levels of Well-Being for Women

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Women in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets tend to have more positive views of their own well-being when compared to their developed counterparts, according to the inaugural MasterCard Index of Well-Being being launched today.

The Index, based on a survey of 16 Asia Pacific markets, aims to measure the level of well-being among nations by examining the impact of wide-ranging factors such as work-life balance, cyber-crime and disease outbreak on respondents.

The research covered women’s attitudes towards five categories: Work and Finances, Safety from Threats, Personal and Work Satisfaction, Personal Well Being and Sense of Empowerment. The Index is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and 50 as neutral, and respondents’ thoughts on the six months ahead.

The spread of the overall Well-Being index values across the 16 Asia Pacific markets shows all of them above the neutral (50 point) mark bracketed by Myanmar (70.9) and Indonesia (70.0) on the high end and Japan (53.6) and South Korea (54.9) on the low end.

MasterCard Index of Womens Advancement

The seven developed markets featured on average lower scores (average of 58.9) than emerging markets (65.7). Women in the North East Asia cluster of Japan (53.6), Korea (54.9) and Taiwan (55.0) fell below the average for developed markets. On the emerging markets front, Malaysia (58.0) and Bangladesh (55.3) are visibly below the emerging market average.

“At first glance, the contrast in scores between developing and emerging markets seems to suggest that a higher standard of living may not necessarily translate to a higher sense of well-being as there are other influences involved such as cultural or psychological ones,” said Georgette Tan, group head, Communications, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard.

Women in developed Asia Pacific ranked marginally higher in only one component of the survey – ‘safety from threats’ – with a score of 57.0 compared to 55.2 for emerging markets.

Women in emerging markets score higher across all other components compared with their counterparts in more developed economies, with the greatest difference seen in the ‘satisfaction’ component (69.9 vs. 59.0) and ‘personal well-being’ (67.4 vs. 55.0).

Women in emerging markets are also clearly more optimistic about their work and finances including their outlook on regular income and employment. In comparison, women from developed markets appear to be in greater control when it comes to keeping up with their bills or saving for big purchases, possibly due to the better margins afforded by their higher incomes.

“What differentiates this research from other studies is the holistic view we’ve taken in understanding the factors that impact the level of well-being amongst women. As we look to enhance the role of women in society, our research provides a complementary view to economic data, ultimately helping us better gauge the progress that still needs to be made in this space,” Tan added.

Study Reveal Surprisingly Different Levels of Well-Being for Women

PRNEWS Leave a comment

Women in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets tend to have more positive views of their own well-being when compared to their developed counterparts, according to the inaugural MasterCard Index of Well-Being being launched today.

The Index, based on a survey of 16 Asia Pacific markets, aims to measure the level of well-being among nations by examining the impact of wide-ranging factors such as work-life balance, cyber-crime and disease outbreak on respondents.

The research covered women’s attitudes towards five categories: Work and Finances, Safety from Threats, Personal and Work Satisfaction, Personal Well Being and Sense of Empowerment. The Index is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and 50 as neutral, and respondents’ thoughts on the six months ahead.

The spread of the overall Well-Being index values across the 16 Asia Pacific markets shows all of them above the neutral (50 point) mark bracketed by Myanmar (70.9) and Indonesia (70.0) on the high end and Japan (53.6) and South Korea (54.9) on the low end.

MasterCard Index of Womens Advancement

The seven developed markets featured on average lower scores (average of 58.9) than emerging markets (65.7). Women in the North East Asia cluster of Japan (53.6), Korea (54.9) and Taiwan (55.0) fell below the average for developed markets. On the emerging markets front, Malaysia (58.0) and Bangladesh (55.3) are visibly below the emerging market average.

“At first glance, the contrast in scores between developing and emerging markets seems to suggest that a higher standard of living may not necessarily translate to a higher sense of well-being as there are other influences involved such as cultural or psychological ones,” said Georgette Tan, group head, Communications, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard.

Women in developed Asia Pacific ranked marginally higher in only one component of the survey – ‘safety from threats’ – with a score of 57.0 compared to 55.2 for emerging markets.

Women in emerging markets score higher across all other components compared with their counterparts in more developed economies, with the greatest difference seen in the ‘satisfaction’ component (69.9 vs. 59.0) and ‘personal well-being’ (67.4 vs. 55.0).

Women in emerging markets are also clearly more optimistic about their work and finances including their outlook on regular income and employment. In comparison, women from developed markets appear to be in greater control when it comes to keeping up with their bills or saving for big purchases, possibly due to the better margins afforded by their higher incomes.

“What differentiates this research from other studies is the holistic view we’ve taken in understanding the factors that impact the level of well-being amongst women. As we look to enhance the role of women in society, our research provides a complementary view to economic data, ultimately helping us better gauge the progress that still needs to be made in this space,” Tan added.