WorldWISE is a global storytelling initiative that aims to elevate women social entrepreneurs by telling their stories of impact.  Its two main goals are:
Within the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, most organizations allocate funding and support toward projects that scale out – initiatives that span wide regions and accrue large revenues. Frameworks for measuring the impact of projects that change laws and policies and shift mindsets, patterns of behavior, and social norms – impact we call “scaling up” and “scaling deep” – have not been developed within the sector. This is particularly detrimental to women, as female innovators are consistently found to scale up and deep in addition to scaling out in their work.
Through interviews conducted with over 200 female social entrepreneurs from across the globe, the WorldWISE project will raise awareness about the power of women innovators and the impact they lead. In this way, we will advance these ideas, expanding definitions of changemaking and recruiting more women and girls to our movement.
The focus of this project is to explore how women uniquely “scale up,” changing laws and policies and “scale deep,” shifting cultures, values, mindsets, and beliefs.Â
The WorldWISE storytelling initiative itself draws on such scaling deep strategies. Storytelling has a long and powerful history within the social sector – as a means for inspiring, educating, and challenging pre-existing narratives within the social innovation ecosystem. Ashoka has also frequently used storytelling as a tool for shifting dialogues and changing mindsets. The WorldWISE Storytelling Project aims to build on this tradition, creating a digital space for previously untold stories of women innovators scaling up and scaling deep to be shared.Â
The Women’s Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship (WISE) is a global framework for shifting current gendered definitions of success within the social entrepreneurship sector. By redefining success, we aim to better enable an EACH (Everyone A Changemaker) world, empowering women and girls as leaders and changemakers.
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Led by Ashoka Arab World’s Regional Director and Vice President of Ashoka Global, Iman Bibars, WISE is a global initiative born out of an international gathering of 10 Fellows in Egypt in 2011, where participants connected around their work with women and had the opportunity to identify avenues for collaboration.
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In October 2018, Ashoka Arab World played a key role in organizing the soft launch of WISE in San Francisco, convening three Fellows from the United States and international partners for a dialogue on the challenges women innovators face and a discussion on how they overcome these obstacles.
We launched WISE on a formal scale at our 2019 Arab World Social Innovation Forum, giving women participants the space to have their voices heard and highlighting their original work and leadership strategies.
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As a precursor scaling deep impact the WorldWISE storytelling project, “She Can” was released in March 2020 during International Women’s Month. In She Can, we spotlighted 18 Fellows from 6 regions around the world leading to scaling deep impact. The booklet can be viewed here.
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Aside from the WorldWISE Storytelling Initiative, we have held online events around WISE including our 2020 WISE Up Series and 2021 Get WISER Summit, with over 13,000 registered attendees and 110 speakers combined. You can review our 2020 report on the WISE Up Series here and our Get WISER Report here.
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We also run further programming to advance women and young girls through WISE, including an online platform for women in Ashoka’s community to connect and access opportunities for advancement, a Young ChangemakHERS program, and collaboration grants.
With more than 3,600 Fellows based in over 90 countries, Ashoka represents the largest platform for social entrepreneurs worldwide. Since its founding 36 years ago, Ashoka has provided stipends and support services to this global network of Fellows.
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Ashoka has designed and implemented a rigorous and proven selection process to elect these leading social entrepreneurs. Ashoka offices in 35 countries across the world receive thousands of nominations and from them, select new cohorts of Ashoka Fellows. Ashoka’s venture process is an intensive one that ensures the election of only those social entrepreneurs who are truly pioneering systemic social change around the world.
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Currently, over 38% of our Fellows globally are women, and we aim to raise that number to 50% as part of our Women’s Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship (WISE). And at Ashoka, we are uniquely positioned to elevate these women innovators, with access to a wealth of information about the more than 1,300 female Fellows in our network who are leading social entrepreneurs. And as a team of teams made up of women, we possess unique insights into the ways women innovators overcome challenges and make an impact, allowing us to truly be at the helm of the worldwide movement for women’s empowerment.
Since 2003, Ashoka Arab World has pioneered and been the platform for social entrepreneurship across the Arab region, identifying and selecting the region’s leading social entrepreneurs across 12 countries. From establishing the first terminology for social entrepreneurship in Arabic to hosting the first international summits on social entrepreneurship in the Arab world and serving on the boards of emerging local and regional organizations with social entrepreneurship-oriented programs, Ashoka Arab World has paved the way for a formal and flourishing social entrepreneurship sector in the region.
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Moreover, Ashoka Arab World leads the charge to raise and educate new generations of changemakers among the region’s children and youth. Through leveraging the innovations of our Fellows who co-lead this movement with us, we work with schools, teachers, parents, Boards of Education, government, and media to transform the way young people are prepared for a rapidly-evolving world.
