GovStack Women in GovTech Challenge 2025: Inclusive ideas for digital public services
What happens when more than 200 women from over 50 countries come together to build better digital public services? They develop innovative solutions for the future. The second cohort of the ‘GovStack Women in GovTech Challenge’ has successfully graduated mid-June, bringing fresh energy and global ideas to inclusive digital governance.
The first GovStack Women in GovTech Challenge (2023–24) brought together 139 mentors and mentees, mainly from the public sector. Building on this, the second cohort—led by GovStack in collaboration with the World Bank, the DPI Safeguards Initiative (by UN ODET and UNDP), TalTech, and Coursera—welcomed 155 mentees and 53 mentors from over 50 countries, selected from over 400 applications. Participants came from government (44%), the private sector (22%), NGOs and international organisations (18%), and academia (16%).
Over the course of six weeks, mentees explored the foundations of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), including the people-centric GovStack approach, and the need for inclusion highlighted by the DPI Safeguards. The results: 25 co-created prototypes for digital services designed with inclusion in mind. From tax collection systems in Colombia and agri-tech in Ukraine to youth employment in Kenya and Gender Based Violence (GBV) response in Tunisia—this year’s solutions are ready to make impact.
We look forward to celebrating the finalists’ innovative solutions at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), where we will also launch the Women in GovTech Ambassadors, who will drive exchange and engagement for inclusive digital administration worldwide.
