Empowering Progress
Celebrating women entrepreneurs who are advancing the SDGs
Launched in 2018 by UN Secretary General, António Guterres, with the Council of Women World Leaders and World Bank President, the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge honors innovative women leaders from around the world who are pushing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs forward, through sustainable business practices and inspiring others to follow suit.
"The WE Empower UN SDG Challenge awardees are proof of the contributions that women entrepreneurs are making toward innovation, job creation, and economic prosperity. Now imagine a world in which work like theirs is less the exception and more the norm."
The power of partnerships and platforms
The WE Empower UN SDG Challenge was launched in 2018 and now, in its seventh year, it continues to build a global network of extraordinary women entrepreneurs who are developing solutions to sustainability challenges around the world.
The opportunity recognises innovation and impact and Awardees are supported with capacity-building training, specialist coaching and opportunities to connect with an unparalleled global network to advance their enterprises.
RELX has been a Lead Partner and supporter of the WE Empower Challenge since 2023, joining organisations, institutions and individuals such as Arizona State University, Bank of Montreal, P&G, Vital Voices, SalesForce, Diane von Furstenberg, World Bank and UN Foundation and has pledged to use its global network and key resources such as the RELX SDG Resource Centre to further support and amplify the stories of the WE Empower Challenge network.
In 2024, the WE Empower Challenge Awardees participated in more than 20 events surrounding the 79th UN General Assembly and connected with renowned business experts from around the world.
The opportunities to connect and share their stories included attending Goalkeepers New York 2024 , Led by the Gates Foundation, the Goalkeepers initiative is designed to inspire and incentivize thinkers and doers toward achieving the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development and the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit.
As in previous years, Awardees also participated in a dynamic pitch competition, hosted by fashion designer, Diane von Furstenberg (DVF), where they presented their businesses for the opportunity to receive a grant.
The winner of Pitch Night was Lina Maria Useche Kempf, Co-Founder and Head of Institutional Relations, Aliança Empreendedora (Brazil). Read more about Lina and the 2024 awardees below and watch Pitch Night in full.
introducing the 2024 awardees
World Region: Greater Middle East and North Africa
Tatiana Estevez
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Permalution, United Arab Emirates
Tatiana Estevez is the founder CEO of Permalution, a company working on cloud and fog water collection technology, providing solutions for water access and climate adaptation, supporting SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 15: Life on Land and SDG 13: Climate Action.
Permalution is harnessing fog and clouds with its innovative technology, consisting of three main components: Fog Atlas - a predictive model identifying optimal project locations based on fog and cloud patterns (25% of the world currently mapped), Water Radar meteorological sensors that analyze clouds and fog to estimate water yields, assess water quality, and conduct cost-benefit analyses and Fog Collectors - passive devices with hydrophilic membranes that gather water droplets from the air, collecting between 150-400 liters per day per unit.
This program has been an absolutely wonderful experience, filling me with inspiration and gratitude! It has provided me with incredible tools, insights and connections that have deeply strengthened my work toward the UN SDGs. I am especially happy to have had the opportunity to connect with so many inspiring entrepreneurs and leaders, which has truly energised me and broadened my perspective.
World Region: Europe, North America & Other
Dr. Edda Aradottir
Founder and CEO, Carbfix, Iceland
Dr. Edda Aradóttir is the Co-Founder and CEO of Carbfix, an Icelandic company focused on significantly contributing to climate recovery through its proprietary technology that permanently turns captured CO2 into stone underground, with a clear focus on SDG 13: Climate Action, also SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.
Carbfix’s technology is scientifically proven to speed up natural processes that already store over 99% of all carbon that exists on Earth. As a recognized global leader in this space, Carbfix was featured on the cover of the 2023 November edition of National Geographic. Carbfix is dedicated to scaling their technology globally with responsible partners to reduce emissions and advance permanent carbon removal, contributing to climate targets and planetary health.
World Region: Asia-Pacific
Lachmi Baniya
Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Icarus Media Group, Myanmar
Lachmi Baniya is the Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Icarus Media Group, an innovative media and marketing company dedicated to bridging information gaps and driving positive social change in Myanmar and beyond.
Icarus operates under three main pillars: Icarus Media, Icarus Marketing, and Icarus Collective and is focused on advancing SDG 5: Gender Equality; SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Icarus Media reaches 11 million monthly readers (20% of Myanmar’s population) with five digital media products, addressing social challenges such as women's empowerment, men's wellbeing, and conscious parenting. Icarus Marketing offers tailored strategies that emphasize storytelling, deep connections, and trust, driving sustainable business impact and growth. Icarus Collective guides creators toward ethical content creation, aiming to reduce misinformation and disinformation online by ensuring reliable information sources. Icarus Media Group is dedicated to encouraging informed and inclusive dialogue in Myanmar's developing social environment.
World Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Teresa Njoroge
Founder and CEO, Clean Start Africa, Kenya
Teresa Njoroge is the Founder and CEO of Clean Start Africa, a non-profit organisation that works with women, girls and children impacted by the criminal justice system to restore their dignity and support successful reintegration, supporting Goals SDG 5: Gender Equality; SDG 1: No Poverty and SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions organization.
Clean Start Africa offers employment training, psychosocial support, entrepreneurship and vocational training, enabling women to find sustainable livelihoods post release. To date, they have supported over 4000 women and their families in Kenya with successful reintegration. Clean Start Africa was created after Teresa’s own personal experience of wrongful imprisonment with her infant daughter. She uses her story and the stories of the women she supports to advocate for government policy change in sentencing and prison reform.
World Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Lina Maria Useche Kempf
Co-Founder and Head of Institutional Relations, Aliança Empreendedora, Brazil
Lina Maria Useche Kempf is the Co-Founder and Head of Institutional Relations at Aliança Empreendedora (Entrepreneurs Alliance), an organisation that empowers, trains, and connects low-income micro-entrepreneurs so they can thrive.
Aliança Empreendedora’s mission is to boost small businesses and improve living conditions for micro-entrepreneurs, demonstrating entrepreneurship as a pathway to a dignified and prosperous life, supporting SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.
In Brazil, micro-entrepreneurs generate over 50% of jobs and contribute nearly 30% of the GDP, making their support essential for social and economic inclusion. Since its inception, Aliança Empreendedora has supported over 200,000 micro-entrepreneurs, predominately women and people of color, through its free training courses, financial aid and mentorship opportunities. They also lead a national think tank initiative to conduct research and influence policies to support and strengthen Brazil’s micro-entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Everything about the pitch process was amazing...the feedback was always in a positive way, to build our confidence, and I think that is very important for women entrepreneurs.
podcasts featuring the 2023 awardees
In these special episodes of RELX's "The World We Want" podcast series, in celebration of International Women's Day 2024, Dr Márcia Balisciano, Chief Sustainability Officer at RELX, is joined by three of the 2023 WE Empower SDG Challenge Awardees; Andrea "Andy" Blair, Co-Founder and President of New Zealand based geothermal research and innovation company, Upflow; Susan Blanchet, Founder and CEO of Origen Air and Diana Mbogo, Founder and Managing Director of Millennium Engineers Enterprises in Tanzania.
In these inspiring conversations, we explore the power of mentorship, the personal importance of the SDGs and the critical need to invest more in women.
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