Japanese 

Youth Co:Lab, co‑led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation strengthened its ongoing collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, to support the next generation of female social entrepreneurs in Japan.

In both 2024 and 2025, AWS provided a dedicated award recognizing the achievements of young female social entrepreneurs. Each winning team received seed fundings to accelerate the development and impact of their social innovation initiatives. In addition, AWS co-hosted the Youth Co:Lab Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2025 Alumni Grand Prix- Demo Day.

This partnership directly supports the UNDP Youth Moonshot for Asia and the Pacific’s strategic priorities, particularly its commitment to gender equality. By highlighting and investing in the work of young women in technology and social entrepreneurship, the collaboration strengthens women’s economic empowerment and leadership. The AWS Award provides financial support to young women leveraging technology to drive social innovation, which in turn contributes to closing the gender gap in Japan and promoting inclusive, grassroots economic growth.

Regarding the collaboration, Ms. Monique Viengkhou, Head of Strategy and Operations, Public Policy, Asia Pacific and Japan, AWS stated:

“We believe that empowering female entrepreneurs is essential to building a more inclusive and innovative digital economy. Through our collaboration with Youth Co:Lab, we are proud to support young female social entrepreneurs who are harnessing technology to address pressing social challenges. We congratulate our AWS Award recipients – mymizu, Darajapan, and Guardian for their inspiring work in creating positive community impact, which reflects the spirit of female-led social innovation that this award seeks to champion.”

2025 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Award for women entrepreneurs: 

• Mariko McTier, Social Innovation Japan, mymizu, 
  “Refill for the Future: Building a Better World, One Action at a Time”

2024 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Women IT Social Entrepreneur Award

• Mio Tsunoda, Darajapan
   “IT human resource development for women and young people in emerging countries: ‘IMANI Hacking’”
• Caitlin Erin Puzzar, Guardian
   “kimino micata® — a child communication support system”