The USAID WomenConnect Challenge (WCC) is a global initiative created to bridge the gender digital divide by supporting organizations that use technology to empower women and communities. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the program awards grants to innovative projects around the world that improve women’s access to digital tools, education, and opportunities.
With participants spanning multiple continents and hundreds of submissions containing sensitive organizational and personal data, USAID needed a secure, scalable, and efficient system to manage the entire process—from application intake to multi-round evaluations and final selection.
They selected Reviewr as the platform to power the WomenConnect Challenge from start to finish.
Managing an international grant competition at the scale of the WomenConnect Challenge introduced several unique challenges:
Without a dedicated platform, managing submissions, communications, and multi-round evaluations at this scale would have been unmanageable.
To meet these demands, USAID implemented Reviewr, leveraging its end-to-end capabilities to power one of the largest and most impactful international grant challenges to date.
1. Global, Secure Submission Portal
Reviewr provided a centralized, multilingual portal where organizations worldwide could securely submit proposals, upload supporting materials, and manage updates -Ensuring data integrity and privacy across international borders.
2. Automated Engagement and Submission Completion
Using Reviewr’s data-driven automation, the WomenConnect team tracked incomplete applications in real time and automatically sent reminder emails—significantly increasing submission completion rates and exceeding participation goals.
3. Randomized and Fair Review Assignment
Hundreds of evaluators were assigned proposals through Reviewr’s automated reviewer assignment engine, which distributed submissions randomly and evenly to ensure workload balance and prevent reviewer bias.
4. Structured Qualitative Evaluation
Reviewers assessed submissions based on standardized qualitative criteria, scoring each proposal within Reviewr’s built-in scoring interface. This created a consistent, transparent framework for evaluation regardless of reviewer location or background.
5. Normalization and Bias Mitigation with ReviewIQ
Because not every reviewer scored every submission, USAID leveraged ReviewIQ—Reviewr’s normalization report—to analyze reviewer tendencies and calibrate results. This advanced data model ensured fair scoring and eliminated discrepancies caused by individual scoring variances.
6. Multi-Phase Program Management
Finalists selected from Round 1 were invited to submit additional materials and impact data directly through Reviewr. Administrators seamlessly launched Round 2 within the same system, maintaining data continuity and operational efficiency across program phases.
By leveraging Reviewr, USAID’s WomenConnect Challenge successfully executed a global, multi-round grant competition that empowered organizations to close the gender digital divide. The system’s automation, fairness tools, and scalability allowed USAID to focus on mission-driven evaluation and impact—not administrative complexity.
The WomenConnect Challenge demonstrated how technology, when paired with a platform like Reviewr, can accelerate both operational excellence and social change on a worldwide scale.
The all-in-one platform for managing scholarships, grants and awards programs.
