The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Grand Challenges Canada have launched Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge. This challenge seeks to fund and accelerate solutions that enable lifesaving or life-improving assistance to reach the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people in conflict-generated humanitarian crises. Deadline for application is Mid July 2019. The fund supports projects in Iraq, Libya, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen.
Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge is a partnership of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, with support from Grand Challenges Canada. The Challenge Fund seeks to fund and accelerate solutions that enable lifesaving or life-improving assistance to reach the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people in conflict-generated humanitarian crises. These innovations will involve a connection to the private sector and input from affected communities in order to provide, supply, or locally generate safe drinking water and sanitation, energy, life-saving information, or health supplies and services to help conflict-affected people.
Currently, the Fund is Requesting Proposals to fund up to 25 seed projects at up to $250,000 CAD each, along with basic acceleration support, over a maximum period of twenty-four (24) months. Eligible projects are those to be implemented in Iraq, Libya, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen
The Humanitarian Grand Challenge is focused on addressing the most acute needs in conflict-affected areas that have the potential to be solved by innovation in one or more of the following four areas
- Safe water and sanitation
- Energy
- Life-saving information
- Health supplies and services.
Innovations must enable local solutions, serve local needs and delivery gaps, overcome common delivery barriers in conflict settings, or improve on the timeliness and cost efficiency of current humanitarian delivery methods. The project also welcomes innovations that help to maintain services and infrastructure, avoiding further deterioration. Innovations in processes or approaches (e.g. adapting a private sector approach to the humanitarian context) are particularly welcome.
Example of Previous the finalists for the first Humanitarian Grand Challenge
ActionAid Mobile App to Combat Sexual Violence in Jordan: ActionAid UK is innovating a women-designed, low-cost, mobile platform that targets the most at-risk women and girls. The mobile platform provides vital and up-to-date information and awareness on rights, local services, women’s safe spaces, and access to sensitive and confidential SGBV referral services. It will have the functionality to report SGBV incidents and to map risk areas in urban areas.
InteleHealth Mobile Telemedicine Platform in Jordan and Syria: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the Syrian American Medical Society Foundation are testing a mobile app, InteleHealth, that connects community health workers remotely with a telemedicine network of doctors, with the goal of providing primary and specialist health consultations in hard-to-reach areas of Syria and Jordan.
Watch the infomarion session here:
To learn further more about the Grant Challenge Requirements and to Download the RFP, Please click here