Deadline: 19-Jan-23

The GSMA is open to applications from non-profit organisations (including NGOs, INGOs, humanitarian agencies and social enterprises) as well as for-profit organisations (limited to commercially viable start-ups, SMEs and social enterprises with up to 250 employees).

By focusing on the important theme of anticipatory action the Fund will contribute towards the minimisation of humanitarian impacts and the improvement of preparedness in the face of sudden-onset crises.

Aims

Through the Fund, the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation aims to:

• Test innovative use-cases, partnerships and business models in selected geographies; and
• generate and share insights and evidence from these innovations to benefit humanitarian and mobile industry stakeholders.

Objectives

• The objective of the Fund is to test and generate insights from innovative use-cases, partnerships and business models across selected geographies, to improve the sustainability and scalability of digital-enabled solutions for those vulnerable to, or affected by, humanitarian crises.
• The grant projects must seek to demonstrate:
  • How mobile-enabled technology can be innovatively applied to support communities to anticipate and prepare for crises
  • How mobile-enabled technology can be used to make anticipatory action ‘smarter’ (by using feedback, learning and adapting to deliver a more targeted response)
  • How anticipating crises through technology can inform more timely humanitarian responses
  • How anticipatory humanitarian mobile-enabled solutions can be inclusive and widespread

Funding Information

Successful projects will receive a grant of between £100,000 and £250,000 to scale their innovation over a 15 to 18 month period.

Geographic Focus

The Fund is open to applicants whose projects are implemented in countries that are eligible to receive official development assistance in the following regions:

• Africa
• Middle East
• South and South East Asia
• Pacific
• The Caribbean
• Latin America

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible to apply, applicants to the Fund must meet all of the following criteria:
  • Either a non-profit organisation: this includes non-governmental organisations (NGO, either international or local); humanitarian agencies and social enterprises.
  • Or a for-profit organisation limited to commercially viable start-ups, small to medium enterprises and social enterprises with up to 250 employees that have significant potential, and ambition for growth. These organisations must have active users and commercial revenue (users and revenue from any products or services offered by the organisation) in at least one eligible country.
• Leverage digital technology, especially mobile, to deliver solutions.
• Be an entity registered and operating in the country of project implementation (whether domestic or foreign-owned, or a joint venture). In cases where responsibility for service delivery lies with a downstream partner, rather than the applicant, for example service delivery by a local organisation, it may be acceptable for the applicant to be registered in a country other than that of project implementation.
• Be fully compliant with relevant business licensing, taxation, employee, and other regulations in all applicable countries of grant project operation.
• Be registered and have a bank account in the country where they will receive the grant money (if not the same as the project implementation country). This account must be capable of receiving GBP payments as all disbursements will be in GBP.
• Commit to providing 25% to 50% matching funding depending on the total grant amount requested.
• Only one organisation can apply for funding and become a grantee.
• They particularly encourage the following applicants to apply:
• Organisations that are women-led and/or have good representation of women at all levels
• Organisations and businesses with a strong presence in their country of implementation and a commitment to supporting/upskilling and promoting local staff. Preference will be given to local organisations funded by local people who possess a deep understanding of local context.
• International organisations who do apply, should have a strong localised presence and are encouraged to consider pay differences between expatriate and local staff, demonstrating a strong commitment to diversity of voices and representation.
• Applicants who have a clear understanding how their solution improves the resilience and adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities and have proactively taken steps to set targets and systematically measure these impacts.
• Preference will be given to applicants that have not received prior FCDO grant funding through the GSMA. Applicants that have received grant funding from the GSMA in the past will need to demonstrate what would be the additionality of the new grant.

For more information, visit GSMA Innovation Fund.