ICTworks

We all would love more cash for our great digital development ideas, so the hunt for new investors and donors is never-ending. Luckily, we’ve found three new opportunities to increase your resources and have greater impact.

Be sure to sign up to get emails about new donors or investors as we find them.

$9 Million UNICEF Innovation Fund

Congratulations to Chris Fabian for raising $9 million for the UNICEF Innovation Fund to investment in rapidly changing technologies such as blockchain, 3D printing, wearables, sensors, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy, and taking a strong stance on Digital Development Principle 6: Be Open:

“The purpose of the UNICEF Innovation Fund is to invest in open source technologies for children,” says Christopher Fabian, UNICEF Innovation Co-Lead.

The Innovation Fund will focus on organizations based in UNICEF programme countries working in three portfolio areas:

• Products for youth under 25 to address a range of needs including learning and youth participation;
• Real-time information for decision-making; and
• Infrastructure to increase access to services and information, including connectivity, power, finance, sensors and transport.

Applications will be assessed according to a number of criteria including the strength of the team, the project’s relevance to children, and the ability to see potential future value in the open source intellectual property being created, and the average investment looks to be $150,000 USD.

$1.7 Million EduApp4Syria competition

The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation is sponsoring the EduApp4Syria competition to build foundational Arabic literacy skills and improve psychosocial well-being of children affected by the Syrian conflict through alternative digital learning solutions accessed by households on their Android smartphones.

Proposed solutions should be highly engaging game-based application that can be used online, and downloadable as an offline application and targeted at Syrian children, aged 5–10, without or with limited access to formal schooling, who cannot read and write.

The EduApp4Syria competition will start with an initial competition from which up to five winning participants will be selected, who will be invited to enter into research and development contracts with Norad. The contracts will involve several separate phases for which economic incentives will be paid out, with 1-2 winning applications at the end of the contract period.

The apps and software developed as part of this project will be released under BSD Software License, that will allow proprietary use, including incorporating it into proprietary products.

$100,000 Innovation into Action Challenge

The US Global Development Lab, DAI, the Innovation Program of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Global Accelerator Network have partnered to create the Innovation into Action Challenge to move development innovations and innovators from prototype to real-world application.

The Innovation into Action Challenge is open to entrepreneurs and small organizations worldwide to help them access donor-funded projects and critical support services in the following focus areas:

• Governance and Services: Fostering dialogue between governments and citizens.
• Workforce Development: Equipping young people with skills and ways to connect to the labor market.
• Data Analytics: Improving monitoring, service delivery, and impact of projects related to health, education, energy, water, and sanitation.
• Knowledge Management: Facilitating learning and collaboration among development partners.
• Climate Adaptation: Helping monitor and respond to changes in the environment.
• Agriculture: Improve and secure food production and distribution.

Applications are due by February 29th, and three winners will receive a tailored package of support designed to accelerate their innovation’s deployment in the field, including $20,000 in funding, mentoring to refine the product or service, and matchmaking with one of DAI’s projects.