On June 29, 2023, Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge announced CAD $5,000,000 in seed funding for locally-driven, systems-focused innovations in hard-to-reach communities impacted by conflict.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada – Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge (CHIC), a partnership of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Global Affairs Canada, and Grand Challenges Canada, on June 29, 2023 announced a request for proposals for innovations to improve access to energy, life-saving information, and health supplies and services in conflict-affected communities around the world. The fund will award up to 20 seed projects with CAD $250,000 each to develop, test, and refine their innovations and alleviate the suffering of people affected by conflict.
Since CHIC’s previous request for proposals, launched in 2020, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has increased by over 100%, to 406 million people, and resources to address these needs have stagnated. CHIC’s latest request for proposals seeks applications from around the globe and prioritizes innovations that are locally-led and locally-owned by communities impacted by conflict. CHIC is deeply committed to empowering local responders to build resilience within their communities, which can ultimately lead to greater efficiencies in humanitarian response.
Fawad Akbari, the Director of Humanitarian Innovation at Grand Challenges Canada, says, “When Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge was instituted five years ago, a miniscule fraction of humanitarian funders had the risk appetite to finance innovations with the potential to transform the hardest-to-reach communities touched by conflict-driven humanitarian crises. In 2023, while the landscape for innovators has improved and there is evidence for the impact that innovation can have in humanitarian settings, funding towards humanitarian innovation—particularly locally-led innovations—is still an unremarkable percentage of the billions spent in aid every year. We are proud to continue supporting groundbreaking initiatives that improve and save the lives of people affected by conflict through this latest request for proposals.”
Maggie Schmitz, the Division Chief, Private sector Engagement, Diaspora and Civic Engagement, and Innovation at USAID, says, “USAID is committed to humanitarian assistance that is locally led or locally owned, as it makes such assistance more efficient, affordable effective, sustainable and equitable. The movement towards funding locally-led and locally-owned innovators is an innovation in itself and USAID is proud to partner with Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge in this endeavor.”
To date, CHIC has managed a fund of CAD $40 million that has supported over 73 innovations, including 56 seed innovations, in over 20 conflict-affected countries. Following early investments by the CHIC program, supported innovators have collectively mobilized an additional CAD $44.4M, enabling innovators to increase their reach and impact in complex humanitarian settings. In the past five years, CHIC supported innovations have collectively reached some three million people in conflict-affected contexts with potentially life-improving or life-saving humanitarian innovations.
About Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge
Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge is a partnership of the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the U.K Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Global Affairs Canada, with support from Grand Challenges Canada. Launched in 2018, CHIC seeks to enable local organizations, humanitarian agencies, and the private sector to work alongside affected communities to respond more nimbly to complex emergencies, address the unprecedented magnitude of suffering around the world, and empower people to create better lives for themselves. This challenge seeks to fund and accelerate innovative solutions that enable life-improving assistance to reach the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people in conflict-generated humanitarian crises.
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