Grand Challenges Canada: Requesting Proposals

PAS

Grand Challenges Canada: Requesting Proposals for Stars in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn & Child Health

Deadline: 3 August 2017

The Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, is seeking bold ideas with big impact from the best and brightest talent, for products, services and implementation models that could transform how persistent challenges in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) are addressed in low- and middle-income countries.

The bold ideas are expected to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health through one or more of the following pathways:

improving use of essential health services, including sexual and reproductive health services
preventing, managing and treating communicable and non-communicable diseases that disproportionately affect pregnant women and young children (e.g., through improving access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation)
improving early childhood development.

Areas of Interest

Increase RMNCH in fragile settings, including in populations living in humanitarian crises, especially those beyond the reach of governments, and internally displaced and refugee populations living outside formal camp settings, focusing on innovations that:
- Overcome the chronic challenges of extreme poverty, weak infrastructure, and poor or absent governance structures that leave citizens without adequate care and vulnerable to further shocks
- Protect against gender-based or sexual violence in humanitarian settings
- Overcome challenges of access by service providers to populations in fragile settings
- Enhance monitoring and evaluation of health outcomes in humanitarian settings
- Are from countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees, e.g., Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia or Jordan.
Improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, including innovations that:
- Improve health-seeking behaviour, and access to and use of, family planning services and sexuality education
- Empower women and adolescent girls who would want to delay or prevent pregnancy, but are faced with stigma, restrictive laws, and/or a lack of access to or control over resources to have their reproductive health needs met, including but not limited to approaches involving engagement of men
- Aim to facilitate women and girls’ empowerment by involving women and girls themselves in decision-making that safeguards their health and determines their futures
- Seek to address inequality, gender-based violence, women’s lack of power in household decision-making as well as in early and forced marriage
- Improve the collection and visibility of disaggregated data around access and use of family planning services
- Target local sociocultural barriers
- Are social enterprises

Funding Information

Successful proposals will be awarded seed grants of up to CAD $100,000 for up to 12– 18 months to develop and test the proposed innovation.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicants include social enterprises and other recognized institutions (e.g., non-profit organizations and for-profit companies) that are formed in an eligible jurisdiction, as set out below, that can successfully execute the activities in their respective technical area, and are capable of receiving and administering grant funding.
Only applicants from the list of eligible countries and Canada are eligible to apply.
Applicants from Upper-Middle-Income Countries (UMICs): Please note that a maximum of one (1) award will be made within each UMIC (i.e. to the top-ranked applicant from a given UMIC); exceptions may be made in cases in which domestic funding from a given UMIC is committed to cover at least half the award amount (i.e. matched funding of at least 1:1 with GCC).
It is mandatory for all applicants from Canada to have a collaborator based in an eligible country other than Canada. Existing and new collaborations are equally encouraged, particularly those that will bring additional components of Integrated Innovation to your project: scientific/technological, social and business innovation. Please note: it is not mandatory for applicants from eligible countries other than Canada to have a collaborator; however, collaborations are likewise encouraged.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted online via given website.

Eligible Countries

Least Developed Countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep., Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia.
Other Low Income Countries: Kenya, Korea, Dem. Rep. Kyrgyz Rep., South Sudan, Tajikistan, Zimbabwe.
Lower Middle Income Countries and Territories: Armenia, Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Congo, Rep., Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kosovo, Marshall Islands, Micronesia Federated States, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Syria, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Upper Middle Income Countries and Territories: Albania, Algeria, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Gabon, Grenada, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Montserrat, Namibia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Panama, Peru, Serbia, Seychelles, South Africa, St. Helena, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Suriname, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, Wallis and Futuna.

For more information, please visit Grand Challenges Canada.

Source – http://www.grandchallenges.ca/funding-opportunities/