Announcement from Global Development:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a new Grand Challenge for Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development. See: http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/GCGHDocs/WGCD_RFP.pdf
We are looking for innovative solutions to effectively reach the most vulnerable women and girls (The most vulnerable women and girls = those most susceptible or already subject to child marriage, school dropout, child labor, HIV infection, sex work, early pregnancy, social isolation, hunger, malnutrition, gender-based violence, etc.) to simultaneously improve health, development and economic outcomes (as appropriate to the proposed approach) for them, their families and communities, and empower women and girls and promote gender equality. We are most interested in solutions that generate evidence on how to empower women and girls and promote gender equality– particularly equitable decision-making power at individual, household and societal levels– sustainably and cost-effectively, with potential for scale. In addition to equitable decision-making power, BMGF will also consider other approaches that lead to increased women’s and girls’ agency and voice (e.g., control over assets/resources, personal safety, mobility, equitable interpersonal relationships).
The Foundation is looking for solutions in the following programmatic areas: urban sanitation; financial services for the poor; agricultural development; HIV/AIDS; family planning; maternal, newborn and child health;nutrition; and emergency relief. Further information on sector-specific areas of interest can be found in blog posts at http://www.impatientoptimists.org/. Multisectoral projects/solutions that integrate or combine sectoral programming and achieve outcomes in more than one program area as well as promote gender equality are of greatest interest to us and will be prioritized.
1. AMOUNT AND DURATION:
(a) Providing 2-year exploratory grants at USD $500,000 to support the initial development and validation of solutions.
(b) Providing 4-year full grants at USD $2.5 million to develop, refine, and rigorously test larger multi-sectoral approaches, including those that have previous data demonstrating proof of concept, and show promise and potential for scale.
2. ELIGIBILITY: Investigators in low-income and middle-income countries. Grants will go to investigators in low- and middle-income countries, but they encourage partnerships with investigators in other countries, especially where the opportunity exists to build on existing collaborations. BMGF particularly encourage applications from women-led organizations and applications involving projects led by women.
3. GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Low-income and middle-income countries.
4. SUBMISSION & DEADLINE: Applications will be accepted beginning on November 4, 2014. Application deadline January 13, 2015. Go to: http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/GrantOpportunities/Pages/WomenandGirls.aspx
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