–Seeks bold new ideas
LONDON / TORONTO – Today (Monday), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green and UK Department for International Development (DFID) Secretary of State Penny Mordaunt launched the first-ever Humanitarian Grand Challenge.
Led by funding partners USAID and DFID, and implementing partner Grand Challenges Canada, Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge calls on innovators around the world to submit ideas to save and improve the lives of the hardest-to-reach and most vulnerable people impacted by humanitarian crises caused by conflict.
A press statement says the partners will invest a combined $15 million over the next 5 years to support innovations that enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian assistance.
Specifically, this initial call for innovation seeks solutions that engage the private sector and involve input from affected communities in order to provide, supply, or locally generate safe water and sanitation, energy, life-saving information, or health supplies and services to help conflict-affected people.
“Imagine the benefit of local solutions during humanitarian emergencies: if the rehydration fluids that were so desperately needed in the cholera outbreaks in Somalia and Yemen could have been locally made, or if hospitals in humanitarian emergencies could harness solar power to perform life-saving operations 24 hours a day,” said Dr. Peter A. Singer, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada.
“Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge aims to spark similar bold ideas to reach the most vulnerable people who have been left behind by traditional forms of humanitarian assistance.”
Nearly 136 million people across 25 countries are in need of humanitarian assistance. While the international community is helping more people than ever before, crises are increasing in frequency and magnitude, there is an increasing need for innovative and new approaches that can be deployed to address emerging and future humanitarian challenges.