The UK and US have joined forces to find the next
technological breakthrough to save and transform
millions of lives in the world’s most dangerous
conflict zones.
International Development Secretary and USAID
Administrator Mark Green announced the new Humanitarian
Grand Challenge at an event held at the Overseas
Development Institute today.
The Challenge fund will provide grants to help get
innovative technology projects off the ground, and will
provide further support to expand projects that prove
the most successful.
This new fund is the latest of the Grand Challenges,
which are a tried and tested way of leveraging the
power of businesses, and it is expected to attract tens
of millions of pounds in private sector funding.
It aims to drive innovation in the aid sector, with a
call for projects to focus on developing new ways to
deliver water, sanitation, energy, health assistance
and life-saving information in hard to reach conflict
zones.
In a departure from traditional forms of aid, this will
see new low-cost technology being produced for the most
remote places and extreme conditions.
The ‘Saving Lives at Birth’ Grand Challenge – which was
backed by DFID, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation – attracted more than £60million in private
sector investment and has already helped save 10,000
lives.
Successful projects backed by previous Grand Challenges
have produced an electronic nose to smell tuberculosis
from patients’ breath, a maternal and child health app
for people in Burma to give birth safely and give their
children the best start in life, and low-cost
microchips to diagnose diarrhoeal diseases.
International Development Secretary said:
If we are to deliver the Sustainable Development
Goals and help all those who need humanitarian
support then we need to do things differently, and we
need to lever all hands to that cause.
Our new Humanitarian Grand Challenge will create
cutting-edge technology and leverage the power of the
private sector to help respond to conflicts which
will save lives, improve conditions for the most
vulnerable and make humanitarian responses by the UK
and US more effective.
The Challenge fund will give grants of up to £150,000
for innovative technology projects to get started and a
further £600,000 so that successful projects can grow
even bigger.
The £11million fund will be administered by Grand
Challenges Canada and is equally funded by DFID and
USAID, with each organisation providing £5.5million.
The event followed a strategic dialogue between Ms
Mordaunt and Mr Green where they discussed how to work
together to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse in the
global aid sector and the action the UK has already
taken; how best to boost economic development and help
the poorest countries stand on their own two feet, and
how to boost security at home and abroad.
