What we fund.
We seek out innovations with the greatest potential to improve the lives of millions of people living in poverty.
The Global Innovation Fund finds and funds innovations with the greatest potential to transform the lives of people living on less than $5 a day. Since 2014, we have proudly backed a diverse portfolio of innovations tackling a range of development challenges. We use our funding to support innovators to prove out the impact of their solution and achieve greater scale.
At GIF, we believe that innovation can come from anyone, anywhere, and we especially encourage applications from developing countries themselves. Any type of organisation may apply. This includes social enterprises, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations, government agencies, and research institutions in any country. Individual innovators, entrepreneurs or researchers must apply through an affiliated organisation.
For this call, we are prioritising innovations working towards climate adaptation and resilience outcomes under the Innovating for Climate Resilience Fund.
Applications will be assessed against the following core criteria:
1. Climate Adaptation and Resilience Focus
We are seeking innovations which enable people living on less than $5 a day to adapt and be more resilient to climate-related hazards which affect their lives. Climate hazards may be acute shocks, such as flooding, extreme temperatures, rising sea levels, cyclones and storms, or chronic issues such as declining or intermittent rainfalls. GIF is open to range of different outcomes, including those related to livelihoods, health and wellbeing, agency, and reduced exposure or vulnerability to climate hazards. We will prioritise innovations which stand to most benefit populations in poverty which are most vulnerable to, or impacted by, climate hazards.
2. Innovation
GIF defines innovation as any solution which has potential to address an important development problem more effectively than existing approaches. An innovation can be a product, service, business model or policy practice, among others. To meet GIF’s innovation criteria your solution must not be already widely practised and should have a compelling case for how it improves upon current ‘business-as-usual’. For example, your innovation may be more impactful, cost-effective, or likely to scale than alternative approaches.
3. Evidence and Impact
GIF is looking for innovations with the greatest potential to achieve impact. Applicants should be clear about the climate adaptation impacts they expect their innovation to achieve, and the evidence they can draw upon to support their impact claims. Note that our expectation of the level of evidence needed increases with the level of funding requested, for more information, read about our funding stages here.
4. Prospects for Scale
We only fund innovations which have the potential to scale to benefit millions of people. Scaling can take place through any number of ways: growth of a successful business or through uptake by a government partner, for example. We seek innovations with the most credible plans for how scale can be achieved and sustained without relying on ongoing investment from GIF.
5. Team
We look for innovations which are backed by teams which have a deep understanding of the problems they are tackling and the context in which they are working. Applicant teams should demonstrate a track record of achievement and the skills needed to position their innovation for success.
6. Clear Role for GIF
GIF seeks to fill market gaps and is especially interested in supporting innovations that may otherwise struggle to find appropriate forms of funding. Your innovation must be ready to be applied in a real-world setting and you should have a clear plan for how GIF funding can help to further develop, test and scale your solution. We aim to make smart investments which can attract more funding to the most promising approaches, so we look for applications which offer the best articulation of how GIF investment can contribute to success in the long run. GIF provides a range of financing types, including grants, loans (including convertible debt), and equity investments, and we expect applicants to present a clear rationale for the type of financing for which they are applying.