WE4F MENA Open Call for Innovations - English

WE4F MENA Open Call for Innovations

WE4F is seeking to work with companies and organizations providing nexus-relevant products and services that reach women and the poor as commercial customers, equipping them with the means to achieve greater earnings and social mobility. All inquiries to the program should be directed to we4f@berytech.org
Dear Prospective Applicants:

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Union (EU), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands, The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invite eligible organizations to respond to the Open Call for Innovation (O-CFI) Water and Energy for Food: A Grand Challenge for Development (WE4F) Call for Innovations.

This Open Call for Innovation (O-CFI) is designed to address barriers to enable the production of more food with efficient and sustainable usage of water and energy along the value chain from farming to end-users, and to impact food security, gender, and poverty reduction in an environmentally sustainable way. The O-CFI describes the purpose of the program and the types of activities that it will fund; indicates the process for preparing and submitting concept notes and proposals; and outlines criteria for their evaluation.

Individual awards are expected to range between 25,000 US Dollars and 250,000 US Dollars depending on the type of funding requested with the awardee expected to bring in a minimum 1-1 matching amount themselves. The period of performance for individual awards is up to two years; the actual period of performance for each award will be determined at the time of award. The WE4F Middle East and North Africa Regional Innovation Hub (MENA RIH) will make every attempt to distribute funding to awardees as quickly as possible, but awardees should expect to begin activities immediately after the award is signed, even if funding is delayed by one to two months. The time to disburse funds will be agreed upon with awardees based on their budgets.

Awards made through this Call for Innovations may be in the form of grants or other instruments as appropriate, depending on the nature of the submitting organization and at the discretion of the WE4F MENA RIH (and its partners). The O-CFI solicitation document can be downloaded from:

http://www.we4f.org/apply-mena

The MENA RIH accepts applications on a rolling basis starting April 8, 2023. MENA Hub reviews of submitted applications are planned to take place every quarter, subject to the availability of funds.

Primary point of contact
Name*

First NameLast Name
Position or title*
Phone Number*
Please enter a valid phone number.
Fax Number (if applies)
Please enter a valid phone number.
E-mail*
example@example.com

Secondary point of contact
Name*

First NameLast Name
Position or title*
Phone Number*
Please enter a valid phone number.
Fax Number (if applies)
Please enter a valid phone number.
Email*
example@example.com

Incorporation and Operations
Are you applying as a standalone Organization or in a consortium?*

Consortium Information
Name of the lead organization (If Consortium)
If you are applying as a consortium, please list the name of the lead organization.
Other organizations or co-applicants (If Consortium)

For your Organization (Lead Applicant)
Name*
Year of Incorporation*
Year of Start of Operations*
Country (ies) of legal incorporation*
Country (ies) of operations in the WE4F target MENA countries*

For Consortium Partners (Co-applicant)
Name
Year of Incorporation
Year of Start of Operations
Country (ies) of legal incorporation
Country (ies) of operations in the WE4F target MENA countries

Other
If you are not established in any of in the WE4F target MENA countries – do you have a local partner?*
If you’re not established in any of WE4F target MENA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, West Bank/Gaza, and/or Yemen) and do not have a partner who is, please pause your application for future rounds. Thank you for considering us.
If you have a local partner, how many years has your partnership been operational?*
What is the share of women in the founding and/or management team? (%)*
What is the share of ownership by women? (%) *
What is the share of female employees (both part-time and full-time)? (%) *
Are you willing to collaborate with WE4F in documenting and providing key impact metrics?*
Through providing grants, Technical Assistance, and partnership opportunities to fast growing Water/Energy-Food Nexus Organizations (“innovators”) as well as supporting the enabling environment in which such innovators operate, WE4F aims to enable 100s of thousands of end-users in agriculture and food production value chains in the targeted countries in MENA to adopt affordable water and/or energy saving solutions to enhance their resource efficiency, agriculture and food production productivity as well as their climate resilience. Therefore, the selection of the organizations for the Open Call for Innovation (O-CFI) program, and the extent they could continue to benefit from the program, is contingent upon the provision of key information and data to be provided by the innovators to measure the impact of their solutions on end-users. Such information includes, and is not limited to, the numbers and gender breakdown of the Innovation’s end-users, the changes in income levels, the water and/or energy savings as a result of using the Innovation. Examples of documentation include locations, and contact information of end-users(e.g., from CRM systems), income ranges, savings in energy or water consumption and food produced or processes (e.g., information from data loggers, inputs backed by sales data, publications and/or primary research, etc.). WE4F will also provide a wealth of resources, best practices, training, tools, and one-to-one support to the innovators to prepare the information required and has successfully supported 30+ innovators in MENA in upgrading their ability to document and report on key financial and impact matrices.

Eligibility Questions - The following questions apply to the Lead Applicant organization.
Nexus focus area*
Type of Transaction*
How many paid Customers in the agriculture or food sectors have you acquired since the start of your operations to date? *
Customers are individuals or organizations directly purchasing your product or service. Your customers are either farmers/food consumers (when you operate as B2B) or businesses selling products to farmers/food consumers (when you operate as B2C).
How many end-users in the agriculture or food sector have you acquired since the start of your operations to date? *
End-users are those who are clearly and unequivocally benefiting from your Innovation, i.e., individuals whose income increases, have access to more affordable products/services, or save on expenses because of your Innovation to the extent which your organization can determine and document. This is given the fact they can be uniquely determined. If you are eligible to apply to WE4F, your customers are either farmers/food consumers or businesses selling products to farmers/food consumers. Family members of farmers who benefit from your product or service can also be counted as end-users, particularly in the case of small-scale farmers. Workers in farms or food processing establishments benefitting from your Innovation can be also considered as end-users.
Please estimate the share of female end-users? (%) *
Does your Innovation/solution require any construction/land development activity (ies) at any stage of operations to be financed by the grant?*
The WE4F grant does not fund construction activities. If yes, please pause your application. Thank you for considering us.
Does your Innovation/solution/business model use, intend to use, or encourage/drive usage of any type of pesticides/herbicides either directly or indirectly?*
If yes, please pause your application. Thank you for considering us.
How much investment/financing (in US Dollars) will you need if you were to scale your Innovation to tens or hundreds of thousands of end-users by 2024? How do you plan to use the investment needed for growth? (please give examples). *
Individual Open Call for Innovation(O-CFI) awards are expected to be up to 250,000 USD depending on the type of funding requested. The period of performance for individual awards is up to one year; the actual period of performance for each award will be determined at the time of award. O-CFI-awarded innovators must match the grant amount by 100%. For example, if the innovator's budget to scale its Water- and/or Energy-Food nexus solution is 200,000 USD and the grant ask from the WE4F program is100,000 USD, the innovator must contribute with 100,000 USD in cash or in-kind. O-CFI grants are disbursed on a re-imbursement basis (i.e., the grantee is to submit a monthly invoice for the Allowable Costs as defined by the Grant Agreement as well as the needed back-up documentation and proof of matching spending).
What are your expected sources of funds and/or in-kind contributions to meet this target with WE4F support (please estimate a monetary value in US Dollars)?*
Individual Open Call for Innovation(O-CFI) awards are expected to be up to 250,000 USD depending on the type of funding requested. The period of performance for individual awards is up to one year; the actual period of performance for each award will be determined at the time of award. O-CFI-awarded innovators must match the grant amount by 100%. For example, if the innovator's budget to scale its Water- and/or Energy-Food nexus solution is 200,000 USD and the grant ask from the WE4F program is100,000 USD, the innovator must contribute with 100,000 USD in cash or in-kind. O-CFI grants are disbursed on a re-imbursement basis (i.e., the grantee is to submit a monthly invoice for the Allowable Costs as defined by the Grant Agreement as well as the needed back-up documentation and proof of matching spending).

Innovation Details - The following questions apply to the Lead Applicant organization.
Describe the Innovation you are applying to WE4F with (energy and/or water saving product/service/solution targeted to agriculture and food value chains in the targeted MENA Countries). Please elaborate on your target customers and end-users as well as your business model. In addition, you may attach your Organizational Profile. *

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How much growth in your customer base (in agriculture and food value chains) do you anticipate from 2023 to 2025? (in %) and what key strategic initiatives do you plan to deploy to achieve such growth?*

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Are there any arrangements that you have undertaken, or are planning to undertake, to ensure that you Innovation(s) is/are accessible and/or affordable to vulnerable groups and the poor?*

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Are there any arrangements that you have undertaken, or are planning to, to ensure that you Innovation(s) is/are accessible and/or affordable to women?*

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Describe the existing or potential positive and negative environmental impacts (especially related to natural resource / water management, climate mitigation and adaptation as well as biodiversity) that could be generated by your Innovation. Please describe your key mitigation measures for the negative impacts. Please note that despite the core product/service being environmentally friendly, collateral/unintended negative environmental impacts can occur during its life cycle and needs to be mitigated.*

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