Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) works according to directives of the Swedish Parliament and Government to reduce poverty in the world. The overall goal of Swedish development cooperation is to contribute to making it possible for poor people to improve their living conditions.
Innovations Against Poverty (IAP) is an initiative by the Sida, to support businesses to develop services, products and processes that will benefit people living in poverty. The IAP is designed for companies based in, or operating in a poor country.
Financial and Funding Assistance
The programme will function as a risk sharing mechanism for sustainable business ventures (commercial companies or market oriented organisations), which have strong potential impact on poverty reduction.
Companies are invited to apply for grants twice a year. There will be two parallel application processes; one for small grants (under € 20,000) and one for large. The expectation is that over three years, about 60 grants will be awarded to companies. As a third option, the IAP programme can link companies and their financiers to Sida’s Guarantees programme, through which Sida offers guarantees for reducing risks for ventures with a strong developmental dimension.
For any company based in EU the sum of the grant amount requested from IAP plus any other governmental support during the latest three-year period may not exceed € 200,000
Who and what IAP supports
The criteria listed below define the ‘challenge’ to the private sector to bring innovative and sustainable business propositions to the IAP for support. For a company to be eligible, the proposed project must satisfy all the eligibility criteria. This does not mean that the project will be automatically funded, as the applicants will compete with each other when the number of applicants exceeds funds available. The assessment of whether a specific project and company meet the criteria is done through a thorough selection process and Sida makes the final decision.
Eligibility criteria
Commercially driven
1. Clear commercial driver and potential for commercial viability
2. Potential to reach scale
3. Managed by a company or a market oriented organisation
Development effects
4. Poor people benefit (income, products, environment, opportunities, gender equality)
5. Avoid negative effects (environmental, market distortion)
Cost sharing commitments
6. Clearly defined elements of cost-sharing (With the company itself providing at a minimum 50% – which should not come from other public financing)
Innovative
7. Innovative; going beyond what exists now, in terms of the product/service, the delivery mechanism/business model and/or market reach
Additionality
8. Project would not take place at the same scale or have the same development impact without IAP funding
Deadline for submitting the application for this phase of granting is November 25, 2011
For more information and details, you can download this document or visit link on IAP.
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