Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development : Grand Challenge to Reach and Empower the Women to Improve Health and Development

Deadline: 13 January 2015

 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is accepting Letter of Inquiry (LOI) for Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development grant opportunity. A new grand challenges under the grand challenges in global health, Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development focuses on how to effectively reach and empower the most vulnerable women and girls to improve health and development – including economic – outcomes as well as gender equality.

The grant will fund innovative solutions that effectively reach the most vulnerable women and girls to simultaneously improve their health; offer development and economic outcomes for them, their families and communities; and empower women and girls and promote gender equality.

Grant Types

1. 2-year exploratory grants – US$500,000 to support the initial development and validation of solutions.
2. 4-year full grants – US$2.5 million to develop, refine, and rigorously test larger multi-sectoral approaches.

Programmatic areas

1. Urban sanitation
2. Financial services for the poor
3. Agricultural development
4. HIV/AIDS
5. Family planning
6. Maternal, newborn and child health
7. Nutrition
8. Emergency relief

Note the Key Dates

• 13 January 2015 – LOI submission deadline
• 14 April 2015 – Notification of invitation to submit full proposal
• 2 June 2015 – Full proposal submission deadline
• July 2015 – Completion of proposal review
• August 2015 – Selection and notification to the grant recipients

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be investigators in low-and middle-income countries. Partnerships with investigators in other countries where the opportunity exists to build on existing collaborations are encouraged.
• Proposed solutions should generate evidence on how to empower women and girls and promote gender equality– particularly equitable decision-making power at individual, household and societal levels– sustainably and cost-effectively, with potential for scale.
• Proposals must clearly demonstrate –
  1. Gender integrated solutions
  2. Strong logical design and measurement component to the intervention
  3. How the intervention will build the evidence base on what works best to empower women and girls
  4. Particularly equitable decision-making power
  5. Integration between sectors or a holistic approach to reducing gender inequalities while improving sectoral as well as multi-sectoral outcomes
  6. Strong likelihood of achieving a substantial impact on health, development and economic outcomes
• Proposed project must represent the priorities of women and girls.
• Proposed project must demonstrate appropriate budget and time value relative to complexity, risk, and potential impact.

Letter of Inquiry (LOI) requirement

1. A discussion of Women and Girls Engagement
2. A brief logic model between the planned intervention and outcomes of interest and a plan for measuring and evaluating the proposed solution/project

Note: LOI application form can be downloaded at the Grand Challenges website from 4 November 2014. LOI should be in MS word or PDF format, not more than 5 pages in length.

For more information, please visit Grand Challenges: Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development.