Deadline: October 5, 2023
ICTforAg 2023: The Inspire Challenge
The ICTforAg 2023 Inspire Challenge is a new Pay-for-Results program intended to increase women’s participation in digital agri-food advisory services and programs. Over a span of six months, your task will be to meet our gender inclusion benchmarks. Five Challengers will be chosen and given six months to achieve the gender inclusion goal. All Challengers will be provided with a suite of technical support options, including human-centered design and gender-sensitizing workshops, consultative meetings, and learning grants of up to 20,000 USD. If the goal is achieved, each Challenger will be eligible to receive the final prize of 30,000 USD in June 2024.
SELECTION CRITERIA
- Readiness: We will review the readiness of the service/program, such as the size and type of the operation or business model, to ensure it has already reached a certain size of end-users, critically including producers/farmers.
- Innovative approaches: We will assess the innovativeness of proposed methods to address specific challenges and barriers faced by women in accessing and using digital solutions, in terms of their feasibility, creativity, and sustainability, ensuring long-term engagement of women in the sector.
- Verifiability: We will require a credible, robust, and third party-verifiable track record of user profiles that include identity, gender, and contact information for the changes between November 2023 and April 2024. To do this, we will examine how gender-disaggregated data are collected and analyzed, ensuring that the data captured genuinely reflects women’s experiences and needs, ensuring women’s meaningful involvement beyond participation.
TIMELINE
Mark your calendars for these key dates in the ICTforAg 2023 Inspire Challenge:
- October 5, 2023: Deadline for submitting applications
- November 9, 2023: Exciting announcement of the Five Selected Challengers
- April 30, 2024: Deadline for Challengers to submit their results for review
- June 2024: Stay tuned for the big reveal of our Challenge Winners!
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE INSPIRE CHALLENGE SPONSORS
- CGIAR Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa, also known as Ukama Ustawi, will sponsor one of the Challengers focuses on a digital solution that aims to address gender digital divide and food and nutrition security risks in East and Southern African countries.
- USAID Feed the Future will sponsor one of the Challengers focuses on a digital solution that aims to address gender, climate change, and nutrition.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to be part of this transformative initiative. Start preparing your applications now!
