USAID Development Innovation Ventures Program Accepting New Applications
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is accepting new applications for the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program. Anyone, anywhere can apply at any time.
DIV is an open innovation program that tests breakthrough solutions to critical global development challenges to improve millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost. DIV provides flexible, tiered funding for innovations that demonstrate rigorous evidence, maximum impact per dollar, and a pathway to scale and sustainability.
DIV funds innovation across three stages:
- Stage-One grants (up to $200,000) test the feasibility and proof of concept of an innovative product, service, or business model in a developing country context;
- Stage-Two grants ($200,000 to $1,500,000) test and strengthen a solution’s business or delivery model to build rigorous evidence of impact and prepare the solution for scale; and
- Stage-Three grants ($1,500,000 to $5,000,000) fund partnerships to scale the innovation to a new context or to demonstrate replicability.
In addition to tiered funding, DIV provides separate evidence grants (up to $1,500,000) for research and evaluations that generate rigorous evidence of a solution’s impact, cost-effectiveness, and potential for expansion.
Since 2010, DIV has invested in over 190 solutions across 46 countries and all sectors in which USAID invests, and has directly affected more than 30 million lives. Over half of DIV grantees had never received USAID funding before, and DIV has mobilized $4.60 of external funding for every $1 from the American people. A few examples of successful projects:
- In Mali, DIV grantee Muso Health is using $2.25 million to partner with the country’s Ministry of Health to train and sustain a proactive, rapidly responsive network of community health workers. These community health workers visit patients in their homes to provide life-saving services that include treating malnutrition, malaria, and diarrhea. According to a peer-reviewed study https://www.musohealth.org/study-signals-new-hope , Muso Health partnered with the government to reduce the under-five mortality rate in an urban area on the edge of Bamako from 155 deaths to only 7 deaths per 1,000 live births — the lowest rate measured in Sub-Saharan Africa, and comparable to that of the United States.
- Another DIV-supported innovator, LenddoEFL, provides affordable financial services to underserved individuals and small businesses, using innovative credit scoring, psychometric data sources, and mobile loan applications. LenddoEFL has lent over $2 billion to more than 7 million loan applicants across the globe. After piloting in countries such as Colombia, Pakistan, and the Philippines, LenddoEFL now partners with banks across Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
- In Rwanda, DIV grantee Vision for a Nation has partnered with the Ministry of Health to solve untreated vision problems nationwide. The organization has trained over 3,000 local eye care nurses to visit each of Rwanda’s 15,000 villages. DIV has supported their work to transform Rwanda into the first low-income country to provide universal primary eye care to its 12 million people, transforming health, economic productivity, and educational outcomes.
USAID is committed to supporting creative, evidence-driven solutions from anyone, anywhere, and at any time. To build the most effective and sustainable solutions and to help countries along their journey to self-reliance, DIV advances local ingenuity and supports problem-solvers who boost local business skills and economies.
For more information, visit https://www.usaid.gov/div; and to apply at: https://www.usaid.gov/div/apply .
You can also subscribe to the Lab Newsletter at: https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/ , or follow the Lab on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlobalDevLab
