About the Grant
The GSMA is looking for start-ups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and social enterprises in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America and Eastern Europe that leverage digital technology, particularly mobile, to deliver climate resilience and adaptation solutions to and with low-income and vulnerable populations
The GSMA is a new member of the Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) – a global collaborative effort to increase investment and capacity for action-orientated research to support effective adaptation to climate change. We support ARA’s best practice to find innovative and participative ways for incorporating the voice and views of local communities (such as through leveraging digital technology) as it empowers them to participate as equal partners in adaptation processes.
We define ‘climate resilience and adaptation solutions’ as solutions that build the capacities of individuals, communities or institutions to:
- Adapt to multiple, long-term and future climate change risks;
- Anticipate and reduce the impact of climate variability and extremes through preparedness and planning; and/or
- Absorb (i.e. face and manage) adverse conditions, emergencies or disasters.
In addition to the financial compensation, grantees will receive further support, including but not limited to:
- Learning exchange opportunities with other grantees and GSMA networks;
- Facilitation of relationships with mobile operators and public sector organisations; and
- Profiling opportunities through GSMA publications, social media and industry leading MWC events.
To be eligible to apply, applicants must meet the following criteria:
• Be a small and growing enterprise or start-up leveraging digital technology, especially mobile, to deliver climate resilience and adaptation solutions to low-income and vulnerable populations in countries that are eligible to receive official development assistance (see section 3). Have active users and commercial revenue (users and revenue from any products or services offered by the organisation) in at least one eligible country.
• Be an entity registered and operating in the country of project implementation (whether domestic or foreign-owned or a joint venture). In cases where responsibility for service delivery lies with a downstream partner, rather than the applicant, for example service delivery by a local government, it may be acceptable for the applicant to be registered in a country other than that of project implementation.
• Be fully compliant with relevant business licensing, taxation, employee and other regulations in all applicable countries of grant project operation.
• Be registered and have a bank account in the country where they will receive the grant money (if not the same as the project implementation country).
• Be an eligible entity (as set out in section 1) and demonstrate that a majority of their income is derived from commercial activities. Early-stage companies who have not reached this threshold will need to demonstrate a reliable path to sustainability via commercial activities that generate revenue to be considered.
• Commit to providing 25% to 50% matching funding depending on the total grant amount requested.
• Only one organisation can apply for funding and become a grantee. Applicants are encouraged to have downstream partners who have a role in the project as per the GSMA’s Downstream Partner Guidelines. In case government entities are grant project partners, they cannot be a sub-recipient of the grant
Grant Size: USD 250,000
Deadline: January 9, 2022