UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund for Displaced and Stateless People 2024 (45,000 USD)

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About UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund for Displaced and Stateless People

The Fund champions the creativity of all displaced and stateless people intending to reshape their participation in the delivery of humanitarian work. The UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund ensures displaced and stateless people play vital roles in decisions affecting their lives, the design of innovative solutions, and the identification of needs.

The Fund provides all-inclusive support, such as directly combining financial resources, mentoring, and more expertise to refugee-led organizations. This program enables organizations to design and present new involvements that have a lasting positive impact on their communities.

UNHCR, or the UN Refugee Agency, is committed to defending rights, saving lives, and securing a brighter future for refugees and communities with stateless individuals and forcibly uprooted. UNHCR strives to guarantee that everyone has the right to do so and to find a haven after fleeing domestic violence, persecution, war, or tragedy. Millions of displaced people from their homes helped to improve their prospects and preserve their lives

• Sponsor Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Benefits of UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund for Displaced and Stateless People

The following funding is available to chosen organizations:

1. Financial support: Organizations can expect up to USD 45,000 in funding to test and implement ideas with robust community approaches.
2. Program and project management support: Grantees can also receive help from UNHCR and experts to build their capacity to design and implement programs effectively.
3. Technical support, expertise, and coaching: Organizations will receive needs-based specialist advice from legal support to technology and innovation methodologies.
4. Peer-to-peer networking: Encouragements to engage with other organizations, share experiences, explore partnerships, and learn from each other.
5. Additional support based on project needs: These can include organizational support, training on specific topics, help with project sustainability and scale, business model advice, and media and communications support.

UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund for Displaced and Stateless People Requirements

The following organizations can apply for the UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund 2024:

• The Fund accepts applications from both registered and unregistered organizations.
• Only organizations with leading people who have been forced displacement are eligible to apply. Such people include refugees, the internally displaced, asylum-seekers, returnees, and stateless people.
• A team application, often as a member of an existing organization, will be required of applicants.
• The LGBTIQ+ community, women, organizations run by people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups will get additional assistance and encouragement to submit applications to the Fund.
• Projects that have received funding in past rounds of the Refugee-led Innovation Fund are not eligible to fund existing initiatives. However, organizations proposing a new idea or project are welcome to apply.

Selection Procedure of Projects

 

The application process of the UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund has two phases:

1. Expressions of Interest (EoI): All interested organizations should submit an Expressions of Interest by 30 June. The Innovation Service will longlist the most promising applications received to pre-select. These applications will pass a vetting and due diligence process to verify some relevant details about the organizations. UNHCR will not notify the pre-selected EoIs. The EOI should briefly describe the following:

• Their challenge
• Proposed solution
• Value it will generate in the community.

1. Full proposals: Organizations selected in the vetting and due diligence process should develop full proposals in the second stage. Technical and Steering committees will include forcibly displaced and stateless persons to decide on the projects to receive the Funds.

Assessment Criteria of the UNHCR Refugee-led Innovation Fund

The main criteria during the selection process are as follows:

• Innovation: Ideas must be inventive, offering new solutions for refugee-led organizations to tackle community challenges. While drawing from existing concepts is acceptable, proposals must introduce unique elements to avoid duplication.
• Impact: Projects should promise significant benefits for refugees, displaced individuals, and host communities, both immediately and in the long term. They should also offer insights valuable to refugee-led organizations and the wider humanitarian sector.
• Engagement: Emphasis lies on co-creation and an Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) approach, involving communities, users, and stakeholders in project design and implementation.
• Implementation: Viability is crucial, encompassing detailed plans for timelines, resources, objectives, and sustainability. Mitigation strategies for potential risks ensure sustainable outcomes.

Application Date and Process

Applications are possible in a two-stage selection process.

• First Stage: Organizations should submit a brief expression of interest by the deadline. Click on the links to the application website to get started. 
• Second Stage: Shortlisted organizations have three weeks to submit a complete application. The selected organization will receive support from the UNHCR country offices and Innovation Service to develop and submit detailed applications.

Application Deadline

31 May, 2024

Scholarship Application Portal

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