The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales bold new solutions to disrupt global hunger and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Agricultural Innovation for Climate Resilience Program aims to support high-impact solutions and agro-entrepreneurs addressing resource efficient farming in LMICs. This accelerator program is a partnership between the WFP Innovation Accelerator and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and its Fund for the Promotion of Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The program will select early stage ventures and solution providers who will receive financial, technical, and methodological support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator, and other partners. With the collaboration of talented individuals globally, they will be able to drive climate resilience and the protection of natural resources, food security, improved income and employment.
Benefits
Selected teams will be invited to participate in a 4-day all-virtual WFP Innovation Bootcamp in July 2023.
Selected startups will also be able to apply for the WFP Sprint Program, a 6 to 9 month accelerator program with access to:
Support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator and related partners throughout their sprint.
Access to a global network of relevant stakeholders in the field of mentoring and humanitarian, commercial and international development cooperation.
Up to $150,000 in equity financing to implement a proposed growth plan.
Solutions that have proven their concept, scale, and value for social impact may qualify for further funding and support in future programs or events in the WFP alumni community.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator has a track record of holding over 45 flagship innovation bootcamps, 395+ teams rapidly improving their innovations, field-testing more than 100 projects, and bringing disruptive innovations to scale. Join a high-impact network of 300+ disruptive innovations that have positively impacted over 9 million people.
Application Criteria
Your solution must be part of a legal entity located in at least one of the target countries (for-profit or social enterprise).
The applicant organization must have a presence in the country of application and be locally established: country office or other permanent presence.
Your innovation clearly addresses one or more priority issues related to building climate resilience in the agriculture and food sector in any of the target countries.
Your innovation must be at least in the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage; or Proof of concept with a validated prototype.
Your innovation has a verified potential commercial value and impact.
The solution must have a committed founding team with at least 5 full-time employees.
Applicants must be able to provide evidence that the value proposition has been validated by the user/customer.
Initiatives should be in the process of developing a clear path to commercial viability (business model alignment).
Solutions should have a potential plan to implement as part of the 6 to 9 month Sprint program.
Innovations must replace existing or establish new routines and have a positive impact on one or more of the following aspects: food security, employment and income generation and/or climate resilience and conservation of natural resources.
The beneficiaries of innovative solutions should be smallholder farmers, food processing companies, small and medium enterprises, consumers, youth and/or women.
Startups must be able to demonstrate that they have a diverse, non-discriminatory, gender-balanced venture with proven leadership and entrepreneurial mindset and what the team’s vision is.
Its beneficiaries prioritize initiatives that focus on promoting gender equality and empowering women through job creation or high representation of women in leadership positions.
Geographical Focus
Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar.
Application Criteria
Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Impact and Scalability: Applicants must have a defined vision, a defined target group, and be able to demonstrate the potential to solve emerging challenges.
Set: Applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have a diverse, non-discriminatory, gender-balanced organization with proven leadership and entrepreneurial mindset.
Innovation: Applicants must be able to demonstrate how innovative their solutions and business models are as well as technically feasible and viable.
Traction: Applicants must be able to provide evidence of feasibility and acceptance by the target group.
Business model: Applicants must demonstrate the viability of their business model and how they aim to achieve a sustainable business, pricing and financial model.
Application Deadline – March 1st, 2023, 11:59 pm (CEST)
