Making All Voices Count Grand Challenge: A Global Innovation Competition

Deadline: December 6, 2013

Making All Voices Count: A Grand Challenge for Development has announced it first ever Global Innovation Competition . The competition is seeking new, original and innovative ideas from anywhere in the world, from companies, organisations, government agencies and individuals. Making All Voices Count is a global initiative that supports innovation, scaling, and research to deepen existing innovations and help harness new technologies to enable citizen engagement and government responsiveness.

The Competition seeks submissions relating to one or more of four topics:

• Budget Transparency
• Access to Information
• Asset Disclosures Related to Elected or Senior Public Officials
• Citizen Engagement

This Grand Challenge focuses global attention on creative and cutting-edge solutions, including those that use mobile and web technology, to ensure the voices of all citizens are heard and that governments have the capacity, as well as the incentive, to listen and respond.

Prize 

The best new ideas and proven concepts from around the world will receive a £65,000 grant and the two runner ups will each receive a £35,000 grant. In addition, seven smaller prizes of £5,000 will be awarded.  The best applicants will compete through both a public online voting and a peer-review system.

The top 10 semi-finalists will be flown to Nairobi for a Global Innovation and Award Week .

Eligibility

Making All Voices Count includes 12 programme countries. Only eight of these will be implemented for the first call for proposals. The following four will be included from the second call for proposals, and onward.

• Applicants can be based anywhere, but must demonstrate that their proposed activities have a clear link, or demonstrate impact, in one of these countries. For the first call of proposal only 8 programme countries are included. These are: Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

• For the second call for proposals and onwards, scheduled for March/April 2014, the programme countries will expanded to include Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

The following parties can apply to Making All Voices Count’s first call for proposals: individuals (Innovation grants only), universities, academic institutes, research institutes, non-government associations, charities, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, not-for-profit and for-profit companies and corporations, social enterprises and government, as well as private sector companies and entrepreneurs with a keen focus on development.

NOTE: The Competition opens on November 12, 2013 and closes on December 6, 2013.

For more information, click here.