Deadline: March 25, 2024
Applications are invited for the UNAOC/BMW Group Intercultural Innovation Hub 2024. At the forefront of addressing intercultural challenges through social innovations, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group, with the support of Accenture, are pleased to announce the 2024 cycle of the Intercultural Innovation Hub.
Through the Intercultural Innovation Hub (IIH), they continue to connect people and cultures, empower grassroots organizations, as well as elevate and scale up innovative approaches that contribute to inclusive societies. To this end, they invite grassroots organizations that promote intercultural dialogue and understanding as well as social inclusion, to apply. Selected organizations will benefit from a comprehensive support programme designed to expand the impact of their projects.
The Intercultural Innovation Hub will select up to 10 projects focused on addressing xenophobia and hate speech; preventing violent extremism; promoting gender equality; using sport, art and culture as tools to drive social change and foster social inclusion; and building inclusive and cohesive societies.
Benefits
Selected recipients will receive:
- Financial support for sustainable growth: Each finalist will receive up to USD $20,000 to scale up the sustainability of their project and accelerate the impact of their work.
- Year-long capacity-building programme: Selected recipients also will benefit from a year-long series of capacity-building workshops, focused support, and customized mentoring provided by UNAOC and the BMW Group, with the support of Accenture.
- Access and membership to a global leadership platform: Recipients will have an opportunity to extend their spheres of influence, collaborate with other changemakers, and take part in regional and international events by becoming part of a global leadership network.
Eligibility
Organizations that submit a project to the competition need to fulfill each and every one of the following criteria to be deemed eligible:
- Organizations must be registered as a not-for-profit organization, such as a non-governmental organization, charitable organization, research and educational institution, labor union, indigenous group, faith-based organization, professional association, foundation and local or municipal branches of government.
- Applying organizations must have been operational for a minimum of 2 years before March 2024; with funding base and project implementation (i.e. the organization must show registration as non-profit in their country of operation by March 2022 or earlier).
- Applying organizations must be managing a project focused on promoting intercultural dialogue and fostering diverse and inclusive societies, and who are willing to expand their range of action. Examples include projects in the fields of promoting gender equality, preventing xenophobia, violent extremism, and hate speech, promoting the use of sport, art and culture as tools to drive social change and foster social inclusion.
- The applying organization must have the willingness to expand the range of action of the project with UNAOC, the BMW Group and Accenture.
- Organizations that have previously received any UNAOC support are not eligible to apply to the Intercultural Innovation Hub.
- Projects that have been submitted to previous editions of the Intercultural Innovation Hub and were not selected, are eligible and encouraged to apply again. However, applying organizations cannot have been participants of previous editions of the UNAOC Marketplace of Ideas or BMW Group Awards.
Selection Criteria
Shortlisted projects will be evaluated against a comprehensive set of criteria. These criteria include three main categories:
The Project
- Relevance – is appropriate for the targeted audience and in the local context where implemented, taking into account the necessity of the project, challenges posed by Covid-19, and which SDG it is tackling.
- Quality – undertakes an in-depth analysis of problems/issues and sets a consistent intervention strategy.
- Clarity – sets clear objectives and draws a logical connection between activities, outputs and outcomes.
- Innovation – pushes beyond typical approaches and excels in the use of original and novel methods (social media, arts, pedagogical approach, innovative training etc.).
- Measurability – impact of the project is measurable (i.e. number of beneficiaries, polls on attitude change, assessment of behavioral changes, clear policy changes, etc.)
- Sustainability – demonstrates ability to be sustainable in the mid-long term.
- Replicability – has the capacity to be replicated and scaled up in different settings. This is a key evaluation criterion.
The Organisation
- Organizational structure – is capable of achieving the goals set in the project.
- Intercultural commitment – has proven interest and commitment in fostering diverse and inclusive societies (e.g. past reports, reference letters, etc.).
- Work plan and budget – has set a realistic budget to replicate or expand the project.
- Transparency – has made genuine and demonstrated efforts to adopt a policy of transparency.
- Equality – has adopted equality and diversity policies as reflected in staff members, membership and activities.
The Application
- Clarity – shows an effective communication of ideas and provides relevant examples.
- Conciseness – provides clear and concise responses to questions.
- Persuasiveness – includes insightful arguments and engaging narrative.
- The application text must show an effective communication of ideas and provide relevant examples, provide clear and concise responses to questions, and include insightful arguments and engaging narrative.
Application
Complete your application no later than 5 p.m. EDT (New York time) on 25 March 2024.
For more information, visit Intercultural Innovation Hub.
