The United States Agency for International Development(USAID) and the Government of Sweden have announced a new grant opportunity called ‘Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Securing Water for Food: A Grand Challenge for Development Competition’ andNGOs around the world are invited to apply for it.
This funding competition has been designed to address barriers to enable the production of more food with less water and/or make more water available for food production, processing, and distribution. Through this competition, Securing Water for Food anticipates disbursing $15 million USD in award funding. Individualawards are expected to be between $100,000 USD and $3,000,000 USD depending on the type of funding requested. The period of performance for individual awards is up to three years; the actual period of performance for each award will be determined at the time of award.
The Grand Challenges for Development (GCD) Program of the USAID (organized in partnership with partners) seeks to source, select and accelerate science, technology and business model innovations that can lead to achieving large-scale development impact.
The objective of Securing Water for Food: A Grand Challenge for Development is to enable the production of more food with less water and/or make more water available for food production, processing, and distribution in developing and emerging countries. It is jointly funded by USAID and the Government of Sweden.
Under this program, USAID is seeking innovations that will improve water availability and efficiency along the food value chain, thus boosting food security, alleviating poverty, and stimulating inclusive growth. Innovators can come from anywhere in the world, but implementation must take place in a developing or emerging country. Through Securing Water for Food, it is hoping to increase both the demand for and availability of innovative water technologies and approaches; increase adoption of those innovations at multiple levels (from small scale farms to large corporations); and improve thesustainability of innovations through robust partnerships and business-to-business relationships.
