The GSMA has announced a new initiative, the GSMA Humanitarian Innovation Fund, in collaboration with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The fund aims to address humanitarian challenges in low and middle-income countries.
Since 2017, the GSMA Humanitarian Innovation Fund has distributed over GBP5 million (US$6.3 million) to startups, SMEs and social enterprises. The new Humanitarian Innovation Fund offers grants up to GBP250,000 (US$320,000), along with non-financial and technical assistance, to support new solutions that use digital technologies, particularly mobile, to address challenges such as food insecurity, displacement, and natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and typhoons.
In addition, the fund is interested in frontier tech, like AI and IoT, and its potential in improving preparedness and response to humanitarian challenges. Also, it seeks solutions that respond to the needs of crisis-affected populations through access to humanitarian assistance, services, and life-saving information, and those that adapt existing innovations to a new context.
Interested parties can apply until February 12, 2024.
