Submit Expressions of Interest for GBV Tech Innovation Challenge

This Innovation Challenge is for piloting tech-based interventions relevant to Gender-based Violence (GBV) humanitarian programming, which have the potential to be scaled in the future. By tech-based they mean relating to and dependent on the practical use and application of technology.

As outlined by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) tech has the potential to support and strengthen humanitarian GBV programming in a number of ways, including through:

• Increasing access to services
• Amplifying positive social norms
• Facilitating service delivery and enhancing quality
• Streamlining data collection and research analysis
• Combating technology-facilitated GBV

Beyond the tech focus, this Challenge takes a broad framing to allow for the most promising GBV-related tech innovations to be supported. Some examples of gaps which may be relevant to tech-based interventions include:

• Risk Mitigation:
  • Women and girls insufficiently engaged when identifying risks, developing mitigation plans and monitoring implementation
  • Lack of community ownership of risk mitigation activities
• Response:
  • Lack of sustained support for those providing essential Psychosocial Support (PSS) and GBV case management services
  • Lack of coverage and survivor-centeredness of formal and informal legal and justice services, especially in remote locations
• Prevention:
  • Lack of understanding and capacity to ensure that prevention programming is built on evidence-based behaviour change theory, and addresses social norms change at institutional and systemic levels
  • Lack of attention to GBV experienced by adolescent girls

Funding Information

• There will be a cohort selected of up to four grantees. There is up to £150,000 available for each chosen grantee. In addition to this financial support, HIF offers non-financial innovation management support drawing on relevant materials, including those in Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Guide,
• The grantee delivery window for this Challenge runs from January 2024 to May 2025 Grantees therefore have up to 17 months of funded project delivery time.

Expected Activities and Deliverables for Grantees

• During the course of the grantee delivery window grantees will be expected to pilot a tech-based intervention at significant scale within a humanitarian setting. The targeted scale of the pilot should weigh up ethics and the stage of the innovation process against the desire to demonstrate the innovation’s impact.
• The selected grantees will then need to report against their Workplan and provide updates on their project’s achievements via formal Interim Reports and a Final Report. This will involve reporting on outcomes and outputs delivered, including the number of people who have benefitted from the project, how these people have benefited and how the intervention compares to existing alternatives.
• They see a HIF grant as the start of a journey together. During the grantee delivery period, grantees will need to produce a Scale Plan, outlining how they will scale their project after the grant closes. After the 17-month grant delivery window, grantees will then be invited to provide periodic updates on project developments.

Eligibility Criteria

To be deemed eligible for this Challenge, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• The project team is relevant to humanitarian action:
  • The Lead Organisation is a legally registered entity
  • The Lead Organisation is a humanitarian actor OR applicant can evidence the project will be delivered in partnership with at least one humanitarian actor
• The project team is relevant to the GBV Tech Innovation Challenge:
  • The Lead Organisation has GBV-related expertise OR the applicant can evidence the project will be delivered in partnership with at least one organisation with GBV -related expertise
  • The Lead Organisation has tech-related expertise OR the applicant can evidence the project will be delivered in partnership with at least one organisation with tech -related expertise
• The project is relevant to humanitarian action:
  • The intervention is applicable to complex humanitarian emergencies including: complex conflicts, complex protracted crises and acute responses
  • The project aims to benefit crisis-affected populations, inclusive of refugees, internally displaced persons and host communities.

For more information, visit Elrha.