USAID announces JuntosEsMejor/ BetterTogether Challenge

Deadline: 30 September 2020

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have jointly launched the JuntosEsMejor/ BetterTogether Challenge, a global initiative to identify, finance and scale innovative solutions from Venezuelans, wherever they are, as innovators around the world, to support Venezuelans and host communities affected by the regional migration crisis.

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This Annual Program Statement (APS) supports the competition component of the Challenge, a global initiative to identify and mobilize the best forward-thinking solutions from anyone to provide immediate and long-term support to Venezuelans and host communities affected by this man-made regional crisis.

The Better Together Challenge/Juntos Es Mejor Challenge (“the Challenge”) is a global initiative to crowdsource, fund, and scale forward-thinking solutions from Venezuelans, both inside their country and among the diaspora, host communities, and others to provide immediate support to alleviate the effects of this regional crisis. It aims to help rebuild and strengthen communities as well as enable and empower Venezuelan voices, providing them with tools to create better lives for themselves.

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The Challenge aims to accomplish the following:

Elevate Venezuelan voices and ingenuity to answer needs in Venezuela and across the region;
Connect Venezuelans and host communities, and the world’s collective genius to develop innovative solutions;
Expand networks across communities and countries to promote relationships and collaboration;
Fund, test, and scale ideas; and
Build a marketplace of tested, market-ready solutions.
Focus Areas

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The Challenge is seeking solutions in the following focus areas:

People
Productivity
Services
Finance
The Challenge is not looking for

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The following types of projects are not a good fit for the Challenge’s objectives:

Solutions routinely employed (therefore not innovative) and funded in complex crises environments, such as the distribution of food, general elections administration or, labor-market surveys;
Solutions unlikely to lead to significant development or humanitarian impact for affected Venezuelans and host communities;
Solutions with minimal demonstration of effectiveness and impact;
Support to ongoing programs or related costs, including organizational overhead, training, or capacity- building initiatives not linked to the solution;
Planning or diagnostic tools that do not directly link to measurable development and humanitarian outcomes;
Discovery science or basic scientific research (e.g., laboratory research of a prototype with no field testing);
Large-scale infrastructure and heavy machinery or equipment;
Solutions that support police, military, militias, or other security forces, including any military, police, or surveillance equipment or tactics;
Solutions that procure restricted or ineligible commodities;
Solutions that involve intellectual property rights are owned by a third-party institution, unless the third-party institution has granted the applicant sufficient license rights to the innovation to permit eventual scaling in relevant countries; and
Solutions exclusively focused on publications and studies, video productions, and other media, not related to a practical solution.
Funding Tiers

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Tier 1: Ideas (up to $25,000)
Tier 2: Prototype (up to $250,000)
Tier 3: Validation (up to $500,000)
Tier 4: Scaling (up to $1,500,000)
Geographic Coverage

The Challenge will source innovative solutions globally for implementation in one or more of the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. USAID will fund the implementation of solutions within Venezuela.

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Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must meet the following requirements to participate in the Challenge:

Type: Eligible organizations for the Challenge include the following:
National, regional, and local organizations;
NGOs (U.S. and non-U.S.);
Indigenous organizations and community-based entities;
Foundations;
Private enterprises or firms, including start-ups;
Business associations;
Faith-based organizations;
Women-owned/women-led enterprises; and
Universities, academia and think tanks.
Size: The Challenge is open to all eligible organizations, regardless of size. They encourage applications from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Organizational Capacity. Applicants must successfully complete all pre-award requirements and have the capacity to manage and spend funds compliantly. Additionally, the organization must be legally registered (possess government certification of registration).
Location.
Applicants may be located anywhere in the world, including from inside Venezuela.
Applicants must implement proposed solutions in one or more of the target geographies.
Applicants must either already have a presence in the proposed country of implementation or must have a local partner and provide supporting documentation of that partnership.
Language: Applicants may submit concept papers in English or Spanish.
Impact: Solutions must be directly related to the regional Venezuela crisis, the focal areas.
Ineligible Applicants

The following organizations are not eligible for funding under the Challenge:

Political parties, groupings, or institutions, or their subsidiaries or affiliates;
Organizations or persons that appear on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Non-Procurement Programs, the United Nations Security Council Consolidated List, or have an active restriction or exclusion on the System for Award Management (SAM) list;
Organizations or persons that advocate, promote, or engage in illegal activities or anti-democratic activities;
Any entity found to have materially misused Challenge partners’ funds in the past;
Any entity affiliated with any of the Challenge partners or Resonance, its officers, directors, or employees;
Any governmental organization;
Public International Organizations as defined by USAID; and
Individuals.
If submitted under a Targeted Application Window, a solution must comply with any additional requirements of that call.
For more information, visit https://competitions4dev.org/