Deadline: 5-Jun-22
Ready to scale your innovation or enterprise? Duke-UNICEF Social Innovation Accelerator is looking for social entrepreneurs tackling the most challenging problems facing children globally.
The third cohort will be made up of social enterprises working specifically on issues related to SDG 6 in East Asia and the Pacific.
They are particularly looking for innovations that make WASH adaptive, safe, and resilient with a focus on engaging youth. Innovations that contribute to futureproofing WASH, climate resilience or adaptation, or the circular economy are particularly encouraged to apply.
Principles
- Understand the Existing Ecosystem
- Be Data Driven
- Reuse and Improve
- Be Collaborative
- Build for Sustainability
- Design with the User
- Build for Sustainability
- Do No Harm
- Use Open Source
Benefits
Over the course of the 15-month Accelerator, selected enterprises will receive:
- $25,000 unrestricted, one-time grant
- Personalized coaching from social enterprise experts at Duke University and field experts from UNICEF
- Bespoke mentoring
- Customized capacity building and scale curriculum
- Duke University student and faculty support
- Access to their broad networks
Eligible Countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, DPR Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pacific Islands (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Niue, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, VietNam.
Eligibility Criteria
- Is a nonprofit, hybrid, or for-profit social enterprise
- Has one to two founders/executives/senior leaders or program managers that can represent the enterprise over the course of the 15-month Accelerator and are comfortable and proficient in working in English
- Organization representatives are under the age of 35, strong preference will be given to participants under 30
- Has strong evidence of impact over at least 1-2 years and has a plan for how to use the Duke-UNICEF award to scale that impact in the next 3-5 years
- Deploys a promising WASH product and/or service, innovative supply chain model, business model, or other approach that has potential for widespread, sustainable impact
- Enterprise or enterprise innovation adheres to UNICEF Innovation Principles
- Active in any country, or multiple countries, in East Asia and the Pacific
- Preference for a diverse, gender-equitable team; female entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply
- Current student teams are not eligible
Criteria
Accelerator Awardees should anticipate the following as part of their participation:
- Participate in online communities and monthly webinars
- Participate in monthly calls for coaching, mentoring, and peer learning
- Participate in the week-long Duke-UNICEF Virtual Forum on Social Innovation, held twice yearly
- Develop a capacity-building plan for scaling their impact, with support from the Accelerator team
- Implement and track progress of a customized capacity-building plan, with support from the accelerator team and other mentors
- Report relevant program performance and financial data on a semi-annual basis
- Share insights, promising practices, lessons learned, and other expertise with all social enterprises participating in the Accelerator
For more information, visit https://dukeunicef.org/apply/