Deadline: 16-Feb-22
Applications for Afri-Plastics Challenge Strand 3 for Promoting Change are now open to reduce marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries by developing and scaling innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement.
It involves a public competition that will reward the best solutions to addressing marine plastic litter in developing countries in a way that promotes gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
The Afri-Plastics Challenge is a prize funded by the Government of Canada; it is an element of the $ 100-million Marine Litter Mitigation Fund announced by Prime Minister Trudeau at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Charlevoix in June 2018.
The Challenge will help communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to prevent plastic waste from entering the marine environment by finding ways to minimize reliance on plastic, new ways of managing plastic waste, and / or new uses for plastic that has been discarded.
Challenge Statement
- They seek the creation of campaigns, schemes, tools and other creative interventions that will change both the behaviour of individuals and communities around plastic waste in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as contribute to the empowerment of women and girls.
- Successful applicants will use innovative engagement strategies such as nudges, gamification, incentives, and storytelling, as well as insights on the roles that women and girls play across the value chain. By the end of the challenge, the best solutions will have generated evidence of change in individual and communities’ behaviour around one or more of the following:
- Reducing littering
- Segregation of plastic waste
- Choosing reusable options
- Refusing single-use plastic
What can you win?
- Semi-Finalists: In April 2022, 30 Semi-Finalists will be selected and each receive a £5,000 grant.
- Finalists: Of the Semi-Finalists, 15 will be selected to move forward to the finalist stage and will receive a grant of £50,000 to support in the development and validation of their solutions.
- In March 2023, three winners will be selected to receive a prize of £250,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must have a new or early-stage idea.
- Ideas must be focused in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Applicants can be formally constituted and operating in Sub-Saharan Africa as either a registered business or NGO, but applications from individuals and community groups will also be accepted.
- Applicants can be an individual, single entity (organisation or community group), an African partnership or an international partnership. For partnership applications, the nominated lead applicant must be operating in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Applicants must own or be licensed to use relevant intellectual property included in their applications. If your application is proposing a new idea, then Nesta would expect that you would own all resulting intellectual property which may be able to be registered on a local basis if you become a successful participant in the Challenge. Nesta would not be able to give you specific legal advice on the protection or exploitation of intellectual property.
For more information, visit https://afri-plastics.challenges.org/promoting-change/