Submit Applications for 2020 Health Workforce Resilience Prize

Deadline: 3 April 2020

Awards will be in accordance with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. Government regulations governing cooperative agreements and HRH2030’s internal policies.

Objective: Recognizing that innovation stems from necessity, HRH2030 is awarding prize grants to individuals and/or organizations who have designed or developed a creative strategy, tool, method, approach, or resource that strengthens health workforce resilience in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and enables health workers to meet the service delivery needs of their communities. Prize(s) will recognize and elevate the profile of individuals or organizations and their proven approaches or new ideas for supporting health worker resilience, so that these successes may be scaled and replicated to contribute to high-performing health systems.

Prize competitions are a tried and tested method for supporting innovation. They may inspire and incentivize individuals to explore something new and problem solve. They may also attract and engage a wider breath of participants from a program’s usual array of partners or collaborators.

This Health Workforce Resilience Prize intends to facilitate the engagement and participation of anyone, anywhere who can provide solutions to bolster health workforce resiliency. HRH2030 sees this open innovation prize as a critical tool to discover proven approaches and bring forth creative, new ideas for building health worker resiliency, especially those local solutions that may otherwise have little opportunity for visibility. Health workers—the backbone of the health system—and the organizations that support them often show remarkable ingenuity and innovation when dealing with challenges in the health system or broader environment so that they can provide the health services their communities need.

In recognition of the strategies, tools, methods, approaches, and/or resources that demonstrate effective ways to strengthen health workforce resilience in LMICs, HRH2030 will use USAID’s communications platforms to disseminate and raise awareness of the successful ideas so that they can be sustained, scaled, and replicated in other settings.

Finalists will be showcased on HRH2030’s website page for the Health Workforce Resilience Prize, on the global program’s social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and/or Vimeo), as well as through other forums. In addition, all finalists will receive a certificate.

Prize Information

• HRH2030 anticipates awarding up to three prize(s) to an individual(s) or organization(s) from an LMIC that has designed or developed a strategy, tool, method, approach, or resource to strengthen health workforce resilience.
• HRH2030 expects to award up to the local currency equivalent of $50,000 USD in prizes for new ideas and promising approaches so that they may be replicated and/or scaled. The prizes will be awarded as fixed amount awards.

Applicants may not use the HRH2030 prize money for any of the following:

• Construction or infrastructure activities of any kind;
• Ceremonies, parties, celebrations, or “representation” expenses;
• Purchases of restricted goods, such as: restricted agricultural commodities, motor vehicles including motorcycles, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, contraceptive products, used equipment (without the previous approval of HRH2030), prohibited goods, or prohibited goods under USAID regulations (including but not limited to: abortion equipment and services, luxury goods);
• Alcoholic beverages;
• Purchases of goods or services restricted or prohibited under the prevailing USAID source/ nationality (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria);
• Any purchase or activity which has already been made or completed;
• Prior obligations of debts, fines, and/or penalties imposed on the prize winner;
• Creation of endowments.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants may be individuals or organizations.
• Applicants must legally reside in or be registered to operate in an LMIC as defined by the World Bank.
• If applying as an organization, applicants must be registered in their country(-ies) of operation, formally constituted, recognized by and in good standing with appropriate authorities, and compliant with all applicable civil and fiscal regulations.
• Faith-based and community groups will receive equal opportunity for funding in accordance with the mandated guidelines laid out in ADS 303.3.28 except for faith-based organizations whose objectives are for discriminatory and religious purposes, and whose main objective of the grant is of a religious nature.
• Applicants may submit multiple applications under this RFA. However, each application must have a unique idea. Submission of duplicate/multiple applications of the same content is not permitted.
• Applicants need to be willing to share their experiences and learning to help establish a body of knowledge that can bring about a greater awareness of locally driven solutions to support and sustain health workforce resilience.
• Applicants must clearly mark any confidential or proprietary content (including intellectual property and trade secrets) that they wish to protect. Applicants will retain ownership of such confidential or proprietary content. HRH2030 will protect such marked confidential or proprietary content and will only use it as necessary to administer the competition. Applicants must have rights to all the intellectual property in their submissions. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are not infringing on the intellectual property of other individuals or entities.
• Applicants are prohibited from offering any money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, thing of value, or compensation to obtain or reward improper, favorable treatment regarding this solicitation.
• For resiliency prize(s), awarded as fixed amount award(s) resulting from this RFA that is other than in-kind and equivalent to $25,000 USD or more, prize winners will be required to get a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number at the time of award. If applicable, HRH2030 will assist prize winners with the process to obtain a DUNS number.

For more information, visit https://hrh2030program.org/health-workforce-resilience-prize/