About

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Innovation Service has announced the continuation of its Digital Inclusion Fund that provides targeted financial support and guidance to UNHCR country operations for 2022.

The programme provides a flexible and open space for testing new activities that support further digital inclusion and enhance self reliance, addressing technology barriers, creating enabling legal and regulatory environments and breaking down digital divides, for example around gender and disability.

Objectives

• Communities and Community organisations can drive forwardlocal digital inclusion solutions to improve their well-being;

• Communities’ rights to legally access connectivity and be digitally included are strengthened through enabling policy and regulation through evidence-based advocacy, capacity building and convening;

• In diverse contexts, digital gender, age and disability gaps to digital inclusion have been reduced.

• Meaningful engagement with UNHCR and the partners works through refugees’ preferred and trusted digital channels,

• ensuring individuals can make informed choices.

• Communities’ use of digital solutions helps improve their livelihoods, access to the digital economy and further self-reliance.

• Communities are able to safely engage in digital ecosystems and access their chosen and preferred services, free of digital risks.

Pillars

To achieve these objectives, the programme operates a four-pillar strategy, grounded in supporting UNHCR country operations:

• Improving operational practice: Develop and test innovative approaches to address challenges across diverse communities in key operational contexts;

• Research and Advocacy: Generate an applicable and relevant evidence base to inform innovative solutions and develop targeted advocacy and operational interventions;

• Guidance and Capacity building: Strengthen organisational and interagency capacity to adopt and adapt tools and platforms supporting digital engagement with diverse audiences;

• Partnerships and Coordination: Broker and strengthen diverse, multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the Global Compact on Refugees and to promote self-reliance

Funding Information

• This will depend on the specific project idea but generally they’re unable to provide more than USD 50,000 to ensure that a number of different country operations can benefit from the available support. If further resources are required, joint-fundraising can take place to support projects with larger scope.

Eligibility

For the first stage, the criteria is really a ‘screening’ to ensure that interested applicants are looking at relevant challenges and that the support provided through the Digital Inclusion Fund could be well-utilized.

• Is the challenge well-defined, with a clearly negative impact on PoCs?

• Is the challenge relevant to Digital Inclusion and to UNHCR’s mandate?

• If a solution is suggested, is it innovative but also feasible?

• If no solution is suggested, is the process for developing one participatory and realistic?

• Does the EoI include meaningful participation on PoCs and/or collaboration with relevant partners?

• Is the solution or proposed process working relevant stakeholders and innovative partnership models?

Post Date: 20-May-2022