Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation
The CFTC approach emphasises country ownership by delivering technical assistance on a demand-driven basis. This approach seeks to deliver relevant change through ‘best fit’ rather than ‘best practice’ responses to the challenges of development. Fundamentally, focus is on strengthening national capabilities through institutional development and capacity-building with a view to long-term sustainability.
Technical assistance is delivered predominantly on a south-south basis, and also aims to mainstream gender considerations throughout all project work.
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Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub
The Commonwealth is assisting member states to access urgently needed funding, by strengthening national capacities through the placement of experts under this flagship programme.
In its short time of operation, the Hub has already recorded remarkable results for Commonwealth countries, securing a total of USD$28 million of climate finance with another USD$460 million in the pipeline. The programme has already provided technical assistance to ten Commonwealth countries with plans to support another ten countries over the coming months.
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Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme
India’s external development assistance programmes in developing countries have increased significantly in their scope and coverage in the past few years. These include lines of credit, grant assistance, technical consultancy, disaster relief, humanitarian aid, educational scholarships and a wide range of capacity building programmes including short-term civilian and military training courses.
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UN Global Investment for Sustainable Development
The UNDP SDG Investor Platform provides data, information and insights on investment opportunities with potential to contribute to sustainable development. Explore SDG-aligned investment opportunities and get country level market intelligence on what is available in different sectors, regions or countries including on-the-ground insights on local investment landscape and investor connections.
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UN India Development Fund ‘Commonwealth Window’
The Commonwealth window of the India-UN Development Partnership Fund aims to catalyze the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries of the Commonwealth. The countries supported by this fund are located in various parts of the world and include some of the most vulnerable member states of the Commonwealth.
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UN Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund
The UN Joint SDG Fund supports ambitious proposals that aim to mobilise resources for achieving the SDGs. It is developing an impact-first portfolio to further develop proposals, including access to global SDG financing leaders in commercial banks, impact investing firms, development finance institutions and access to tailored coaching programmes.
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UNICEF Venture Fund
The Venture Fund is a UNICEF collaboration with innovators on the ground in UNICEF programme countries to build and test new solutions for challenges facing children. It makes $50–100K early-stage investments in innovation technology solutions that show potential to positively impact the lives of vulnerable children. The fund seeks to shape markets, learn from, and provoke technology sectors to benefit children.
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South-South Galaxy
Financing
South-South Galaxy provides Southern partners with information on available financing mechanisms acting as a conduit to strengthen efforts linking development finances with the investments that can be innovative and have multiplier effects.
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Capacity Development
South-South Galaxy also provides an array of capacity development activities organised to support South-South cooperation activities of development. They aim at strengthening the human and institutional capacities of developing countries in planning, managing and monitoring SSC, tackling policies, laws and regulations that are hampering their engagement in SSC.
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Global Innovation Fund
The Fund is a unique hybrid investment fund that supports the piloting, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the poorest people in developing countries. Investment supports a portfolio of innovations that collectively open up opportunities and improve the lives of millions of people across the developing world.
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Asian Development Bank – ADB Ventures
ADB Ventures is a facility of the Asian Development Bank that helps early-stage companies scale technologies that generate sustainable development impacts such as climate change, inclusive finance and gender equality. To achieve this, ADB Ventures invests in technology startups with solutions for emerging Asia, provides seed, early and early-growth stage capital, and partners with them across rounds. For very early-stage startups, ADB Ventures provide up to $200,000 funding to help overcome startups working capital and project financing requirements.
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Grants.gov
Grants.gov is an E-Government initiative that provides a centralised location for grant seekers to find and apply for federal funding opportunities. The system houses information on over 1,000 grant programs, vets grant applications for federal grant-making agencies, and makes it faster, easier and more cost effective for grant applicants to electronically interact with federal grant-making agencies.
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GIIG Africa Fund
GIIG has unique scouting opportunities for start-up categories linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals and include, but are not limited to Women In Tech, ESG Tech, Agri Tech, Health Tech, Commerce Tech and Industrial Tech. It is anticipated that through GSA Africa 10,000 + start-ups from 55 African countries will enter the pipeline, every year through a rigorous competition. From the 55 African countries and 12 categories, 12 winners will be announced, these will be invited to participate in investor engagement sessions with the GIIG Africa Team, where a needs based assessment will take place.
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InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF)
The ISF promotes the development of innovative and sustainable climate risk insurance products in developing countries to improve the resilience against the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. The fund provides grant-based co-funding of up to EUR 2.5m and advice to partnerships between public entities, private companies in the insurance sector, and NGOs to transform new climate risk insurance concepts into products ready for market placement.
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MAR Fund
The Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) Fund is an ecoregional planning and coordinating body which allocates funding for the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of the Mesoamerican Reef in the MAR region. The fund sustains and finances effective transnational alliances, policies, and practices that conserve the Mesoamerican Reef and advance the health and well-being of the region’s people.
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Compete Caribbean – Technology Extension Services (TES) Grants
Technical Extension Services (TES) is a type of innovation policy that governments have successfully used in other countries to accelerate the pace at which SMEs ‘catch up’ with more advanced firms by transferring knowledge about best practices. Areas include information technology, digital transactions and business development, climate change, financial performance management, operations and supply chain management, food safety, as well as industry 4.0 technology. TES grants aim to increase productivity and innovation in the Caribbean private sector.
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Oxford Science Enterprises
Oxford Science Enterprises is a £250 million fund for driving the creation and growth of transformational businesses built on ground-breaking Oxford innovations. The fund identifies exceptional University science research and provides initial funding, hands-on support and access to expert networks and start-up infrastructure, to create new spinouts across Life Sciences, Health Tech and Deep Tech.
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Cambridge Social Ventures
Cambridge Social Ventures supports a wide range of businesses with positive social impact. They operate in all in fields including health, transport, housing, ageing and education – from local to global in scale, from technology start up to public sector or university spinout and everything in between. It is designed for people who will drive their businesses forward to create real, scalable, lasting social change.
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GSMA Innovation Fund for Assistive Tech
The Global System for Mobile Communications Association is funding start-ups, small and medium enterprises and social enterprises in Africa and Asia with innovative solutions that drive digital inclusion. The fund is supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.