Call for Partnership for Global Media Defence Fund
- Funding agency:
- UNESCO
- Status:
- awarded
- Location:
- Worldwide
Share
Print
Co-Develop grantees
Details
Location:
Worldwide
Funding agency:
Grantmaking entity:
Status:
Awarded
Budget:
N/A
Award ceiling:
N/A
Award floor:
N/A
Sector:
ICT & Telecommunications, Research & Innovation
Languages:
English
Eligible applicants:
Unrestricted / Unspecified
Eligible applicant countries:
Worldwide
Date posted:
Oct 27, 2026
Description
Investments
Co-Develop is a global non-profit fund helping countries accelerate their digital transformation journeys, by leveraging safe and inclusive shared digital public infrastructure (DPI) at scale.
The technology choices that countries make today will impact the course of their digitization effort for several decades. To drive toward a fairer future, countries need to have greater agency over how to leverage key technologies in improving development outcomes for their citizens in the years to come.
Early indications suggest that many countries will be making key design decisions as they move to set up DPI over the next five years. Co-Develop’s role is to enable countries to leverage shared digital infrastructure thinking that is inclusive, safe, and equitable. Since countries have expressed a keen desire to improve development outcomes, we will work with numerous stakeholders to accelerate countries’ capabilities and help them consider tradeoffs as they implement these transformational systems.
We make investments in organizations working across four broad categories:
-
Technical Assistance Providers – Organizations that engage with governments on design choices, policy considerations, with a focus on inclusion and safeguards.
-
Proven Digital Public Goods – Organizations that build and maintain reusable open-source code bases that can help build DPI and have already been deployed at population scale in other geographies.
-
Enable Local and Ecosystem-wide Capacity – Initiatives that help governments, civil society, and system integrators/ vendors develop technical, policy, and implementation capabilities as they design and deploy DPI.
-
Research and Policy Institutions – Organizations that measure and research DPI’s impact and harms and disseminate good practices on questions of governance, financing, inclusion, and more.
Co-Develop provides flexible “upstream” funding to help unlock bottlenecks to designing, financing, and implementing inclusive and safe digitisation, leveraging shared digital infrastructure. Our process typically includes the following:
-
Source – Co-Develop engages with development institutions, civil society, digital public goods, researchers, and other ecosystem stakeholders to identify potential opportunities for funding that align with our guiding principles.
-
Co-Develop – Investment opportunities are co-developed, meaning we co-curate the opportunity. Often the solution isn’t obvious and requires a collaborative, rapid iteration cycle. During this process, we conduct due diligence on each other.
-
Invest – We jointly align on the final investment opportunity and present it to an Investment Committee. We do not request proposals.
-
Execute – We collaborate regularly with our investment partners. We are light on formal reporting and heavy on ideation, iteration, and collaboration to achieve our mutual objectives.
Our Approach: Making Investments to Combat DPI Bottlenecks
Co-Develop will mobilize financial and other resources, make grants, and disseminate best practices in order to address the bottlenecks described above. Our core activities are the following:
Pool capital (philanthropic and bilateral) to focus resources and expertise
Co-Develop pools capital from numerous actors to reduce donor funding fragmentation and enable deeper and broader investments that can support the development of inclusive digital solutions that take an infrastructure approach. An early example includes our support for G2P Connect. In addition, wherever possible we work with other funders to draw additional capital in this space.
Capitalize on Political Windows
As a small and nimble entity, Co-Develop can move quickly during periods of political and institutional alignment. This speed allows us to work within political cycles to create successes that can catalyze additional external investment or domestic funding models.
Make investments to support the scaling of proven solutions that take the infrastructure approach
Co-Develop’s grants are our most powerful tool to enable adoption of digital solutions in countries, which take an infrastructure approach. Our support is intended to address the challenges described above. Specifically, we will make investments in four areas :
• Support and harmonize technical assistance for deployment of digital solutions to help governments implement cross-cutting systems with a clear focus on inclusion, safeguards, and equity.
• Invest in proven solutions that leverage the infrastructure approach to increase the availability of such ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions.
• Enable local and ecosystem-wide capacity to help governments, civil society, and vendors develop technical, policy, and implementation capabilities as they deploy digital solutions.
• Support research and policy efforts to diffuse policies, consultative approaches, and governance models that support safe, equitable, and inclusive digitisation.
To maximize our impact over the short term, Co-Develop will focus on: proven Solutions with an infrastructure approach that are ready to scale, countries that articulate a clear demand for population scale solutions, and implementations that are use-case driven, have appropriate governance, and deploy at societal scale. For more information on our investment approach, see here.
Hidden
grant Background
About the Funding Agency
A nonprofit organization, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a shared point of view. Nonprofits are tax exempt or charitable. They can operate in religious, scientific, research, or educational settings.
In order to see NGO opportunities on DevelopmentAid, please click here.
About the Sectors
ICT & Telecommunications
Features information and communication technologies, digital systems, and telecommunications infrastructure and services.
Key areas:
- ICT systems, software, and digital solutions
- Telecommunications networks and services
- Digitalization, data, and communication tools
Research & Innovation
Focuses on collecting data, generating new knowledge, and applying it to develop improved methods, technologies, products, and solutions across sectors.
Key areas:
- Scientific research, studies, and investigations
- Innovation programs and applied R&D initiatives
- Technology development
- Space-related research and exploration themes
Frequently Asked Questions
Haven't found what you're looking for? Get in touch with us using our contact page.
Where can I find international grant opportunities?
DevelopmentAid collects grant opportunities from bilateral donors, multilateral agencies, foundations, and international organizations in one centralized platform.
Who can apply for grants listed on DevelopmentAid?
Grants are typically open to NGOs, civil society organizations, research institutions, public entities, and sometimes private organizations or consortia.
Does DevelopmentAid help with grant applications?
DevelopmentAid does not write or submit applications, but it provides access to full call details, guidelines, deadlines, and donor information needed to apply.