UK Aid Connect will support consortia to create innovative solutions to complex development challenges that deliver real change to poor people’s lives.

What the fund will achieve

The world has seen substantial success on poverty reduction. However, 1.2 billion people remain in extreme poverty. There is a growing recognition that the problems facing the poorest most excluded people and the global challenges underlying those problems, are complex and interconnected. No single development actor has all the answers. Coalitions and collaboration bring new and creative ideas, innovation, better results and opportunities through pooled ideas, skills and resources. DFID wants to bring those qualities together in coalitions that address key development challenges in the following priority thematic areas:

Phase 1

• promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights
• disability inclusion
• working towards global security and stability
• building civil society effectiveness

Phase 2

• building open societies
• tackling child labour and modern slavery
• addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion
• supporting tolerance and freedom of religion or belief

The consortia will undertake action research, trialling new approaches and testing the viability of scaling up effective approaches to produce rigorous and influential evidence and learning. The specific results delivered by each consortium will in part be determined by the nature of the issues to be addressed in those particular policy and thematic areas. However, we envisage the consortia will produce rigorous and influential practical evidence, knowledge and learning. The rigorous evidence and learning produced by the consortia will be used to implement and scale up these innovative solutions to deliver real change to poor people’s lives in low and middle income countries.

How to apply

Applications will be made through a one-stage process – the submission of a proposal by the consortium lead.

Background information on the fund

The Terms of Reference for each of the themes will set out the background on UK Aid Connect and the process for submitting the proposal. A strong proposal will provide quality ideas and articulate how those ideas will bring about lasting change. We do not expect to see a full programme design. This will be undertaken with DFID during the co-creation phase.

Between now and 31 July, DFID will convene a series of open meetings to discuss the key development challenges in the thematic areas. Information on these events are set out in the information note.

Contact

Please e-mail enquiries to [email protected]