The Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance Prize Competition 2024 aims to recognize transformative work and innovative practices in local leadership by women-led organizations (WLOs) and women’s rights organizations (WROs) working on humanitarian issues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Mali and Ukraine.
This prize competition is funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). It was designed and is being implemented in partnership with USAID’s Exploratory Programs and Innovation Competitions (EPIC) team and the Innovative Design, Execution and Acceleration Support (IDEAS) mechanism. The IDEAS mechanism is comprised of Encompass LLC, which hosts the application site, DT Global International Development UK Ltd, responsible for supporting applicants and judges and Challenge Works, responsible for competition design.
This year, USAID/BHA is proud to offer one grand prize award of $250,000 USD and five additional prize awards worth $150,000 USD each. Winning a prize not only provides vital funding, but also serves as a powerful endorsement of your submitted work. While we would like to recognize winning organizations publicly, we will work with winning organizations if there are safety concerns in being publicly recognized, as described in the Publicity section of the Terms and Conditions document of this prize competition.
We encourage all WLOs and WROs operating in the DRC, Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Mali and Ukraine with at least two years of humanitarian experience in the country to apply (see further details in Eligibility Criteria).
We look forward to receiving your submission.
BACKGROUND
Local leadership is a critical component of effective and sustainable humanitarian assistance. Efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to crises, and to build future resilience must account for the unique needs of the affected groups and be based on local voices. Local leadership in policy-making, planning and design, implementation, coordination, and learning is critical to ensuring that approaches in humanitarian response reflect the context, are appropriate and sustainable, and are targeted and reach the most vulnerable. USAID recognizes this and has just released its new Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance Policy, which will be led by BHA.
Nonetheless, barriers to local leadership exist within humanitarian assistance, especially for women. These barriers can include, but are not limited to:
- Non-inclusive attitudes and norms;
- Work burden (unpaid);
- Exclusion from decision-making bodies;
- Lack of opportunities for engagement and access to resources;
- Disempowerment; and
- Lower levels of education.
To help tackle this problem and recognize local humanitarian leadership, USAID/BHA is awarding one grand prize of $250,000 USD and five additional prizes worth $150,000 USD each to celebrate trailblazing WLOs and WROs leading positive change in the humanitarian sector. USAID/BHA intends to celebrate the winning approaches online, in a virtual award ceremony, in humanitarian forums, and as case studies about innovative locally led humanitarian assistance. If you have any concerns about the publication of information on your organization, please contact us before completing your submission.
PRIZE COMPETITION GOALS AND SCOPE
The Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance Prize Competition 2024: Women-Led and Women’s Rights Organizations Making a Difference aims to recognize locally led innovative approaches to humanitarian assistance by women-led organizations (WLOs) and women’s rights organizations (WROs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Mali and Ukraine.
This prize competition is recognizing and rewarding innovative approaches that have already been established and developed.
PLEASE SEE THE FULL COMPETITION HANDBOOK, TERMS & CONDITIONS, AND TRANSLATED VERSIONS ON THE RESOURCES PAGE.
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INFORMATION WEBINAR:
When: Oct 22, 2024 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://encompassworld.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_H8HCWaLiROWTQCONWyaDDg
