Humanitarian Innovation Fund’s (HIF) small grant facility is always open to accepting proposals round the year. However, before applying for this opportunity, it is important to understand what humanitarian assistance is. Unlike any other direct intervention or assistance to the community, the humanitarian assistance involves providing services to the needy community facing or those remaining at the risk of a humanitarian crisis such as natural disaster.
According to the Global Humanitarian Assistance, the humanitarian assistance includes:
- Material relief assistance and services (shelter, water, medicines etc.);
- Emergency food aid (short-term distribution and supplementary feeding programmes);
- Relief coordination, protection and support services (coordination, logistics and communications).
- Reconstruction relief and rehabilitation (repairing pre-existing infrastructure as opposed to longer-term activities designed to improve the level of infrastructure;
- Disaster prevention and preparedness (disaster risk reduction, early warning systems, contingency stocks and planning).
However, simply listing the above activities in a proposal and submitting it will not be enough to apply for funding from HIF. It is necessary to ensure that your project is innovative – it should lead to testing of new ideas with the use of modern technologies. It should also involve other partners and stakeholders like the local government agency, research institution, academic organization or a community-based mechanism in your project area which can enhance the sustainability of your efforts. The project should also be scalable – which means its strategy can be replicated elsewhere and its success can be widely disseminated.
The focus of this project funding is innovation. NGOs need to brainstorm themselves to understand and develop innovative projects before applying for HIF.
