WASHINGTON, November 13, 2009: Close to 5 million US dollar in grant money has been awarded to 26 innovative climate adaptation projects, through the 2009 Global Development Marketplace, a global competitive grant program to fund innovation in development.
This year’s contest—‘100 Ideas to Save the Planet’— set a simple challenge: come up with one idea from your own community to help save the planet and its people from the effects of climate change. This ninth annual Development Marketplace was co-sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the World Bank.
This year’s event, which ran from November 10-13, featured 100 finalists from 47 countries selected from over 1.700 project proposals. The winning concepts announced today will be implemented in East Asia and the Pacific (5), Europe and Central Asia (2), Latin America (13), the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa (5) and South Asia (2).
– The Development Marketplace is an important part of our mission to break down funding barriers and promote innovative entrepreneurial ideas at the grass-roots level, said Monique Barbut, Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Winning ideas receive up to 200.000 dollar in seed money, as well as guidance, and technical support as projects move into implementation. More than this though, all participants benefit from being able to hone their project design skills; by participating in knowledge and skills development sessions designed to help make them better development practitioners on their return home—win or lose.
Stand-out ideas from this year’s contest included:
• From Serbia: SZTR Sunce’s initiative to mitigate the effects of climate change induced bacterial blooms on commercial fishponds;
• From the Philippines: The University of the Philippines’ (Los Baños) ‘Bell and Bottle’ initiative – providing a low cost, high efficacy flood and landslide warning system;
• From Ecuador: International Network for Bamboo and Rattan’s idea to build elevated bamboo houses, essentially lifting communities in flood zones out of harm’s way;
This year’s contest took place amid a wider pre-Copenhagen international discussion around climate change and its effects on developing countries. Many ideas combined traditional knowledge with 21st-century technology, as participants found creative ways to innovate, taking cues from both the ancient and the modern. Ideas included painting rocks around glaciers white to slow melting, to leveraging mobile telephony and SMS technology to strengthen disaster preparedness.
– Agriculture is where climate change, food security and poverty reduction intersect. said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). – The Development Marketplace is an excellent platform for scouting and collecting new ideas from diverse sources, fostering innovative solutions, and developing partnerships in support of climate change adaptation.
About the Development Marketplace
The Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program that identifies and funds innovative, early-stage development projects with high potential for impact and replication. The program is supported by a consortium of partners including the World Bank.
This year’s contest gathered ideas around climate adaptation in developing countries, placing special focus on indigenous communities dealing with climate risks, climate adaptation and disaster risk management, and managing climate risks in ways that provide multiple benefits—eliciting ideas to help people deal with the effects of climate change, especially those living in some of the earth’s most vulnerable ecosystems.
