Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator Program

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales bold new solutions to disrupt global hunger and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

WFP is launching the Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator Program, powered by the WFP Innovation Accelerator, the Government of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, and the Austrian Development Cooperation. We are in search of high-impact innovative solutions that strive to solve emergency and humanitarian challenges faced by vulnerable populations and humanitarian actors.

The Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator Program aims to support technology-powered solutions addressing pressing global challenges faced in the humanitarian space. The program will select both early-stage and scale-up ventures and solution providers who will receive financial, technical, and methodological support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator, and other partners. Together with the brightest and best minds globally, we will be able to ultimately improve the lives of vulnerable communities.

What we offer

The Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator Program has been designed to support ventures and solutions at different stages of development. As a result, in order to flexibly address and prioritize challenges being faced by applicants and their solutions, the Program has two workstreams: 1) Scaling and 2) Early Stage. Based on the following solution maturity profiles, applicants can classify themselves between the two workstreams and present any relevant evidence of progress. Read more about these two workstreams here.

The selected ventures and solutions for both workstreams in the Program will:

Hands-on support & Coaching: Selected ventures will receive access to coaching support from the WFP Innovation Accelerator and relevant partners through the duration of their Sprints.

Funding: Selected ventures will be invited to participate in an entirely virtual WFP Innovation Bootcamp and a Pitch Event in Luxembourg in June 2023. These ventures will also be invited to apply to the WFP Sprint Program – a twelve-month acceleration program with equity free funding up to US$500,000 in the Scaling workstream and up to US$130,000 in the Early Stage workstream.

Mentorship and Global Access: Mentorship and access to a global network of relevant stakeholders in the humanitarian, business and international development cooperation space.

Solutions that have proven their concepts, scale, and value for social impact may qualify for further funding and support.

What we are looking for?

The Humanitarian Innovation Accelerator Program aims to leverage new technologies, new approaches, and new partnerships to improve and reduce risks in emergency management. Vulnerable communities affected by crises are at the core of the Programme’s engagement and it is based on the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, independence, and impartiality. Through this first cohort, we are seeking innovations that enhance emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and prevention through the use of the following technologies or approaches in humanitarian contexts:

Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
Space/Satellite Technology
Healthtech
Supply Chain and Logistics

More details about these topics can be found here.

We invite solutions, products, and/or business models that utilize the aforementioned technologies or functional domains to address “Saving Lives” in humanitarian settings with underlying challenges. We also encourage strong “wildcard ideas” to solving challenges in humanitarian contexts to apply.

Geographies of Interest: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Bhutan, Cabo Verde, Kosovo, Albania, Moldova, Georgia, Laos, Niger, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Armenia, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, Mali, Senegal and Ukraine.

Eligibility Criteria

Your organization must be an established legal entity (for-profit, non for profit, social business, NGO, INGO).
The applicant organization should have a presence or willingness to build a presence in the country of implementation in the form of a country office or other permanent presence, subsidiary, long-term operations or partnerships in the country, specifically with the relevant humanitarian actors.
Your innovation clearly addresses one or more of the priority innovation areas related to pressing global challenges faced in the humanitarian space.
Your innovation should match the solution maturity profile for either the Scaling or Early Stage workstream in the program.
Your innovation should have a clear pathway to scale and a potential plan to implement during the 6- to 12-month Sprint with the available funding.
Applicants are expected to have strong intentions to collaborate with relevant humanitarian stakeholders, build up soft links with the Luxembourgish and/or the Austrian economic sector, and connect with the innovation ecosystem of Luxembourg and Austria.
Applications from and cooperation with NGOs are highly encouraged.

Impact & Scalability: Applicants should have a defined vision, an identified target group, and be able to demonstrate the potential to solve the posed challenge(s).
Team: Applicants should be able to demonstrate having a diverse, non-discriminatory, and inclusive organization with demonstrated leadership and entrepreneurial mindset.
Novelty: Applicants should be able to show how their solution and business model are innovative while being technically suitable, and viable.
Traction: Applicants should be able to present evidence of feasibility and adoption by the target group.
Business Model: Applicants should demonstrate the viability of their business model, how they intend to achieve a sustainable business, pricing, and financial model.