Development Marketplace 2007

World Bank to Fund Best Ideas for Improving Health and Nutrition for Poor

Under its world-wide Development Marketplace (DM) program, the World Bank is looking to award at least US$4 million for innovative, local projects that provide unique solutions to improving Health, Nutrition and Population for the Poor. The Development Marketplace 2006-2007 program reflects the World Bank’s determination to support local ideas that improve the lives of poor people worldwide. Proposals should be submitted in English before November 17, 2006.

Whether it’s using scrap tires to reduce seismic risk in buildings in Turkey, providing purified and desalinizated water by solar systems in Turkey, conserving biodiversity through wood sale auctions in Latvia, recycling discarded plastic into usable objects in Burkina Faso, developing fly-fishing eco-tourism in Mongolia, or using discarded wool as insulation material in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the key word behind the competition is innovation. The Development Marketplace is open to anyone - civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, youth organizations, private foundations, academia, and private sector corporations -- with a brilliant but unusual idea that may not get funded through traditional venues. The maximum award will be US$200,000 per proposal.

Proposals for this year should address one of these categories:

• Innovative mechanisms to reach vulnerable groups; 
• Public-private partnerships to improve delivery of health goods and services;
• Innovative inter-sectoral linkages, such as improving water supply, sanitation services, indoor air pollution, roads, etc., for illness/disease/injury prevention;
• Cost-effective approaches/methods/technologies to improve local capacity to gather, analyze and apply health, nutrition and population data.

Finalists will be announced on February 8, 2007. Finalists will present their ideas at the Global Development Marketplace & Knowledge Exchange event in Washington in May 2007, where winners will be selected by an independent jury comprised of leading representatives of academia, civil society, foundations, government, donors and the World Bank.

Please visit Development Marketplace 2007 website for more