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Global Programme on Sustainability
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The programme supports sustainable economic growth that is both long-lasting and resilient to climate-related stressors. It does this through the integration of natural capital into decision making by governments, the private sector and financial institutions. The inability to value natural capital can undermine long-term growth and critically, the livelihoods of the poorest people dependent on ecosystems for their livelihoods. This programme directly addresses this challenge by (i) investing in data and research on natural capital; (ii) assisting countries to integrate this analysis into government policy making; and (iii) integrating this data and analysis into financial sector decision making.
Establishing and enhancing veterinary surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
This project aims to help establish effective surveillance for longer term capacity building for AMR in the terrestrial and aquatic veterinary sectors in selected LMICs, and to enhance veterinary medicines regulatory training.
Ocean Country Partnership Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) supports countries to manage the marine environment more sustainably, including by strengthening marine science expertise, developing science-based policy and management tools and creating educational resources for coastal communities. The programme is funded through official development assistance (ODA) as part of the UK’s £500 million Blue Planet Fund. Through the OCPP, the UK government partners with ODA-eligible countries to deliver positive impacts for coastal communities that depend on healthy marine ecosystems. Bilateral partnerships under the OCPP are primarily delivered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), agencies of the UK government that possess unique expertise in marine science and management. The OCPP also funds two international initiatives that align with its aims and help to develop global public goods, the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) and the Friends of Ocean Action (FOA). GOAP is a global, multi-stakeholder partnership established to enable countries and other stakeholders to effectively measure and manage progress towards sustainable ocean development. FOA is a platform hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, which brings together ocean leaders from a wide range of sectors to encourage action and investment into sustainable ocean projects. GOAP and FOA are both strategic partners of the OCPP, and are funded by the Blue Planet Fund (BPF). They do however remain independent organisations from OCPP, BPF, and Defra. Their work, and its intended outcomes and impacts, are strategically aligned with the OCPP and complement its programming in bilateral partnerships. GOAP and FOA were originally developed as separate business cases under the BPF, then in 2022 introduced as integrated components under OCPP to provide a clearer overall BPF offer to recipient countries. The investment to GOAP supports ODA-eligible countries to develop 'ocean accounts' to more accurately and comprehensively capture data on the natural capital assets contained within their oceans. Using this data - and through further technical, advisory, and capacity building support - GOAP aims to ensure that biodiversity is valued and integrated into policy making, decision making, and infrastructure investments in these countries, resulting in the inclusive and sustainable use and management of the ocean. An initial investment of £1million was awarded to GOAP in FY 2021/2. Following good performance in year one, a further £6million of investment was awarded, split evenly over FY's 2022/3, 23/4, and 24/5; giving a total of £7million. From December 2023, following evidence of strong value for money, this investment has since been uplifted to a total of £14.2million, involving new and expanded scope for certain activities, as well as extending the strategic partnership into FY 2025/6. FOA is a multi-stakeholder platform hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, which brings together ocean leaders from a wide range of sectors to encourage action and investment into sustainable ocean projects. FOA, working closely with the High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy, aims to mobilise ocean leaders to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. Through OCPP the investment supports pillars of FOA's work that strategically align with OCPP's own outcomes. There was an initial investment of £1million to FOA in FY 2021/2. After FOA performed well against investment and performance criteria in year one, a further investment of £2million was awarded in both FY's 2022/3 and 2023/4; rounding total investment for FOA to £5million.
Darwin Initiative
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Darwin Initiative is the UK’s flagship international challenge fund for biodiversity conversation and poverty reduction, established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The Darwin Initiative is a grant scheme working on projects that aim to slow, halt, or reverse the rates of biodiversity loss and degradation, with associated reductions in multidimensional poverty. To date, the Darwin Initiative has awarded more than £195m to over 1,280 projects in 159 countries to enhance the capability and capacity of national and local stakeholders to deliver biodiversity conservation and multidimensional poverty reduction outcomes in low and middle-income countries. More information at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/the-darwin-initiative. This page contains information about Rounds 27 onwards. For information about Rounds 1 to 26, please see the Darwin Initiative website -https://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/
Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a widespread and lucrative criminal activity causing major global environmental and social harm. The IWT has been estimated to be worth up to £17 billion a year. Nearly 6,000 different species of fauna and flora are impacted, with almost every country in the world playing a role in the illicit trade. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal trade of wildlife products and is a long-standing leader in efforts to eradicate the IWT. Defra manages the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, which is a competitive grants scheme with the objective of tackling IWT and, in doing so, contributing to sustainable development in developing countries. Projects funded under the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund address one, or more, of the following themes: • Developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by IWT, • Strengthening law enforcement, • Ensuring effective legal frameworks, • Reducing demand for IWT products. By 2023 over £51 million has been committed to 157 projects since the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund was established in 2013. This page contains information about Rounds 7 onwards. For information about Rounds 1 to 6, please see the IWTCF website -https://iwt.challengefund.org.uk/
Technical and Societal Innovation for Delivering Access to Community Wide Affordable Cylindered CBG for Cooking and Sustainable Fertiliser
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Natural Synergies Ltd (NS) Industrial Research project "Technical/Societal Innovation for Delivering Community Wide Affordable Cylindered CBG for Cooking and Sustainable Fertiliser" is to establish new data and knowledge, which would eventually lead to establishing an demonstration waste to energy process based around an advanced anaerobic digestion treatment process that has been developed by NS. This seminal development work will utilise a sectoral system of innovation which will eventually lead to nationwide joint partnerships, between NS the (technology provider) and poorer sectors of the local community. NS together with project partners, are involved in a project that concerns advanced pre-treatment and processing of faecal sludge and organic waste, providing enhanced, efficient energy security/generation, utilising locally available resource and GHG emission savings. NS aims in this Industrial Research project, to develop a stand-alone enhanced energy pre-processing technology, for rural and peri-urban locations in developing countries, increasing the efficiency of energy generation for the supply of affordable clean energy, for cooking and transport to the poor and marginalised local community and also with the production and supply of a sustainable source of fertiliser to local farmers. The decentralised and localised waste to energy plant, will also serve as a low cost faecal sludge management system and organic waste treatment facility, preventing the dumping of waste into waterways and land, providing benefits to both the environment and health to the local community. During the course of the project, the team will work in close co-operation with existing co-operatives and where necessary, expand and create further entrepreneurial partnerships, encouraging women's empowerment, social inclusion and security in the overall waste supply chain and product sales and marketing. This will lead to establishing a circular economy for waste treatment with close co-operation between the energy plant operator and the local community. Although specialised components will be sourced in the UK, NS will establish non-specialised component manufacture/build using local industries leading to job creation in DC, economies in plant build, short inbound/outbound feedstock and product supply logistics, marketing, sales and service supply chain.
Technical and Societal Innovation for Delivering Access to Community Wide Affordable Cylindered CBG for Cooking and Sustainable Fertiliser
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Natural Synergies Ltd (NS) Industrial Research project "Technical/Societal Innovation for Delivering Community Wide Affordable Cylindered CBG for Cooking and Sustainable Fertiliser" is to establish new data and knowledge, which would eventually lead to establishing an demonstration waste to energy process based around an advanced anaerobic digestion treatment process that has been developed by NS. This seminal development work will utilise a sectoral system of innovation which will eventually lead to nationwide joint partnerships, between NS the (technology provider) and poorer sectors of the local community. NS together with project partners, are involved in a project that concerns advanced pre-treatment and processing of faecal sludge and organic waste, providing enhanced, efficient energy security/generation, utilising locally available resource and GHG emission savings. NS aims in this Industrial Research project, to develop a stand-alone enhanced energy pre-processing technology, for rural and peri-urban locations in developing countries, increasing the efficiency of energy generation for the supply of affordable clean energy, for cooking and transport to the poor and marginalised local community and also with the production and supply of a sustainable source of fertiliser to local farmers. The decentralised and localised waste to energy plant, will also serve as a low cost faecal sludge management system and organic waste treatment facility, preventing the dumping of waste into waterways and land, providing benefits to both the environment and health to the local community. During the course of the project, the team will work in close co-operation with existing co-operatives and where necessary, expand and create further entrepreneurial partnerships, encouraging women's empowerment, social inclusion and security in the overall waste supply chain and product sales and marketing. This will lead to establishing a circular economy for waste treatment with close co-operation between the energy plant operator and the local community. Although specialised components will be sourced in the UK, NS will establish non-specialised component manufacture/build using local industries leading to job creation in DC, economies in plant build, short inbound/outbound feedstock and product supply logistics, marketing, sales and service supply chain.
SMART-SIP+ - Innovative approaches to downstream energy utilisation from solar irrigation pumps in Bangladesh
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Aim of this project is to drive forward a large-scale clean energy transition in rural communities in Bangladesh through the design, development and demonstration of smart energy systems which exploit the excess electricity from Solar Irrigation Pumps (SIPs). Context: People/Place: Bangladesh is ranked 7th in the Climate Risk Index 60% of the population (c.100M people) rely on agriculture as their main income source. Intensification of irrigation practices: Allows an additional rice crop (55% of total) to be grown during the dry season (Jan-May). 6M irrigation pumps are used including 1.2M tube-wells powered by diesel engines consuming 1MT/yr imported diesel, emitting 3MT of CO2 (c.4% of Bangladesh’s annual gross emission) Replacement of diesel pumps with SIPs provides a critical route to reliable distributed clean energy. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), supported by key state organisations, propose a roadmap to deliver 45,000 SIPs replacing 200,000 diesel pumps by 2031. SIPs are sized to provide sufficient water during peak irrigation demand (100-150 days per year), so only 40 to 60% of the potential electricity generation of the panels is required for irrigation. The ADB report estimates that the 45,000 replacement SIPs will produce 480GWH/yr of surplus electricity. The current recommended method for utilisation of excess electricity is export to grid, but this often requires expensive grid extension, connection and metering. Post-harvest storage/ processing of crops: Fruit and vegetable production is c.17MT/yr, but post-harvest losses range from 25-40%, whilst farmers obtain a poor price due to surplus supply during peak seasons. Both can be alleviated by the availability of cold storage facilities; however, these are limited in Bangladesh owing to high capex/ energy costs. Additional processing of cereals, fruit and vegetables can add value and reduce losses (milling, drying, juicing), but require energy. These factors present a clear opportunity to leverage the excess electricity from SIPs and utilise it locally and smartly to support agriculture and rural communities. The challenge is that techno-economically validated pathways to seize this opportunity are currently not available to potential users (farmers), operators, investors and policymakers. To meet this challenge our project has the following objectives: Capture demand and supply requirements around SIP locations and their local communities into a structured knowledge base. Address key questions surrounding the design, sizing, and smart operation of farm-based microgrids powered by SIP systems. Tailor system solutions to unique local conditions. Provide socio-technical, techno-economic and Life Cycle Assessments of proposed solutions. Build Decision Support Systems and physical field testing and demonstration sites to enable investors/ decision makers to explore the nature and scale of the opportunity and drive strategic innovation, investment, and policy. Build capacity, capability, and resilience within rural communities by co-creating and co-delivering solutions that ensure equitable access to energy and economic development opportunities. Ayrton Challenges – Super Efficient Demand/ Smart Delivery/ Smart Energy Systems/ Sustainable Cooling/ Inclusive Energy Applications/ Benefits: Results/lessons from this work will also inform solarisation of the >10M diesel irrigation pumps that are currently operated in other Southern Asian countries. Bangladesh is categorised as a ‘Least Developed Country’. By improving access to local reliable and affordable clean energy this project will promote socio-economic development by enhancing business performance and stimulating growth; and reduce poverty and inequality of farming communities (particularly for women), increasing income and employment opportunities and building capacity and capability.
Transformative Economic Policy Programme - Bangladesh (TEPP)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To improve economic policymaking in Bangladesh through technical assistance to government, strengthening expertise of local think tanks and publishing economic data.
UK Aid Match II Fund
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To support the achievement of the Global Goals through funding UK-based civil society organisations to deliver projects that assist in ending extreme poverty and building a better world by 2030. The programme will also provide opportunities for the UK public to engage in international development issues and have a say in how a portion of the aid budget is spent.
The Evidence Fund - 300708
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
The Evidence Fund procures and manages research and evaluations that primarily benefit ODA eligible countries. Most research and evaluations paid for by the Evidence Fund are country-specific, and all respond to requests for evidence to inform programme or policy decisions. Primarily serving research requests from HMG’s Embassies and High Commissions in ODA eligible countries, and from HMG policy and strategy teams, the Evidence Fund strengthens the evidence behind the UK’s priority international development investments and development diplomacy. The Evidence Fund also invests modest amounts of non-ODA, to strengthen the evidence behind wider UK foreign policy.
Rohingya Response and National Resilience Programme (RRNRP)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To improve protection and quality of humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya population living in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, so that they can live full and meaningful lives. This to be done peacefully living alongside host communities, for whom the impacts of the crisis need to be reduced and development opportunities provided. The programme marks a shift in FCDO’s (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) response to the crisis by providing longer term, predictable support to address the needs of both refugees and host communities. Whilst the focus will be on sustaining and improving the humanitarian operation through provision of quality basic services, there will be a specific focus on stimulating the economy, rehabilitating the environment, and promoting stability for both populations’ benefit. The programme aim to support COVID-19 and early emergency recovery support for national resilience by providing support to the national COVID-19 and disaster response.
Partnerships for Development
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
Partnerships for Development (formerly known as GREAT for Partnership) will multiply the UK’s development impact by boosting partnerships between UK’s institutions and their counterparts in the developing world. It will leverage the skills and expertise from a range of UK institutions and supply them initially to DFID partner countries, based on tailored demand. It will initially prioritise the Extractives, Financial Accountability and Anti-Corruption sectors.
Bangladesh Climate and Environment Programme (BCEP)
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To help deliver a more climate resilient, less carbon intensive and cleaner Bangladesh. The programme will help tackle adaptation, energy, environmental management and climate governance challenges at national and local level, in communities across Bangladesh.
Democratic Resilience Platform
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To provide a platform to enable programmes to be developed to improve the governance and democracy of FCDO priority countries.
OODA GCRF and Newton Consolidation Accounts University of Exeter
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The GNCAs represent an additional allocation from BEIS designed to reinvest in excellent UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund programmes and enable them to maximise development impact. This involves instances where funding can be utilized to 9 original grant objectives affected by the ODA review, or opportunities for new follow-on, knowledge exchange or impact activities. In either case, the funding is targeted to support research along the route to achieving economic or social impact in countries on the OECD DAC list.
OODA GCRF and Newton Consolidation Accounts - Queen Mary University of London
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The GNCAs represent an additional allocation from BEIS designed to reinvest in excellent UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund programmes and enable them to maximise development impact. This involves instances where funding can be utilized to 9 original grant objectives affected by the ODA review, or opportunities for new follow-on, knowledge exchange or impact activities. In either case, the funding is targeted to support research along the route to achieving economic or social impact in countries on the OECD DAC list.
OODA GCRF and Newton Consolidation Accounts - Cardiff University
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The GNCAs represent an additional allocation from BEIS designed to reinvest in excellent UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund programmes and enable them to maximise development impact. This involves instances where funding can be utilized to 9 original grant objectives affected by the ODA review, or opportunities for new follow-on, knowledge exchange or impact activities. In either case, the funding is targeted to support research along the route to achieving economic or social impact in countries on the OECD DAC list.
Human Rights Magna Carta Programming
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
To improve human rights and provide better access across the world by providing posts with funding for small flexible programme
British Council: Official Development Assistance (ODA) support
UK - Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Strengthening cultural and educational development by building skills and capacity and by creating new opportunities and connections with the UK