Fleming Fund - Country and Regional Grants and Fellowships Programme

UK - Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

The Fleming Fund helps low- and middle-income countries to fight antimicrobial resistance. A management agent has been appointed to deliver: country grants 24 low- and middle-income countries, regional grants in West Africa, East and Southern Africa, South Asia and South East Asia, and a global fellowships programme. These initiatives aim to improve laboratory capacity and diagnosis as well as data and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Through the country and regional grants and the fellowships programme the Fleming Fund will: build laboratory capacity for diagnosis; collect data on drug resistance, drug quality, drug use and the burden of disease associated with AMR; enable the sharing of data relevant to AMR locally, regionally, and internationally; encourage the application of data to promote the rational use of antimicrobials; shape a sustainable system for AMR surveillance and data sharing; and increase national leadership in addressing AMR. Projects funded through Fleming Fund will benefit people in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of drug resistant infection is greater.

Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund Round 4

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is the fifth most lucrative transnational crime, worth up to £17bn a year globally. As well as threatening species with extinction, IWT destroys vital ecosystems. IWT also fosters corruption, feeds insecurity, and undermines good governance and the rule of law. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal trade of wildlife products. Defra manages the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, which is a competitive grants scheme with the objective of tackling illegal wildlife trade 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 Over £23 million has been committed to 75 projects since the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund was established in 2013; five projects were awarded in 2014 (via applications to the Darwin Initiative), fourteen in 2015, fifteen in 2016, thirteen in 2017, fourteen in 2018 and in the latest round in 2019. This round of funding includes the following projects (details of which can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/811381/iwt-project-list-2019.pdf): IWT048, IWT049, IWT050, IWT051, IWT052, IWT053, IWT054, IWT055, IWT056, IWT057, IWT058, IWT059, IWT0760, IWT061.

Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain Solutions

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

This activity supports a number of different areas of work which aim to accelerate the climate benefits of the Kigali Amendment (KA) to the Montreal Protocol (MP) and encourage uptake of energy efficient and climate friendly solutions. This includes (1) The creation of an African Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chains (ACES) in Rwanda. ACES will accelerate deployment of sustainable (environmental, economic and social) cold-chain solutions throughout Africa. (2) The development and deployment of an HFC outlook model to address information gaps on energy use and energy related CO2 emissions from the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pumps (RACHP) market. It will assist in reducing cost of the transition for Article 5 countries to the Montreal Protocol and increase the climate benefit of action under the MP. (3) Increasing countries technical capacity and providing insights on global best practice of EE improvements of cooling products in parallel with HFC phase down, through model regulations and sustainable public procurement in ASEAN and Africa.

A contribution to Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) the United Nations Development Programme Biodiversity Finance Initiative (Biofin) to support delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The programme will support low and lower-middle income countries to grow their economies in ways that help to protect and restore their natural capital and so drive sustainable economic development. It is designed to provide practical support to governments, businesses, and financial institutions to integrate nature into their economic and financial decision-making, understand and manage nature-related risks, and capitalise on growing opportunities to invest in their natural assets. As such, it will support low and lower-middle income countries to transition to nature positive, net zero economies and so protect the poorest communities. Through an integrated set of activities, the programme will deliver the following outcomes: • Private Sector Disclosure Readiness: private sector actors in low and lower-middle income countries – including financial institutions, businesses, and policy-makers - will have the tools they need to understand and manage nature-related financial risk. In particular, the programme will ensure that key institutions have the tools and capacity to respond to growing demand to disclose nature-related financial risk. • Integrating nature at country level: governmental and regulatory decision-makers in low and lower-middle income countries will have the knowledge, skills and data to design and implement policies and programmes that will help to manage nature-related risks, unlock new nature markets, and rebuild natural capital. • Action Plans for Nature: partner governments will develop clear and comprehensive plans to finance the protection and restoration of nature. These plans will act as platforms to mobilise and guide both public and private financial flows. • Evidence Sharing Mechanisms on Nature: better evidence will be available to, and used by, decision makers in low and lower middle-income countries to guide their work. The programme will help to build the evidence about how to best integrate consideration of the natural environment into economic and financial decision making. It will also help decision-makers in governments and the private sector to access and use that evidence easily by building communities of practice and robust approaches to sharing knowledge and information. The outcomes will support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting COP15. As protection and restoration of critical ecosystems is also critical to tackling climate change, it will also support the UK goal to keep global temperature rises within 1.5c degrees.

Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund Round 7

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.

• 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 round of funding includes the following projects: IWT086 to IWT107. Further information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/illegal-wildlife-trade-challenge-fund-iwtcf (Language: English)

Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund Round 9

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.

• 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 round of funding includes the following projects: IWTEX002-003, IWTEV009-018, IWT121-129. Further information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/illegal-wildlife-trade-challenge-fund-iwtcf (Language: English)

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 and https://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/

Land Degradation Neutrality Fund

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The LDN Fund invests in projects which reduce or reverse land degradation and thereby contribute to ‘Land Degradation Neutrality’. The LDN Fund is co-promoted by the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova. It is a public-private partnership using public money to increase private sector investment in sustainable development. The fund invests in sustainable agriculture, forestry and other land uses globally. The Fund was launched at the UNCCD’s COP 13 in China in 2017.

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.

Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund Round 3

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is the fifth most lucrative transnational crime, worth up to £17bn a year globally. As well as threatening species with extinction, IWT destroys vital ecosystems. IWT also fosters corruption, feeds insecurity, and undermines good governance and the rule of law. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal trade of wildlife products. Defra manages the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, which is a competitive grants scheme with the objective of tackling illegal wildlife trade 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 Over £23 million has been committed to 75 projects since the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund was established in 2013; five projects were awarded in 2014 (via applications to the Darwin Initiative), fourteen in 2015, fifteen in 2016, thirteen in 2017, fourteen in 2018 and in the latest round in 2019. This round of funding includes the following projects (details of which can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/811381/iwt-project-list-2019.pdf). The projects that a relevant for this area are IWT035 to IWT047.

Darwin Initiative Round 23

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication.

Darwin Initiative Round 26

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication

Darwin Initiative Round 24

Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs

The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication

Towards Low Cost Soil Fertility Sensor Systems for Smallholder Food Security in Kenya

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Food security is one of the "big four" agenda initiatives championed by the Kenyan Government. More than 80% of Kenya's population is dependent upon agriculture for employment, income, or food security needs (FAO) and a large proportion of the population are food insecure, for example 26% of children under 5 years of age suffer from malnutrition (UNICEF). The food security challenge is intensified by: reducing size of land parcels as a result of population growth; farmers being pushed into dryer lower quality land areas vulnerable to drought; conflicts resulting from competition for land; and people dropping out of nomadic life to move to settled communities dependent upon food aid (FAO). To address this, increases in agricultural productivity are needed. An important way to improve crop yield relates to better soil fertility. Optimising fertiliser strategies for soil can be summed up as: Right Source, Right Rate, Right Place, Right Time. For the greatest impact, this requires in-field measurement tools that can be used by farmers to understand the spatial changes in nutrient concentration within a field, and how these vary over time. No technology currently exists that allows this to be carried out at very low cost. The alternative to in-field testing is the use of soil laboratories in Nairobi, but these are expensive to use, far away from the farm and provide a single measurement which is not representative of the whole area farmed. In consequence, most smallholders are in the dark about the nutrition status of their soil and how it changes in response to different soil amendment approaches. This project will help address the measurement challenge by developing a new kind of sensor that can be used by farmers at very low cost to regularly test for two key soil macro-nutrients, called nitrate and phosphate. The project will take inspiration from ancient art and design based printing processes, combined with locally available natural materials (e.g. chimney soot, egg, newspaper and enzymes from plants and bacteria available within Kenya) to make extremely low cost soil sensors. By adopting a "co-creation" based philosophy, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Kenyatta University in Nairobi and Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow will build a collaboration to deliver a step change in sensing technology for smallholder farmers in Kenya. This will be achieved by initially developing the sensor in the UK, employing a researcher from Kenya. Once a proof of concept has been created, the researcher will return to Kenya with the knowledge and understanding to recreate the sensor and test performance in greenhouse trials. The project will also involve a series of workshops where we will engage communities, industry and policy makers to ensure that we create user led solutions to address food security within Kenya. In the long term, this could be delivered to farmers either as a "factory in a box" containing the tools needed for sensor manufacture, or simply as an information pack that shows how to gather the resources required and print sensors. The project could also influence the wider region: 20 million people across Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are food insecure (Worldbank, 2022), and face similar challenges. Parallel benefits also exist for UK innovation, where knowledge and learning from this project could support the manufacture of nature based and zero waste sensors to support UK agriculture and the transition to net zero.

British Council - Convening for strategic collaboration: the ISPF Kenya Collaborative -International Science Partnerships Fund

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Building on the British Council's convening power and strong partnerships in Kenya, the programme will engage potential Kenya ISPF partners and grantees through initial consultation to scope out a process for regular peer-to-peer exchanges once the fund is underway. This initiative aims to foster robust cross-partnership collaboration, enhancing efficiencies and maximizing impact. It is expected to result in thematic convenings, the sharing of best practices, and the identification of lessons learned through a structured process overseen by the British Council in Kenya. The process will address scalability and replicability of approaches and outputs, aiming to foster cross-partner and cross-grantee connections while integrating sustainability and long-term impact from the outset. The British High Commission, fully supportive of this approach, has suggested co-chairing the collaborative effort with the British Council, which provides an excellent opportunity to link with other UK-funded programmes. The proposed strategy promises a more coherent portfolio of work, enabling DSIT and the UK in Kenya to develop a stronger offer and narrative when engaging with Kenyan Government counterparts. Furthermore, this programme is ODA eligible, as its primary objective is to promote the economic development and welfare of Kenya, a country eligible for Official Development Assistance, by enhancing collaborative networks and fostering sustainable development initiatives.

Solar Hospital EnergyLeasing Demonstrator (SHIELD)

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Kenya's public hospitals struggle with electrical power. They experience blackouts, instability in provision and have to pay variable and often quite high costs. The results of this are disastrous. When the power fails, so do the fridges and this breaks the 'cold chain'. Vaccines can be lost and expensive medicines perished, but even worse, surgeries have to be cancelled or abandoned. Even though the power is not reliable, it is still expensive and hospitals must pay significant sums each month to keep the lights on. Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse: as the climate changes extreme weather is likely to cause more significant impacts and this will cause closures and disruptions to service. Public hospitals in Kenya serve the most vulnerable populations - those who have no other options. Hence, reducing their access to healthcare has devastating consequences and can hold back the development of the cities, and towns that rely on these important healthcare providers. More positively, onsite solar energy generation provides a technological solutions with huge potential to address these key issues. We aim to install a solar system at one of Kenya's most important public hospitals. We will show that the installation can offer huge advantages to the hospital in terms of cost, reliability and stability, with the positive result that they are able to be a more effective healthcare provider to desperate patients in need of care. Solar is currently perceived as being a private sector solution, but we will work with stakeholders to show that the benefits far outweigh the risks for large consumers of energy such as hospitals. We will install a system at Meru Teaching hospital - a well known Level 5 facility - and collect a range of data on how much energy can be generated, how it is used, what operational effects it has, and how much carbon and money is saved . We want to share this data through a representative steering group with the government and other stakeholders so that they can make better choices about how energy is funded. We believe this project will make Kenya's hospitals more resilient so that they can save more lives and work through the extreme weather they face in the years ahead. We want to use this project to show other hospitals in Africa that installations such as this can be cost-effective and value-adding.

Solar-Hydrogen Powered 100% Renewable Modular Mini-Grid (Solar-H2)

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

In developed countries across the globe, we take reliable energy access for granted. Although progress on energy access is being made in developing regions, 770m people worldwide are still living without access to modern energy services \[World Bank 2020\], including 600m in Sub-Saharan Africa. Grid connection and solar PV systems have improved energy access for Sub-Saharan African urban populations, with 74% now benefiting from electricity access. However, in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, only 26% of the population have access to electricity \[WEO2019 database, IEA 2020\]. These rural areas are deprived of clean, reliable, and cost-effective energy to supply domestic, commercial and community buildings. This leads to a reliance on biomass fuels (creating life-threatening health hazards and decimating ecosystems) or expensive, polluting diesel plants \[Oxfam, 2020\]. Stand-alone systems and clean mini grids have been identified as a solution, with IEA predicting they will make up 70% of rural connections by 2030 \[ADGB, 2020\]. In this project, Sun Harvester will work with Kenyan partners, Hope Bright Future Centre (local agent, NGO Hope for the Nations) to design, develop and field test an affordable community mini-grid solution, powered by solar panels. Working directly with local communities, the partners will address all the gender and social inclusion aspects related to design and end-user needs. We will further develop our stand-alone Instant Grid (IG) modular energy storage technology for use in a mini-grid. Our mini-grid solution will be scalable, so we can achieve enough power supply capacity to supply entire communities. We will replace diesel generator back-up with hydrogen fuel cell technology to deliver a 100% renewable mini-grid solution. Elimination of diesel brings extensive, environmental, fuel saving, security of supply and health benefits. For example, carbon dioxide currently emitted by generators in Sub-Saharan Africa is equivalent to 22m passenger vehicles on the road. \[The Dirty Footprint of the Broken Grid, World Bank 2019\]. Sun Harvester's solution will reduce mini-grid Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) from $0.39/kWh \[Irena, 2020\] to $0.24/kWh. Cost savings are achievable through: easy installation, replacement of individual battery cells and battery monitoring/management for increased lifetime. Furthermore, our modular design allows correct sizing of mini-grid installations, reducing entry level CAPEX costs from c.$100k to $10k. Our solution will be economically viable and specifically designed for deployment in remote, rural areas of Kenya, and sub-Saharan Africa. This will unlock affordable, secure, energy access for all, bringing benefits to sub-Saharan Africa's most at-risk and impoverished communities.

Energy Makers Academy: A mobile learning platform for universities to train rural energy innovators

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

The number of people without access to electricity in Africa dropped from almost 860 million in 2018 to 770 million in 2019 (IEA et al., 2021). However, without more sustained efforts, it is predicted that 650 million people will still live without access to electricity in 2030, despite universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity by 2030 being a key Sustainable Development Goal (United Nations, 2015).

Energy Innovation for Reducing Post Harvest Loss

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

The project uses patented heat recovery and airflow technology, coupled with solar thermal technology for agri-processing in Kenya. Working with producers and processors in value chains such as Moringa and mango - the project will deliver value for smallholder farmers by reducing post-harvest losses that occur when products are spoiled before they can reach the market. The project will demonstrate the effectiveness of solar-thermal drying for Moringa processing by designing, building and commissioning a high capacity dryer able to operate 24/7 powered entirely by renewable energy at a Moringa facility that serves 500 farmers. The solar thermal system has considerable benefits in comparison to existing technology - including faster drying, the delivery of a constant temperature that can be remotely monitored; lower cost and ease of installation. This will facilitate the production of higher-quality products that meet the quality requirements of international buyers looking to expand supply chains in the East-African region. Besides this, the project will carry out capacity building and training, including practical demonstrations of the solar thermal drying systems to increase awareness of the potential for renewable energy to deliver economic and social benefits in agricultural value chains.

DfE NI - GCRF QR funding

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

Grant to Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland to enable Northern Irish higher education institutes to carry out pre-agreed ODA-eligible activities in line with their institutional strategies. For Queen’s University Belfast in FY2019/20 this included: workshops in Cambodia, Vietnam, South Africa, and Uganda about health and education; 11 pilot projects spanning 16 eligible countries (Angola, Burundi, China, Colombia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe); and additional support to GCRF and NF-funded activities. For Ulster University in FY2019/20 funding supported six pump-priming projects on: LMIC maternal, neonatal and child health; PTSD in Rwanda; Decision-Making in Policy Making in Africa and Central Asia; and hearing impairment and dementia in China.