- Home
- Aid by Location
- Philippines
Philippines
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/
ORRAA Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) is a multi-sector alliance that aims to drive investment into coastal natural capital through the development of innovative finance solutions. These products will reduce vulnerability and build resilience in the most exposed and vulnerable coastal regions and communities. The UK has committed £13.9 million into ORRAA, delivered in two phases. A successful Phase 1 in 2021-22 provided £1.9m in grant funding, followed by Phase 2 from 2022-2026 with £12m committed in grant funding. The UK’s investment will address 2 challenges faced by coastal communities and the ocean environment: 1) Tackling the impacts of anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss. 2) Overcoming barriers that prevent finance flowing into nature-based solutions. The grant awarded to ORRAA will support their aims to drive at least $500 million of investment into coastal and ocean natural capital, and produce at least 50 new, innovative finance products, by 2030. This would positively impact the resilience of 250 million climate vulnerable people in coastal areas worldwide.
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.
Enstorel-Bathal - mobile power for an island nation
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Our Enstorel based ZE-Gen project will develop a highly innovative yet simple to use cleantech system for the Philippines that we expect to become a compelling alternative to fossil fuel generators - a solution that can apply anywhere across the Islands. It will offer reliable access to noise-free, pollution-free electricity in places the Grid may not be able to reach and at a cost to users which the Grid might never be able to match. Enstorel is a safe and robust electricity collection, storage and delivery device with exciting potential in many diverse applications. For this application Enstorels will be smart-combined with Grid outlets and/or renewable sources through a proprietary system controller which will make investing in community projects for renewable energy generation far more attractive than today, especially in places where Grid connections are patchy or impractical.
South East Asia MArine Plastics (SEAmap): Reduction, Control and Mitigation of Marine Plastic Pollution in the Philippines
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This project focuses on the Cebu Islands, home to the biggest marine protected area in the Philippines. Through the development of a Sources-Pathways-Receptor (SPR) modelling framework, this project will map the transport of marine plastic litter (MPL) from source to sink. The model will incorporate novel non-conservative terms to simulate transformation of the plastic waste as it travels through the system, incorporating, among other processes, changes due to exposure to UV light and mechanical degradation due to wave action. This project will focus on the impacts of the plastic waste to mangroves - an unknown but potentially important filter in the plastic cycle. This project will determine the role of mangroves in the microplastic (plastics less than 5 mm) cycle, since mangroves could, in fact, act to further disperse plastic as even smaller particles over longer timescales. By accurately resolving the content and type of MPL in space and time, the impact to receptors (services, industry and environment) will be accurately assessed: both physically (mortality and impact to ecosystem function) but also economically (to industries such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism).
Rice Straw Biogas Hub
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Rice is the number 1 food crop globally: 91% of it is produced and consumed in Asia and it is the staple for more than half the world's population. However, for every kilogram of rice we eat, a kilo of straw is also produced. Not to be confused with husks, which cover the grains and are taken to a mill, the stems and leaves of the rice plant are left in the fields after harvest. Rice straw is difficult to remove from paddy fields, which are often flooded and in remote areas. It is high in silica, making it a poor fuel or animal feed. It is also not suitable to incorporate into flooded rice fields due to slow degradation and high greenhouse gas emissions, so burning is farmers' main option for clearing fields. Across Asia, a staggering 300 million tonnes of rice straw go up in smoke every year, releasing a lethal cocktail of gases and black carbon that triple risks of increased respiratory diseases and accelerate climate change. Rice is responsible for 48% of global crop emissions: more CO2e than the whole global aviation industry combined. A recent IFPRI study calculated the health costs of crop residue burning to be $30 billion annually in North India alone, rising to $190 billion in five years. To address this crisis a British SME, Straw Innovations Ltd, was started in 2016 as a spin-out from pioneering international research on the subject. The company's founder, Craig Jamieson, assembled consortia and secured Energy Catalyst co-funding to establish an industrial pilot plant in the Philippines, collecting rice straw and fermenting it to produce clean-burning methane gas. The whole system had to be specially designed since no existing technologies were suitable for the purpose. The plant is now operational, with many techno-economic breakthroughs. Local farmers strongly support it and are waiting for scale-up so they can benefit from its efficient, clean energy services. Rice is known as a "Poverty Crop" because farmers often struggle to afford energy-intensive equipment that could improve their yields add value to their crop. Therefore, this project will demonstrate a complete system of 500ha harvesting, straw removal, biogas-powered rice drying and storage plus efficient milling. The "Rice Straw Biogas Hub" will offer these as affordable, value-adding commercial services to the rice farmers, avoiding their need to buy and maintain expensive equipment, and enabling them to triple incomes whilst protecting the environment.
Project RICE (Renewable, Inclusive, Carbon-positive Energy)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
PROBLEM Modern agriculture is so critically dependent on fossil fuel inputs that they often outweigh energy outputs from the food produced. Hence modern farming has been described as "the use of land to convert oil into food". Undoubtedly, diesel-powered mechanisation has greatly reduced backbreaking drudgery for countless millions of farmers, and conversion of natural-gas into ammonia/nitrogen fertilisers is currently feeding a third of humanity. Nevertheless, the downsides are painfully obvious: Input Costs: Centralised production/distribution of fossil fuels mean farmers in remote areas across Africa and Asia often pay more than double for diesel-fuel/N-fertilisers. Those who cannot afford them are stuck in cycles of hard labour/low-yields/poverty. Those who can afford them lose around 60% at point-of-use(waste-heat from engines, or leaching/volatilisation from N-fertilisers). Food Prices: Food uses around a third of all energy globally, so when fossil-fuel prices rise, food prices follow, creating political instability and hardship for the world's most vulnerable(urban-poor and farmers in developing countries). Greenhouse Gas(GHG) Emissions: Agricultural emissions continue to rise, accelerating climate change, disproportionately impacting farmers in developing countries. VISION Development of efficient agricultural technologies powered by renewable energy to lower emissions whilst increasing farmer productivity and profitability in developing countries. Our focus is on the world's number 1 food crop: rice. Known as a "Poverty Crop"(low-margins for smallholder-farmers). Responsible for 48% of all crop GHG emissions. 91% of rice is produced/consumed in Asia. Straw Innovations("SI") (British SME operating in the Philippines) has pioneered a suite of technologies for collecting rice straw at harvest-time, avoiding field-burning/rotting that accounts for almost half of rice emissions. In this project, they will convert their "straw-catcher" machine to run on solar-PV electricity/batteries instead of diesel. Takachar(multi-award-winning Indian SME) has developed a cost-effective mobile biochar production unit that can transform rice straw from a major pollutant into a vast carbon sink. They will make a 10x scaled-up version and send it to SI, who will tap the waste process heat for the first time to dry rice, instead of diesel/kerosene. The char will then be returned to the farmers' fields as a more efficient fertiliser/soil-amendment, incorporated by the same SI electric "rice/straw-collectors" that harvested it. SI will also send their machines from the Philippines to India mid-project and the two countries will test out different business models for farmer adoption/benefit. Aston University(home of SUPERGEN Bioenergy Hub) leading sustainability specialists will invite stakeholder feedback and also calculate GHG savings from the new system.
Core - International Collaboration Awards
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
International Collaboration Awards enable outstanding researchers in the UK to partner with the best research groups in developing countries on projects that address issues faced by developing countries.
Royal Academy of Engineering Core - Engineering a Better World
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Engineering a Better World is a unique programme focused on achieving sustainable development, through innovative, collaborative, challenge-led engineering. COVID-19
Royal Academy of Engineering Core - Frontiers of Engineering for Development
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Frontiers of Engineering for Development is a series of interdisciplinary symposia that facilitates national and international collaboration to tackle global development challenges. The event brings together a select group of around 60 emerging UK and global engineering and international development leaders from industry and academia to discuss pioneering technical work and cutting-edge research for international development from a diversity of engineering fields. Seed funding is available to progress some of the best ideas coming out of the event. COVID-19
Royal Academy of Engineering Academies Collective Fund: Resilient Futures - Frontiers of Development
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Frontiers of Development is part of the Joint Resilient Futures Initiative which is a collaboration between all four UK Academies under the GCRF. The aim of the JRF initiative is to construct a pipeline in the UK and the developing world for interdisciplinary researchers focused on tackling development challenges in a sustainable manner.
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.
HEFCW - GCRF QR funding
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Additional GCRF funding to the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales to support Welsh higher education institutes (HEIs) to carry out ODA-eligible activities in line with their institutional strategies. ODA research grants do not represent the full economic cost of research and therefore additional funding is provided to Welsh HEIs in line with their research council grant income. In FY19/20 funding was allocated to Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff University and Swansea University. In FY19/20, the funding was used to fund: the full economic cost of existing ODA eligible activities (e.g. already funded by GCRF); small ODA-eligible projects; fellowships to ODA-eligible researchers; and to increase collaboration and impact. 53 ODA-eligible countries have been reported as benefiting from the funded work, with Brazil and India the most frequently mentioned. By region, the largest number of projects were based in the LDC’s (Least Developed Countries) in Asia, South America, and East Africa, with only a few projects in the middle-income countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.
ODA BEIS analysts - cross-cutting for both ODA funds
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
ODA BEIS analysts. For the monitoring and evaluation and learning for NF and GCRF
SFC - GCRF QR funding
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Formula GCRF funding to the Scottish Funding Council to support Scottish higher education institutes (HEIs) to carry out ODA-eligible activities in line with their three-year institutional strategies. ODA research grants do not represent the full economic cost of research and therefore additional funding is provided to Scottish HEIs in proportion to their Research Excellence Grant (REG). In FY19/20 funding was allocated to 18 Scottish higher education institutes to support existing ODA grant funding and small projects. GCRF has now supported more than 800 projects at Scottish institutions, involving over 80 developing country partners.
Global Challenges Research Fund Evaluation
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The overall purpose of the GCRF evaluation is to assess the extent to which GCRF has achieved its objectives and contributed to its intended impacts.
Transformation Project - ODA Reporting Tool (ODART)
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
The Reporting ODA Digital Service (RODA) is the data submission, processing, reporting repository system for data on BEIS R&I ODA Eligible Programmes delivered by Delivery Partners
UUKi Delivery Support
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
These are delivery cost for shared learning workshops/training and best practice (for current and future applicants) on ODA assurance, eligibility, reporting and partnership working through either the NF and GCRF
ODA website - cross-cutting for both ODA funds
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
This is the website for NF and GCRF consortia that promotes funding calls and impact case studies as well as publishing report such as the annual report and monitoring and evaluation documentation.