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.

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.

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.

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 8

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: IWTEX001, IWTEV001-008, IWT108-120. 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/

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.

LARA: Locally-Appropriate Rural Aquavoltaics for Cost Reduction and Increased Impact for Solar Energy Access in East Africa

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Our project aims to address challenges faced by larger solar productive-use power and minigrid solutions in achieving commercial sustainability, affordability, and ease of installation for end-users. Based on our experience implementing community minigrids and powering boreholes and milling machines in Africa, acquiring the necessary infrastructure components, specifically mounting systems for solar panels, proves to be the most difficult aspect due to specialised skills required for welding and fabrication, and complex procurement and installation in remote rural areas. The cost of mounting hardware for panels constitutes 40-50% of the total panel cost, and transportation and installation expenses amplify this burden. Surprisingly, there is limited competition in the supply of mounting systems compared to readily available equipment. Our solution involves developing and testing a simple, locally-appropriate approach: floating panels above specially-dug ponds. This cost-effective solution, suitable for small rural minigrids, fills the gap left by expensive and complex floating mounting solutions designed for marine environments. Implementing this solution costs only 5-10% of traditional metal racking, reducing the overall system cost by 10-20%. Shaded water surfaces in ponds maintain temperatures between 20-25 degrees Celsius, increasing panel efficiency by 6-10% according to Suntech specifications. The integration of aquaculture in Tanzanian communities through our solution presents significant economic benefits for local farmers. By leveraging the shaded pool area surrounding the floating solar panels, farmers can engage in fish farming activities, creating an additional source of income and livelihood. The revenue generated from aquaculture provides farmers with a diversified income stream, enhancing their financial resilience and contributing to the overall economic development of the community. Additionally, the availability of fish locally offers food security and reduces reliance on external sources, further supporting the sustainable growth of Tanzanian farmers. We anticipate that this cost-effective solution will drive greater adoption of clean energy systems in Tanzanian communities and beyond.

SolarSaver2 (SS2) Low Cost Energy Solution in Africa Energy Catalyst Round 10: Mid Stage

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

SOLARSAVER2 focuses on delivering a sustainable business model for using innovative low carbon off grid drying solutions. The project aims to create value for small- and large-scale sub-Saharan agricultural producers and other stakeholders by adding a new sustainable technical and processing solution delivered at a pricing level suitable for deployment in Africa and Asia to create highly nutritious products and reduce food waste. Fruit and vegetable products are of high moisture content. The key target is to significantly reduce the energy consumption, operating costs and carbon footprint of conventional drying techniques using an innovative low-temperature drying process. The sustainable delivery of low cost drying has a significant impact on the different sections of society such as the poor (majority of farmers) and women (about 50%) are catered for. Extensive operations and trials are planned with partners in Tanzania including local manufacturing. The processing solution is such that it can be easily deployed on-farm at different degrees of decentralisation and in centralised small, medium and large-scale industrial sites.

Payment-Enforcement Technology and Business Models for High-Impact Borehole Solarisation in Tanzania

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

From 2019-2022 in NorthernTanzania, SVRG and OMASI collaborated on an EnergyCatalyst6 grant to bring innovative integrated-energy-services and productive-use technologies to marginalised Maasai communities. The project has been a great success, with innovative solar-energy and productive-use technology installed at 5 boreholes (displacing diesel-generators), two community-minigrids and business-hubs, two schools and a community radio-station, directly impacting more than 12,000 people. The technology with highest impact and best commercial potential is the solarisation of existing diesel-powered boreholes. We are able to install innovative solar-technology instead of the diesel-system, and powers additional high-value productive-uses like flour milling. And because the boreholes have been operating for years, we are able to access their records and set repayment-plans for the operators or the community borehole-committees that are cheaper than the amount they were paying for diesel monthly. Not a single one of our installations has not at some time in the last three years defaulted on their repayments. There are several reasons for this: maasai culture, remoteness of the sites and distance from us, the reluctance to make payments to foreigners a higher priority than helping kin. But the main reason is that it is easy to default, and there is less moral obligation to pay, since the systems continue to operate whether or not they make repayments. In this project, we intend to research and test technology-solutions to integrate into our systems that could remotely disable them in the event of repayment defaults. This is more difficult than it sounds. It is easy to block a phone, a solar-home-system, or even a Tanesco metered grid-connection, since they are sealed units. A 50kW solar-power system with inverters mounted in a building is hard to control. Remote-controlled switches in fuse boxes can easily be bypassed. This is why there is no readily-available current solution for controlling large component-based systems in this fashion. We will look at alternatives for performing the control function, and how to make them non-bypassable, and then test their performance to revise our business and technology model. If successful, this will remove the single greatest barrier to our ability to scale-up this very affordable and simple borehole-solarisation technology, which has immediate economic and carbon community-impact

'Highlight' Health financing for universal health coverage in the era of shocks, monitoring risks and opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

"The proposed research draws on the World Health Organization framework for monitoring progress towards UHC. The framework identifies three areas for monitoring: financing arrangements; intermediate outcomes of efficiency and equity; and UHC goals of service coverage and affordable health expenditures. Our research applies this framework to assess health financing at the national and subnational levels in five Sub-Saharan African countries with varied degrees of fiscal decentralisation and income levels: Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Our research describes the evolution of health financing arrangements before and after COVID-19, and progress in relation to efficiency and equity of health financing and UHC goals. This research draws on routine household surveys, government and donor expenditure information systems, and global data from the World Health Organzaition and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development" COVID-19

Scaling up One health Systems (SOS-rabies): Implementation research for rabies elimination in East Africa

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Rabies kills tens of thousands of people every year despite effective vaccines that prevent human infection and interrupt transmission in animals having existed for over a century. Although vaccine-preventable, rabies has been neglected in low-and-middle-income countries. To change this, WHO and partners launched a global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 ('Zero by 30'). To achieve this goal access to life-saving post-exposure vaccines must be improved to ensure people bitten by rabid animals do not develop this fatal disease. However human vaccines alone will not impact rabies spread in domestic dog populations responsible for maintaining circulation. Dog vaccination must be scaled up and sustained to interrupt transmission. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is poised to invest in post-exposure vaccines, with rollout in the first low-income countries from mid-2025. Gavi's investment is expected to catalyse action on dog vaccination, leveraging momentum so countries scale up strategies for rabies elimination. Tanzania has the potential to be an early-adopter country of Gavi-vaccine investment There is an urgent need for research to inform rabies vaccines rollout, both post-exposure prophylaxis and dog vaccination, to maximise their reach and impact. At this pivotal time, SOS-rabies will undertake high-impact implementation research in Tanzania aiming to reduce the rabies burden and strengthen One Health systems and capacity. Our objectives are to: Design tools to guide short and long-term planning for interventions to eliminate rabies; Develop training materials and guidance to support their scaling up; Evaluate the impact of these interventions as they are rolled out. The team will capitalise on Integrated Bite Case Management (IBCM), a One Health approach to rabies surveillance recommended by WHO. IBCM is currently being implemented as a research platform across five regions of Tanzania where rabies is endemic. Using IBCM, we will examine demand for post-exposure vaccines and synthesise learnings about current bite patient management practices, surveillance and reporting and how they can be improved. From modelling these data we will optimise supply chain design for decentralising access to post-exposure vaccines, while ensuring resilience to stockouts and feasibility of health system integration. We will develop and test tools, training and guidance to support intervention rollout, including the development of a modelling framework to forecast impacts and the use of dashboards to track impacts, including deaths, exposures and vaccine demand. Rollout policy and operational uncertainty however means that health system adaptation will be key. Employing the SOS-rabies toolbox, we will use Developmental Evaluation to support health system learning and evaluate the impacts of interventions to improve access to post-exposure vaccines and scale up mass dog vaccination. Taking a participatory and systems-based approach will facilitate learning and adaptation as this complex set of interventions is delivered across settings. Through continued engagement with stakeholders like community beneficiaries, frontline health and veterinary workers, health systems managers, national decision-makers and international policymakers, we will review data, co-design solutions to address challenges, and generate continual learning of what works. In Tanzania, we will strengthen scientific capacity and health systems; support adaptation and optimization of One Health interventions, and build political, programmatic and public support and ownership to achieve and sustain rabies freedom. Overall, our embedded collaborative research will generate transferable lessons and best practices for scaling up rabies prevention, control and surveillance, feeding into Gavi's investment on rabies, and redressing long-standing vaccine inequities.

Understanding the experience, preferences and effects of provider payment mechanisms in Tanzania

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MRC ARL to understand better the existing provider payment mechanisms (PPMs), provider perceptions and preferences with regards to these, and the associated effects of PPMs on service quality, coverage and equity within Tanzania

Fluconazole plus flucytosine vs fluconazole alone for cryptococcal antigen-positive patients identified through screening: A randomised trial

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MRC Joint Global Health Trial to determine Fluconazole plus flucytosine vs fluconazole alone for cryptococcal antigen-positive patients identified through screening: A randomised trial

Adding Male Single Dose HPV Vaccination to Female HPV Vaccination in Tanzania (Add-Vacc)

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MRC JGHT award to assess the impact of adding multi-year male HPV vaccination with one dose of HPV vaccine to the Tanzania national HPV vaccination programme of female vaccination on the population prevalence of HPV vaccine genotypes.

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.

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.