Water and Energy for Food Grand Challenge (WE4F), through its Southern and Central Africa Regional Innovation Hub (S/CA RIH), is proud to announce the launch of the second S/CA Call for Innovations to foster innovation and enhance food security in the region. This call will support up to 30 organizations working on innovative technologies and business model solutions to provide more sustainable water or energy solutions for climate-resilient agriculture. The selected organizations will receive customized support in the form of technical assistance, investment facilitation, enabling ecosystem support and grants up to $200,000 to scale their businesses, combat resource scarcity and foster the transition to sustainable, climate-resilient agricultural sectors.

Water scarcity, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, climate change, and poverty all threaten the region’s long-term food security and resilience. Tackling water, energy and food issues is imperative to overcoming these barriers and achieving greater stability. Together with investors and partners, the S/CA RIH supports organizations with innovative solutions to produce more food while using less water and more sustainable energy sources in a socially inclusive manner. Innovations considering the water, food and energy nexus are encouraged to apply.

In addition to funding organizations, the S/CA RIH helps them grow through technical assistance, investment facilitation and improvement of the business and policy environment. Through this support, the hub enables organizations to scale their impact by enabling smallholder farmers in the region, particularly women, to produce more food and increase their profits while strengthening their resilience to climate change.

All eligible women-led and/or women-owned businesses, or businesses that specifically target women farmers or integrate women into their operations, are strongly encouraged to apply for the Call for Innovations. 

The second S/CA Call for Innovations opens on August 19, 2022, and closes on September 16, 2022. Winners will be announced in the first quarter of 2023. If you are interested in applying, please visit www.we4f.org/apply-sca for more information.

If you’re looking to learn more about the call, there is a Q&A webinar that will take place on August 31, 2022. Submit questions for the S/CA RIH Team at [email protected]. You can register for it here: Register for the Q&A webinar.