County Innovation Challenge Fund

County Innovation Challenge Fund; Apply for Grants. Applying for a grant is an exciting process. Below is an overview of the application process and grants available. Apply for funding. How to apply for Funding.




The County Innovation Challenge Fund is seeking new and untried innovative local solutions that will reduce maternal and new-born mortality.

The Round 3 Innovation challenge fund will support the design and delivery of innovative interventions, products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that contribute to positive change in the maternal and new-born health (MNH) sector.

Innovations augmenting existing MNH interventions in the focus counties and targeting adolescent girls and youth are strongly encouraged.

The County Innovation Challenge Fund (CICF) operates as part of the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) “Reducing Maternal and Neonatal Death in Kenya (2013-2018)” programme; a five-year programme implemented by UNICEF, Marie Stopes International / Options Consultancy Services Limited (Options), the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), and other partners.

The Programme supports a range of interventions to improve maternal and neonatal health (MNH) including training of health workers, health systems strengthening, community mobilisation, and demand generation.

It is implemented across six counties with different socio-demographic contexts: peri-urban informal settlements in Nairobi; nomadic pastoralist communities in Garissa and Turkana; and rural agrarian populations in Kakamega, Bungoma and Homa Bay.

In its delivery, the CICF invites innovations that can deliver impact and increase access to and/or utilisation of quality MNH services within the unique socio-demographic contexts of the six focus counties.

  • CICF innovations must demonstrate readiness for rapid implementation, be able to deliver results within twenty-one months, and increase access to and/or utilisation of maternal and newborn health services.
  • Innovations that target adolescent girls and youth are strongly encouraged.
  • Innovations should augment existing MNH interventions in the focus counties.

    CICF Round 3 Competition Eligibility Criteria

    You must meet the following criteria for your application to be considered:


    1. Your project idea must contribute to positive change in the maternal and newborn health sector in at least one of the six target counties. These are Bungoma, Garissa, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Nairobi
    (Embakasi and Kamukunji sub-counties), and Turkana counties.

    Applications targeting Garissa
    County are strongly encouraged.

    2. The lead applicant must be a legally registered organisation that has been in operation for at least two years.

    This can be international, national or community based organisations/institutions including non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations, civil society organisations,
    academic or research institutions, innovation hubs, social enterprises or private sector
    organisations.

    Locally registered organisations are highly encouraged to apply.

    3. International organisations are only eligible to apply with sub-contracting of a minimum of one
    locally established organisation and must include a budget for capacity building of their local
    partners.

    Your organisation will be considered international if
    it is a subsidiary, an affiliate or a member of an organisation that is not registered in Kenya.

    4. Sole proprietors and government line ministries, including semi-autonomous government
    agencies, will not qualify for funding.

    5. The funding request must be within the prescribed funding limits. The two funding limits are up to either a maximum of £200,000 or a maximum of £400,000.

    There is no minimum amount.

    6. Lead applicants must have an established and verifiable institutional track record. Lead applicants submitting applications under the funding limit of £200,000 must have cumulative gross revenue over the last two years of at least 1 times their application.

    For example, applicants applying for £150,000 funding should have cumulative gross revenue of £150,000 over the last two years.

    Lead applicants seeking funding under the funding limit of £400,000 must have cumulative gross
    revenue over the last two years of at least 2 times their application.

    For example, applicants requesting for funding of £300,000 should have cumulative gross revenue over the last two year of £600,000.

    Interested applicants not meeting these criteria are encouraged to partner with eligible
    organisations that meet the criteria.

    7. The direct beneficiaries are women of reproductive age, particularly poor rural women and adolescent girls, newborns, county and sub-county health management teams, health facilities
    and community units in Bungoma, Garissa, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Nairobi (Embakasi and
    Kamukunji sub-counties) and Turkana Counties.

    Innovations that target adolescent girls and the
    youth in general are strongly encouraged.

    8. The CICF is currently financing projects in the six target counties selected during Round 1 and Round 2 competitions. Innovations that are already being funded under the CICF may not qualify for funding. Kindly visit the CICF website (www.mnhcicf.org) for details of the projects being funded.

    Employees of Marie Stopes International, Options Consultancy Services Limited,
    Population Council, KPMG and any other partner sub-contracted by Options Consultancy
    Services Limited to implement the MANI project as part of UK DFID’s “Reducing Maternal and
    Neonatal Death in Kenya” programme, and any organisation directly involved with these
    employees and their immediate families, are not eligible to apply.

    9. If you have previously submitted this idea for funding and are currently being funded for the
    activities described in this proposal, you will not qualify for funding under the CICF.

    10. We encourage applications that:
  • Address maternal and newborn health service delivery within the unique socio-demographic
    contexts and priorities of the six focus counties; and
  • Demonstrate Partnerships with county/sub-county health management team and/or
    community based organisations.

    11. CICF reserves the right to reject anyapplication which, in CICF’s opinion, gives rise, or could
    potentially give rise to, a conflict of interest.

    Apply for Funding Now!

    For more information and funding application forms, see County Innovation Challenge Fund

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