The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) will launch a Challenge Fund on March 16, 2015, at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in Sendai, Japan.

The Challenge Fund, through a small grant program, will seek to address challenges to accessing and using risk information for decision making to ensure disaster risk reduction and improved disaster and climate resilience. These challenges can include access to high resolution digital elevation models, the integration of climate change scenarios in risk modelling, and access to post-disaster data.

The challenges, to be defined by an Expert Working Group—comprising of 11 practitioners working in disaster risk management in the private, public, multilateral and non-profit sectors—will be published on GFDRR and DFID pages in the next few weeks.

Phases of Funding
The first phase of funding will be a series of grants ranging from $20,000-$150,000. A maximum of 20 projects will be appraised at this stage with a project cycle of six months.

Projects with the highest potential will receive further funding under the second phase of the Challenge Fund in 2016. This phase of the project cycle will be 6-12 months.

Calls for Expressions of Interest
Expressions of interest can be submitted shortly after the competition is launched in Sendai. Proposals will be reviewed by the Expert Working Group, and, based on their initial review; applicants will be given the opportunity to revise their applications before final submission.

The winners of the first phase of funding will be announced in June 2015.

Winning Proposals
The following key features will be highly regarded in the selection process:
• Concise and focused proposals
• Projects that are demand-driven and involve local partners
• A focus on low and lower-middle income countries
• Projects with clear impacts in building preparedness and resilience
• Initiatives that build on existing programs
• Projects that can be expanded and replicated
• Projects that have a learning component

Further instructions on proposal submissions will be available on https://www.gfdrr.org/gfdrr-and-dfid-announce-challenge-fund
More information, contact Emma Phillips (ephillips@worldbank.org) or Amal Ali (amalali@worldbankgroup.org)