

Today, the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced 13 new grants that total over $15.5 million to test and scale promising solutions to global development challenges. DIV is the Agency's open innovation program that selects, through a detailed process of applications and co-creation, breakthrough solutions that demonstrate rigorous evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and viable pathways to scale and sustainability.

The new awardees are working to test and scale innovations to solve development challenges across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Innovations include a low-cost, handheld device with the potential to diagnose and treat cervical pre-cancers in a single visit, and the first microgrid franchise model in Africa. Grantees are also monitoring and evaluating large-scale government reforms in the Republics of Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire, and testing new policy incentives to conserve power and water in the Republic of India, and improve students' learning and the retention of teachers in the Republic of Uganda.

USAID awarded the DIV grants to three new USAID partners, Maisha Meds, Business Management Invest-Côte d'Ivoire, and Standard Microgrid, as well as Lively Minds, Innovations for Poverty Action, the International Rescue Committee, the Global Development Incubator, Duke University, Harvard University, the Institute for Financial Management and Research, American University in Cairo, and VisionSpring.

Co-founded in 2010 by the 2019 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Dr. Michael Kremer, DIV supports the development of evidence-driven solutions that transform millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost. Since 2010, DIV has invested in over 200 innovations that have directly affected more than 30 million lives across 46 countries.

Innovators can apply to DIV to receive tiered funding of up to $5 million for a product, technology, service, or application of a business or delivery model. In addition to tiered funding, DIV offers separate evidence grants, which provide up to $1.5 million for research and evaluation that generate rigorous evidence of a solution's impact, cost-effectiveness, and potential to scale. USAID accepts applications to DIV on a rolling basis. For more information, visit www.usaid.gov/div.