Development Innovation Ventures Newsletter
October 2022
Pioneer Chancen Members at Kepler in Rwanda celebrate with their peers at Graduation 2021. ©Kepler HQ
DIV Announces Nine New Awards
It’s been an exciting summer for Development Innovation Ventures (DIV)! In the past several months, DIV has selected 21 new awards. These new awards bring DIV's portfolio to 277 grant awards across 49 countries. We’re thrilled to announce nine of these new awards, with more to come later this fall. These awardees are developing, testing, and scaling cost-effective, evidence-based innovations in energy, health, education, democracy, and governance. They are implementing and testing critical work in Ghana, India, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, and represent DIV’s first investments in both Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe!
From piloting a chatbot against misinformation to studying the effects of new incentives in pay-for-performance teacher contracts at scale, these awards bring new partners to USAID, engage public partners and private sector companies, and are expected to significantly improve the lives of millions around the world.
DIV awarded grants to three new USAID partners: 1) Friendship Bench, 2) Chancen International, and 3) VitaMe Technologies (VitaScan). Grants to evaluate the potential impact of large-scale programming, delivered in partnership with the public sector, were also awarded to: Nudge (Uzbekistan); Rescue.co (Kenya); the Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation (gui2de) (Rwanda); and Innovations for Poverty Action (Liberia and Sierra Leone). Here are the winners:
Chancen International
Stage 2 | $900,000 | Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa
Chancen will improve its management of income-share agreements or ISAs (a form of college financing where repayments are based on a student’s future income), strengthen its monitoring and evaluation framework in Rwanda, and conduct initial feasibility assessments to expand the model into South Africa and Kenya.
Friendship Bench
Stage 2 | $1.5 million | Zimbabwe
Friendship Bench will strengthen its operations, training model, and scale strategy. This includes expanding the number of trained counselors who will, in turn, reach approximately 100,000 patients during the award period.
Georgetown University
Stage 3 | $1.5 million | Rwanda
Georgetown University will scale and measure a pay-for-performance teacher contract that rewards the top 20 percent of teachers in an effort to improve recruitment, motivation, and retention. This grant complements funding from the Fund for Innovation in Development, a DIV-inspired grant fund that is hosted by the Agence Française de Développement.
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
Stage 2 | $1.1 million | Sierra Leone
IPA will study the impact of vision testing and glasses on education for primary and secondary school students. The activity will provide free glasses (both ready-made and custom models) and test the effectiveness of a low-cost, laser-etched vision chart that eliminates the need for dilation eye drops.
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
Stage 2 | $395,000 | Liberia
IPA is conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effects of a school-based agricultural extension program on student attendance, science and math scores, entrepreneurial knowledge, financial literacy, and farming practices. This grant complements funding from the Fund for Innovation in Development, which will be used to measure students’ household crop yields.
Nudge Lebanon
Stage 1 | $200,000 | Uzbekistan
Nudge Lebanon will pilot the development of a misinformation chatbot to help social media users recognize attempts to manipulate them. The chatbot is intended to not only increase awareness, but also reduce the willingness of users to spread those manipulation techniques. Nudge will conduct an RCT to test the effectiveness of the chatbot.
Pratham
Stage 2 | $1.5 million | India
Working with local community volunteers and groups across three states, and eventually through India’s Anganwadi system of rural childcare centers, Pratham will test a low-cost method for scaling a proven program that has the potential to improve early childhood development for millions of children across India.
Rescue.co
Stage 2 | $1.5 million | Kenya
Rescue.co will rigorously study the impact of their cloud-based ambulance dispatch service on mortality and morbidity in Nairobi, solidify public sector partnerships, and conduct product development for scale, ultimately covering a population of 2.3 million by 2025.
VitaMe Technologies
Stage 1 | $2.1 million | Ghana
VitaMe Technologies will conduct clinical trials of its low-cost, point-of-care test for blood ferritin levels to detect iron deficiency. The trials will be conducted in Ghana to test its accuracy in populations with a higher prevalence of tropical infections and inflammations—particularly malaria—before finalizing product development.
Search the DIV Portfolio!
Search and filter for these grants and others by keyword, funding stage, sector, and country to learn about DIV’s 265 grants. Search Now!
Understanding DIV's Impact in Uganda 2010-2020
This independent report commissioned by DIV captures grantee performance within Uganda from 2010 to 2020, documenting outcomes, lessons learned, and challenges during implementation. One of the most interesting results found that 8 out of 11 grantees studied in the report still work on the innovation supported by DIV, and all of those that scaled successfully did so through a public-private pathway. The report follows the trajectory of innovations after DIV support ended, including successful—and less successful—innovations, a study of the extent to which DIV grants achieved their intended outcomes and results, and recommendations for follow-up actions and guidance. Read the Uganda Program Review.
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DIV Innovator Spotlight
Dimagi Receives $25 Million to Develop Transformative Technology for
Frontline Health Workers
Three-time DIV grantee Dimagi has just announced a $25 million Program-Related Investment (PRI) from the Steele Foundation for Hope. This transformative funding is set to accelerate Dimagi's five-year strategy by funding the research, development, and diversification of a next generation platform building on CommCare, which has been used to equip over 750,000 frontline workers with mobile apps in over 80 countries. DIV currently supports Dimagi with a Stage 2 grant to test new features that use government data and artificial intelligence to proactively identify and prioritize high-risk clients, increase diagnostic accuracy, detect outbreaks, and improve health care delivery to remote areas.
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USAID Administrator Samantha Power Visited Former DIV Grantee Sanergy
During a July visit to Kenya, Administrator Samantha Power met with leaders at Sanergy, an American company that provides sanitation services in informal settlements and produces organic fertilizer for Kenya’s small-scale farmers. Sanergy received a DIV Stage 1 grant in 2012 and a Stage 2 grant in 2013 to pilot and test its current model that builds—and then franchises—sustainable and low-cost sanitation centers to provide hot showers and clean toilets to slum residents. Sanergy is now working to expand its business to 1.3 million Kenyan citizens by 2025. In her meeting with Sanergy, the Administrator reiterated USAID’s commitment to working with the private sector to strengthen markets, provide access to sanitation, and treat and reuse waste in climate-friendly ways.
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Cinch Markets Attracts Investments From Mercy Corps Ventures, Ambo Ventures, and Chandaria Capital and Expands Into Rwanda
DIV’s Stage 2 Kenyan grantee, Cinch Markets, continues to gain steam toward securing Series A funding (typically ranging from $2 to $15 million, which allows investors to help transform an early idea into a sustainable business) with a boost from Mercy Corps Ventures, Ambo Ventures, and Chandaria Capital. Each of these investors brings a unique perspective and expertise to Cinch that will help drive pilot initiatives toward commercialization. In addition, Cinch is launching its first commercial pilot in Rwanda with 180–200 acres of Chia through support from the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).
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DIV in the Media
Evaluation.Gov Spotlights DIV
Earlier this month, the Evidence Team at the White House Office of Management and Budget featured DIV on its blog. The “In the Spotlight” series highlights how rigorous evaluations, and the staff that undertake them, are critical to inform policies, program design, and decision-making, and to advance evidence-based policymaking across the Federal Government. In this Q&A, OMB’s Evidence Team poses questions about DIV and its accomplishments to DIV Chief Sasha Gallant, such as what makes DIV unique, how DIV supports the generation of evidence, and what lessons can be taken up by innovation teams in other federal departments and agencies. Read the blog.
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