Four New Innovators Join DIV’s Portfolio

Over the past few months, the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) has awarded four new grants to pilot, test, and scale groundbreaking solutions in the agriculture; health; and water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors. Learn more about the latest innovators to join DIV’s portfolio below.

Pula Advisors: Optimizing Insurance Products and Services in Kenya and Zambia
Pula Advisors is an agricultural insurance and technology company that will conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether access to commercial insurance encourages farmers to invest in higher-quality inputs or equipment, thereby increasing crop yields and stabilizing household incomes during droughts and severe weather events. DIV funding will also support Pula as the company tests the use of satellite data to build more accurate insurance risk models. Learn more.

Emata Uganda Ltd: Evaluating Innovative Farmer Financing on Crop Yields and Income
Emata Uganda Limited digitizes agricultural cooperative records and combines them with weather and satellite data to offer tailored, affordable financing to smallholder farmers. Emata will conduct customer research to inform loan uptake, new products, and partnerships. Learn more.

Interactive Research and Development (IRD): Evaluating Behavior Change Approaches to Household Water Purification in Pakistan
IRD will conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of different behavior change approaches that encourage people to use chlorine tablets to make their household water safe to drink. Learn more.

FHI 360: Using Machine Learning to Reduce HIV Treatment Interruptions in Nigeria
FHI 360 will scale and conduct a randomized controlled trial on a machine learning algorithm that uses patient data from HIV/AIDS programs to identify people likely to interrupt treatment so that healthcare providers can offer tailored, early intervention care to address adherence barriers and keep patients on medication. Learn more.

DIV in the Media

Throwing Good Money After Good

An Op-Ed by DIV Co-Founder and Scientific Director Michael Kremer and Esther Duflo

“...innovations aimed at serving the poorest segments of society are frequently overlooked. To mobilize investment in projects designed to assist those living in poverty, we helped establish social innovation funds in the United States and France. Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Fund for Innovation in Development (FID) at the Agence Française de Développement both take a page from venture capital’s playbook but focus on currently underserved areas.” Read more.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies Presents: Opportunities for Innovation in Global Development

U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro kicked off this panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) with remarks on the importance of U.S. Government support for innovation in global development. Panelists included DIV Chief Sasha Gallant, One Acre Fund Global Policy Director Colin Christensen, and Global Innovation Fund CEO Alix Zwane. The three panelists discussed the landscape of innovation, the evidence case to support innovation, and how currently proposed reforms can further strengthen how the U.S. Government supports innovation across global development. CSIS Senior Fellow Conor Savoy moderated the discussion. Watch their conversation or download the transcript.

DIV Innovator Spotlight

Video: Insights from the Living Goods Results-Based Financing Program In this session, hosted by Oxford-based Government Outcomes Lab, speakers explored the main findings, lessons learned, and recommendations from the evaluation of the Results-Based Financing for Community Health Program scaling effort, implemented in Uganda by Living Goods. DIV supported the program as an outcomes funder, meaning Living Goods funded the work upfront, then the results were independently verified before it received funding from DIV. Panelists included leading experts from Living Goods, Instiglio, Government Outcomes Lab, Financing Alliance for Health, and DIV’s Paul Hamlin. Watch the recording.

Educational Initiatives Secures $250,000 in Follow-On Funding for Mindspark Educational Software DIV Stage 2 grantee Educational Initiatives (Ei) recently secured follow-on funding of $250,000, marking a significant milestone in its journey to expand the use of Mindspark software, which provides targeted instruction to help students learn at a level and pace most appropriate for them. Mindspark is the first Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) program introduced in Punjab's primary schools, now reaching 130 schools across Punjab and 50 schools in Himachal Pradesh, demonstrating a scalable model of PAL in public schools in India. Ei is studying what helps or hinders PAL adoption and looks forward to sharing the findings soon.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Awards $4.3 Million to Viamo to Scale Up DIV grantee Viamo received a $4.3 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand access to family planning information by addressing critical connectivity gaps while developing new ways to reach low-literacy and low-income women and girls. This investment proposes to generate evidence by rigorously exploring whether and how an enhanced platform can improve family planning knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among both men and women in key populations in Nigeria. After robust research and evaluation, Viamo will scale these platform enhancements up to seven additional African markets. Read more.

Funding Opportunities

Find Opportunities to Work With USAID Partners on the New Sub-Opportunities Portal

USAID’s new Sub-Opportunities portal shares opportunities being offered by USAID’s prime implementing partners, which may seek subcontractors or sub-awardees when they need specialized expertise or on-the-ground support. If you are a potential partner looking to compete for a sub-opportunity, visit the portal to learn more about how to get involved. Search the portal.

Around USAID

New USAID Resource: Research Translation Toolkit USAID’s Research Translation Toolkit helps researchers communicate scientific findings effectively and strategically so stakeholders receive key messages at the right time to make informed decisions. For a quick snapshot of the toolkit, see this fact sheet; for a walk-through of each section, check out the recordings from this recently completed webinar series!

USAID Commits to Generating and Using Evidence to Enhance Aid Effectiveness In New Policy Framework On March 23, USAID released its new Policy Framework: Driving Progress Beyond Programs, outlining the Agency’s vision for development that lasts beyond the life of its programs. The report highlights the role of the new Office of the Chief Economist to help position USAID to implement more cost-effective programming and help rebuild the Agency’s economic expertise. Read the framework.

Check Out DIV's Portfolio!

To learn more about DIV’s portfolio, and get the latest news from DIV and its grantees, visit divportal.usaid.gov.

DIV is accepting applications! Please visit usaid.gov/div to learn more and apply.