Deadline: November 29, 2024 | Hindu Kush Himalaya Innovation Challenge 2025 for Entrepreneurs (up to $5,000)
Ready to innovate? Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) have partnered to launch the Hindu Kush Himalaya Innovation Challenge for Entrepreneurs (HKH-ICE) 2025.
The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) area, referred to as the “Third Pole,” sustains life for over 240 million folks within the mountains and 1.65 billion downstream. With its wealthy biodiversity and very important ecosystems, the area is home to the world’s largest ice reserves exterior of the polar areas and helps Asia’s main food-producing river methods. However, the area faces extreme challenges, together with local weather change, ecosystem degradation, and water shortage, which threaten its agricultural methods, tourism, and general resilience. There is a major hole in local weather finance to deal with these points, and native entrepreneurs lack the assets wanted to drive inexperienced and resilient improvements.
In response to these challenges, GRP and ICIMOD have come collectively to launch the Hindu Kush Himalaya Innovation Challenge for Entrepreneurs (HKH-ICE). This initiative, supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is designed to mobilise native innovation and entrepreneurship, driving scalable options that deal with ecological, market, and worth chain challenges throughout the area.
HKH-ICE seeks to empower entrepreneurs from Bhutan, Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts solely), India (Himalayan states solely), and Nepal to develop progressive, climate-resilient options within the agriculture, water safety, and sustainable tourism sectors. The problem will help initiatives that leverage the area’s untapped potential for sustainable financial development and environmental conservation whereas addressing the pressing want for local weather adaptation and resilience.
Focus Areas
They are wanting for progressive, scalable options that improve resilience for communities and ecosystems throughout the Hindu Kush Himalaya area. Initiatives can concentrate on:
- Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature: Supporting agricultural entrepreneurs to sort out local weather impacts on mountain agriculture, improve biodiversity, and create market linkages for area of interest merchandise and non-timber forest merchandise (NTFPs).
- Water Security and Resilience: Developing improvements that deal with water shortage, enhance water providers, and mitigate the consequences of glacial soften, urbanisation, and demographic change.
- Climate-Resilient Solutions for Sustainable Tourism: Creating new fashions of sustainable tourism that profit native communities whereas preserving the fragile stability of mountain ecosystems.
Benefits
- Winners will obtain tailor-made mentoring, management growth, communications, and useful resource mobilisation help.
- Additionally, they’ll obtain prizes starting from $5,000 to $25,000 to additional develop and scale their options. Shortlisted candidates can even profit from a management academy and capacity-strengthening initiatives with regional and international consultants.
Eligibility
- Open to for-profit organisations, native entrepreneurs and innovators from Bhutan, Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts), India (Himalayan states), and Nepal.
- They are wanting for progressive, scalable options that improve resilience for communities and ecosystems throughout the Hindu Kush Himalaya area.
Application
Applications are due by 23:59 GMT on November 29, 2024. Shortlisted candidates will probably be notified in January 2025.
For extra data, go to HKH Innovation Challenge.
