KCDF Young Innovators Challenge 2026 – YOA

Deadline: August 31, 2026

Applications are open for the KCDF Young Innovators Challenge 2026. Through strategic partnerships, Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) has expanded the programme’s attain, enabling extra innovators to entry important funding and technical help. In 2026, they’re happy to accomplice with I&M Foundation to implement the Young Innovators Challenge (YIC). While the title has developed to mirror a broader innovation agenda, the Challenge stays dedicated to supporting youth-led options that deal with sustainable growth challenges.

By combining sources and experience, KCDF and I&M Foundation goal to award a complete of 16 innovators (10 organisations and 6 Individuals) on this version, searching for to strengthen their enterprises and speed up scalable options that contribute to Kenya’s inexperienced transition. The finalists might be unveiled in 2027.

grant

• Young Innovators: Up to KES 1,500,000
• Youth-led Organisations: Up to KES 5,000,000

Eligibility

Only innovators residing in Kenya and whose actions are carried out in Kenya are eligible to apply.

• Young Innovators Category: Individual youth (aged 15–35) with examined and impactful environmental improvements. (i.e an Individual or a bunch of people not formally registered)
• Youth-led Organisations Category: Registered youth-led organisations/firms with scalable sustainable options. (i.e Civil Society organisations, Company Limited with shares, Company restricted by Guarantee and so on.)

Evaluation Criteria

• Relevance and Innovation of the Solution
  • The proposed innovation clearly addresses a sustainability problem and demonstrates creativity, originality, and sensible application.
  • The answer contributes to environmental sustainability, local weather motion, accountable pure useful resource administration, and/or group resilience.
• Youth Leadership and Community Impact
  • The innovation demonstrates significant management by younger folks in designing, implementing, and scaling the answer.
  • The answer exhibits potential to generate constructive social, environmental, and financial advantages for communities, together with improved livelihoods, employment alternatives, environmental stewardship, and group effectively-being.
• Sustainability, Scalability, and Replicability
  • The innovation demonstrates the potential for lengthy-time period sustainability past the grant interval.
  • The answer has a transparent pathway for development, adoption, replication, or scaling to succeed in extra communities and improve impression over time.
• Co-Design and Stakeholder Engagement
  • The innovation demonstrates collaboration with communities, studying establishments, companions, or different stakeholders within the design and implementation of the answer.
  • The strategy displays inclusive participation and responsiveness to group wants and native contexts.
• Contribution to Program Outcomes: The innovation has clear potential to contribute to a number of of the Challenge outcomes, together with:
  • Increased youth management and participation in sustainable growth.
  • Adoption of sustainable practices and applied sciences.
  • Growth of youth-led enterprises and improvements.
  • Improved livelihoods and financial alternatives.
  • Enhanced group resilience to local weather and environmental challenges.

Application

You might want to submit:

• A technical application
• A excessive-stage funds
• Any supporting paperwork, corresponding to movies or footage

NOTE: You can obtain and full the application offline utilizing the supplied types after which add your responses by way of the submission hyperlinks beneath. This ensures you keep a duplicate on your data.

For extra info, go to KCDF Young Innovators Challenge.