Data for Local Impact Innovation Challenge Project

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is seeking organizations based in East Africa, legally registered in Tanzania or Kenya, with functioning offices in these countries to submit applications to provide technical assistance for the "Data for Local Impact Innovation Challenge" Project, which is one among several investments under a broader Data Collaboratives for Local Impact Umbrella Program. This is the initial announcement for this new funding opportunity. The Data Collaboratives for Local Impact Umbrella Program will initially fund investments in the following three areas, as integral and interconnected components of the overall investment: 1. Data for Local Impact Innovation Challenge (also referred to hereafter as the "Data Innovation Challenge" or "Challenge," and the focus of this application (i.e., Applicants are requested to submit applications only for this component out of the three (03) three below mentioned Program components): This Project will involve establishing a flexible online and operations platform that will be used to launch two (02) or three (03) grant and/or success-contingent awards (henceforward referred to as "prizes" ) challenges windows per year, in a variety of themes, and open only to local (i.e. in-country national) groups, collaborations and/or organizations. It will aim to strategically surface, engage, support, and connect local innovators, entrepreneurs, advocates, and south-to-south collaborators, to unlock datasets, as well as to fill data gaps to strengthen the overall data ecosystem while also responding to local, subnational and national priorities as well as the select requirements of the Data Collaboratives and the DREAMS partnership . 2. Tanzania Data Collaborative (or "Co-Lab"): Venue, technology platform and working space to share, combine and use data from multiple sectors and sources. At national and sub-national levels, there are opportunities to connect local objectives to Tanzanian national priorities, global commitments (e.g. Global Data Partnership), and resources. The Co-Lab will be a center of activity to connect these resources and build the capabilities to make open data and data analysis a more prominent part of decision-making in Tanzania. The Co-Lab is also intended to be the anchor project for the Data Collaboratives Program, interconnecting with and making resources available in support of other projects and their respective stakeholders. 3. Subnational Data Collaboratives: This Project, which is still under development, will seek to improve the capacity of DREAMS subnational and district/county institutions to provide actionable data locally and increase citizen, infomediary , community stakeholder organizations (CSOs), and small and medium enterprise (SME) participation in improving services and/or use of data to improve lives. There are major data gaps at the subnational levels - and comparatively lesser investment from governments, donors and the private sector. At the same time, subnational levels are precisely where added focus is needed to achieve local impact and even more so given the trends related to decentralization of power, funds, and decision-making from national to subnational levels.