The County Innovation Challenge Fund (CICF) is a £16 million fund created in 2015. It operates as one part under the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) “Reducing Maternal and Neonatal Death in Kenya (2013-2018)” programme; a five-year programme impl… read moreemented by UNICEF, Marie Stopes International / Options Consultancy Services Limited (Options), the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), and other partners. The CICF supports the Government of Kenya’s (GOK) efforts to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. The investment facilitates the design and delivery of innovative interventions, products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that will reduce maternal and newborn mortality.
The CICF operates funding windows for projects that are new (through the Innovation Competition) or that that can be scaled-up (through the Scaling Competition) and considers applications from legally registered entities including international, national or community based non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations, civil society organisations, academic and research institutions, innovation hubs, social enterprises or private sector organisations.
The Fund is implemented across six counties with different socio-demographic contexts: peri-urban informal settlements in Nairobi; nomadic pastoralist communities in Garissa and Turkana; and largely rural agrarian populations in Kakamega, Bungoma and Homa Bay.