SWFF and Founding Partners

March 21, 2016

SWFF Founding Partners Influence Program Direction and Results

USAID and the Government of Sweden launched the Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge for Development the first week of September 2013 during World Water Week in Stockholm. Over the last two years, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of South Africa have joined the program as Founding Partners.

Through Securing Water for Food, the Founding Partners have worked to identify and accelerate science and technology innovations and market-driven approaches that improve water sustainability to boost food security and ultimately alleviate poverty. Securing Water for Food aims to increase access to innovations that help farmers produce more food with less water, enhance water storage, and improve the use of saline water and soils to produce food.

The continued support and advisory role of the Founding Partners ensures that the program continues to “do development differently.”

SWFF Founding Partners support a consensus-driven process and were involved in all major SWFF decisions. USAID – who manages the day-to-day aspects of SWFF – facilitates partner engagement and participation. In FY2015, the Founding Partners:

  1. Released the third call for proposals at the Global Forum on Innovations in Agriculture and prioritized strong outreach efforts to innovations “from” developing countries “for” developing countries, and conducted application workshops in Eastern and Southern Africa.
  2. Applied results-based funding (tranched funding) which requires innovators to achieve milestones before receiving future funding from the program.
  3. Continued the engagement with the Innovation Investment Advisory Committee.
  4. Set aside funding for the SWFF Technical Assistance Facility for provision of acceleration services to innovators.

The continued support and advisory role of the Founding Partners ensures that the program continues to “do development differently.” Their active support drives the implementation of innovative ideas and new technologies for better water efficiency and sustainable development.

Learn more about SWFF here.