Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants

The Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge is a joint initiative by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) and Shockwave Foundation to identify and scale nature-positive agricultural innovations in East Africa. The program provides selected winners with mentoring, leadership training, and connections to private investors to transform seed-level ideas into sustainable, funding-ready businesses.

• The RAIN challenge targets the conversion of "seed-level innovative agricultural ideas" in East Africa into sustainable business models that attract private investors and funders.
• Eligible applicants must be based in East Africa, specifically in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, or Uganda, and must propose nature-positive solutions that build resilience for vulnerable communities.
• The program provides winners with a comprehensive support package including up to 24 hours of mentoring over three months, access to a Leadership Academy, communications support via a social media toolkit, and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) support.
• Winning projects that graduate from the challenge and meet pre-agreed criteria will receive next-stage funding for implementation and scaling over a 12-month period, awarded after the mentoring and Leadership Academy phases.
• Applications are evaluated on a 100-point scale across seven criteria: potential for impact (20), level of innovation (15), equity (15), additionality (15), potential for profitability (10), team (15), and risk (10).
• The selection process involves screening for eligibility followed by review by two assessors; applications scoring above 60 are shortlisted, with 6 to 10 final winners selected by a committee of GRP Secretariat staff and partners.
• Nature positive solutions are defined as those that go beyond doing no harm to provide active benefits such as biodiversity gains, CO2 capture, and the nurturing of a circular economy.

APA

Global Resilience Partnership (2022). Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rain-guidelines-for-applicants-2.pdf

Chicago

Global Resilience Partnership. Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants. 2022. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rain-guidelines-for-applicants-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Resilience Partnership |title=Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants |date=12 November 2022 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rain-guidelines-for-applicants-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalresiliencepartnership2022resilient, author = {{Global Resilience Partnership}}, title = {{Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rain-guidelines-for-applicants-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }