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 innovative, nature-positive agricultural solutions 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 include not-for-profit organizations, including public entities, local civil society, international NGOs, and academia, as well as start-ups, hubs, and accelerators located in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
• To be eligible, solutions must be "nature positive," meaning they avoid degradation, restore nature, and provide benefits such as biodiversity gains or CO2 capture, while also offering a potentially profitable revenue model.
• Winners receive a comprehensive support package including up to 24 hours of mentoring over three months, access to a Leadership Academy based on executive management practices, communications support via a social media toolkit, and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) support.
• The selection process involves screening for eligibility followed by a scoring system (maximum 100 points) based on potential for impact (0-20), level of innovation (0-15), equity (0-15), additionality (0-15), potential for profitability (0-10), team experience (0-15), and risk (0-10).
• 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, following the initial mentoring and Leadership Academy.

APA

Global Resilience Partnership (2023). Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/rain-guidelines-for-applicants_for-profits-2024-1.pdf

Chicago

Global Resilience Partnership. Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants. 2023. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/rain-guidelines-for-applicants_for-profits-2024-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Resilience Partnership |title=Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants |date=10 December 2023 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/rain-guidelines-for-applicants_for-profits-2024-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalresiliencepartnership2023resilient, author = {{Global Resilience Partnership}}, title = {{Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge Guidelines for Applicants}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/rain-guidelines-for-applicants_for-profits-2024-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }