By Sharon Atieno
A new grant program to accelerate collaborative innovations for smart, healthy and resilient cities has been launched.
The program is a result of a partnership between the Million Lives Collective (MLC), a global multi-sectoral network, and the Judith Neilson Foundation, a philanthropy focused on strengthening communities in Africa and Australia.
The African Cities Innovation Fund (ACIF) will officially open for applications in Spring next year, inviting pairs of African innovators to apply for flexible grant funding of up to $75,000 to design and test new collaborative solutions to urban challenges in Africa.
The announcement was made at the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA)’s Global Summit in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
“African cities are growing at a dramatic pace, creating huge opportunity, challenge and change. Ensuring that cities are places where people can thrive calls for imagination, ambition, innovation and collaboration,” said Abi Taylor, Innovation Lead at the Judith Neilson Foundation.
“We’re delighted to be partnering with the Million Lives Collective, enabling their members to rapidly test new partnerships, experiment with scaling pathways and generate new ways of creating impact for those who need it most.”
Beyond the funding, ACIF awardees will also benefit from tailored technical assistance, including coaching and partnership support, as well as direct exposure to leading global development stakeholders through the International Development Innovation Alliance’s Collaboration Lab, ‘Collaborative Scaling for Exponential Impact.’
The MLC is currently building a pipeline of proven, scale-ready urban innovations in Africa, and will be preceding the launch of ACIF with a call for new members in January next year.
“Across the continent, innovators, community organizations, entrepreneurs, artists and public sector actors are already finding and scaling new ways to improve mobility, expand access to resources and services, strengthen local economies, create safe and vibrant public spaces, and build resilience to climate and economic shocks,” said Jite Phido, Senior Program Manager at the MLC and Results for Development.
“Our upcoming call for African urban innovations seeks to identify and amplify these efforts, while surfacing new pathways for exponential impact through innovative collaborations of actors in the system.”
An initiative inspired by IDIA member agencies, the MLC has been working to identify, verify, aggregate and advance impactful solutions to sustainable development challenges since 2019.
It has been exploring the catalytic potential of collaboration grants in accelerating development impact since 2022, having supported cohorts of innovators to co-design and test solutions for health and women’s economic empowerment and, with support from the Bayer Foundation and the Gates Foundation.
ACIF will build on this body of research to continue building the evidence base for funding collaboration as a powerful lever of change in the face of diminishing aid budgets and complex global challenges.
Edwin Muroki, whose organization 4Life Solutions Kenya participated in the MLC’s 2023-26 women’s economic empowerment collaboration grants program said: “The African Cities Innovation Fund is significant because it promotes the kind of collaboration that urban impact in Africa demands: innovators partnering with trusted local institutions to co-design delivery models, strengthen sustained adoption, and generate clear proof-points that solutions can be delivered effectively at scale.
“Our Kenya experience shows that proven solutions scale faster when partnerships strengthen community trust, enable localized logistics, reinforce behaviour change, and support continuous real-time learning. A fund that prioritizes these collaborative enablers gives scale-ready innovators the runway to de-risk expansion into new cities, combine complementary strengths, and sustain quality as they grow across diverse African contexts.”
African actors working to promote better urban outcomes through circular production, climate-resilient infrastructure, youth mobility, digital equity, and community wellbeing are encouraged to express their interest in ACIF on the MLC’s website for upcoming updates.
