United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC)/BMW Group 2021 Intercultural Innovation Award

Published: 02 May 2021 919 views

For the past ten years, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group have invited organizations around the world to apply for the Intercultural Innovation Award. The two partners have used this award to support innovative projects promoting intercultural understanding.

This year, the focus will primarily be on projects promoting gender equality, countering violent extremism, hatred, and prejudices, and advocating for art, culture, and sports as vehicles for social cohesion and diversity.

To leverage the social impact of the selected projects, all ten finalists will receive the same financial assistance. For this reason, with the support of the consulting firm Accenture, the partners have increased the financial award to USD 200,000. In addition, the finalists will receive individual and professional consulting and participate in various training sessions and workshops. Recipients will also have access to “Intercultural Leaders”, an exclusive skills and knowledge-sharing platform developed by UNAOC and BMW Group for civil society organizations and young leaders working on promoting intercultural dialogue worldwide.

UNAOC/BMW Intercultural Innovation Award

Application Deadline	May 27, 2021
Type	Entrepreneurs
Sponsor	United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC)
Gender	Men and Women

Benefits of UNAOC/BMW Intercultural Innovation Award

The Intercultural Innovation Award is bestowed upon ten organizations.

1. Awardees will benefit from a comprehensive one-year capacity-building program aimed at strengthening their work.
2. The support program will consist of funding, training and capacity-building, customized support and mentoring.
3. Support will also be provided to successful projects so that they can be replicated in other contexts or settings where they might be relevant. The specific support received will depend on the individual needs of the projects.  

Requirements for UNAOC/BMW Intercultural Innovation Award

WHO CAN APPLY?

1. Eligible to apply for the Intercultural Innovation Award are not-for-profit organizations implementing projects focused on promoting intercultural dialogue and fostering diverse and inclusive societies, and who are willing to expand their range of action.
2. Examples include projects in the fields of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, preventing xenophobia, violent extremism, and hate speech, promoting the use of sport, art and culture as tools to drive social change and foster social inclusion.
3. The Intercultural Innovation Award does not support one-time events (e.g. festivals, events, conferences. etc.).

Does your not-for-profit organization qualify?

Organizations that submit a project to the competition need to fulfill each and every one of the following criteria to be deemed eligible:

1. Organizations must be registered as a not-for-profit organization, such as a non-governmental organization, charitable organization, research and educational institution, labor union, indigenous group, faith-based organization, professional association, foundation and local or municipal branches of government.
2. Applying organizations must have been operational for a minimum of 2 years before April 2021; with funding base and project implementation (i.e. the organization must show registration as non-profit in their country of operation by April 2019 or earlier).
3. Applying organizations must be managing a project focused on promoting intercultural dialogue and fostering diverse and inclusive societies, and who are willing to expand their range of action. Examples include projects in the fields of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, preventing xenophobia, violent extremism, and hate speech, promoting the use of sport, art and culture as tools to drive social change and foster social inclusion.
4. The applying organization must have the willingness to expand the range of action of the project with UNAOC, the BMW Group and Accenture.
5. Organizations that have previously received any UNAOC support are not eligible to apply to the Intercultural Innovation Award.
6. Projects that have been submitted to previous editions of the Intercultural Innovation Award and were not selected, are eligible and encouraged to apply again. However, applying organizations cannot have been winners of previous editions of the UNAOC Marketplace of Ideas or BMW Group Awards.

Selection Process

Shortlisted projects will be evaluated against a comprehensive set of criteria. These criteria include three main categories:

THE PROJECT

1. Relevance – is appropriate for the targeted audience and in the local context where implemented, taking into account the necessity of the project, challenges posed by Covid-19, and which SDG it is tackling.
2. Quality – undertakes an in-depth analysis of problems/issues and sets a consistent intervention strategy.
3. Clarity – sets clear objectives and draws a logical connection between activities, outputs and outcomes.
4. Innovation – pushes beyond boundaries and excels in the use of original and novel methods (social media, arts, pedagogical approach, innovative training, etc.)
5. Measurability – impact of the project is measurable (i.e. number of beneficiaries, polls on attitude change, assessment of behavioral changes, clear policy changes, etc.)
6. Sustainability – demonstrates ability to be sustainable in the mid-long term.
7. Replicability – has the capacity to be replicated and scaled up in different settings. This is a key evaluation criterion.

THE ORGANIZATION

1. Organizational structure – is capable of achieving the goals set in the project.
2. Intercultural commitment – has proven interest and commitment in fostering diverse and inclusive societies (e.g. past reports, reference letters, etc.).
3. Work plan and budget – has set a realistic budget to replicate or expand the project.
4. Transparency – has made genuine and demonstrated efforts to adopt a policy of transparency.
5. Equality – has adopted equality and diversity policies as reflected in staff members, membership and activities.

THE APPLICATION

1. Clarity – shows an effective communication of ideas and provides relevant examples.
2. Conciseness – provides clear and concise responses to questions.
3. Persuasiveness – includes insightful arguments and engaging narrative.
4. Applicants are encouraged to reflect on how the project has coped with the challenges that have occurred in the context of Covid-19 and how the project contributes to building back better.

Application Deadline

May 27, 2021

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) on interculturalinnovation.org to apply