Published: 19 August 2010 | Close Date: 3 September 2010
In addition to the competition to select hosts for mobile applications labs under the Creating Sustainable Businesses program, infoDev is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) for Mobile Social Networking Activities in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
infoDev, a donor-funded ICT for development agency hosted by the World Bank, has formed a public/private partnership with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and Nokia to undertake a joint program on Creating Sustainable Businesses for the Knowledge Economy, worth some €12 million, that will run from 2010 – 2012.
This request for expressions of interest (EOI) concerns Track 1B of the program, on Mobile Social Networking Ac tivities in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. As the implementing agency for the program, infoDev is looking to identify one or more organizations to sustain social networking hubs, or establish new ones, in the following cities:
· In Africa: Nairobi (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda), Maputo (Mozambique) and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania);
· In Asia: in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) and Kathmandu (Nepal)
· In Eastern Europe and Central Asia: (ECA) in Tbilisi (Georgia), and Kiev (Ukraine).
Typically, grants worth around US$35’000 will be awarded per hub (i.e. a total of around US$280’000), but infoDev retains discretion to change the number or precise value of specific awards. infoDev would welcome proposals that cover either all three regions, a single region; or a single city-wide hub. Although the call for EOI is open to all relevant proposals, infoDev is particularly interested in hearing from volunteer-based organizations, community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations.
The objectives of the mobile social networking component of the program are to support the creation of social networking hubs, or sustain existing ones, in the eight cities listed above; to develop a mobile applications community of practice, to foster a competition for ideas to encourage entrepreneurship, and to establish mentorship opportunities for developers, by linking them with mobile industry professionals in their own regions as well as internationally. The key deliverables of this component will include the hosting of social events, attracting local participants and animating the planned mobile applications community of practice. Full guidelines are available in the Terms of Reference:
To respond to this EOI, please send an email to tkelly@worldbank.org, with a copy to info@infodev.org, no later than 11.59 pm EST on September 3 2010 and including:
1) Cover letter
2) Capability Profile (please see template below)