Deadline June 2, 2014. Visa and Nethope Innovation Grants

http://nethope.org/assets/uploads/20140507_Visa_Innovation_Grants_2014_RFP.pdf

NETHOPE & VISA TO AWARD INNOVATION GRANTS TO NON-PROFIT AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS 

Visa Innovation Grants 2014

OVERVIEW

Each year, the development community, relief organizations and governments make billions of dollars in cash payments to poor households through benefit stipends, emergency relief payments and other development initiatives. Moreover, in the last decade the international community has made a significant transition away from the distribution of in-kind goods toward cash transfers, not only in emergency relief but also in the areas of health, education, food security, and poverty alleviation. While these efforts hold great promise, making an additional shift from physical cash toward electronic payments will allow individuals and organizations to realize fully the benefits of this transition while accelerating the rate of financial inclusion around the world.

Because of the prevalence of cash-based societies in developing markets, NGOs often are forced to rely on physical cash for both their work with beneficiaries (microfinance payments, conditional cash transfers) as well as their internal operations (payroll, expenditures, etc.). While using cash is often the most apparent means of payment, this traditional approach can present significant overhead costs, overburden staffing resources, open the door to corruption and security concerns and present missed opportunities to advance financial inclusion. By exploring new technologies and building new approaches, the humanitarian and development communities can improve the efficiency, transparency and impact of their programs while enabling individuals to begin participating in the formal financial system.

Humanitarian and development organizations already have begun to explore a wide variety of technologies to facilitate payments and manage resources. An increasing array of technologies and opportunities are emerging, providing the flexibility of cash and mitigating the challenges of resource distribution and program operations that transcend diverse geographies. Vouchers, prepaid cards, electronic remittances and mobile money transactions are just a few of the options becoming increasingly available in place of the distribution of physical cash. These mechanisms can have immediate and positive impacts because they help reduce the costs and risks of distributing cash. At the same time, by receiving money electronically, beneficiaries, vendors and employees engage in the financial services cycle and discover the ways in which that cycle can support their livelihoods and their communities.

However, a study by the Cash Learning Partnership entitled, “New Technologies in Cash Transfer Programming and Humanitarian Assistance” reveals significant obstacles facing organizations trying to make this transition, including technological, operational and attitudinal barriers. While some of these barriers are being overcome through greater knowledge-sharing and an increase in public-private partnerships, the report calls for greater investment in overcoming internal barriers and additional funding for adoption of new technologies.

To help organizations address these challenges and questions, Visa has launched the Visa Innovation Grants program. Through this program, Visa is making available five grants of $100,000 each to non-profit humanitarian and development organizations to support innovation, implementation and adoption of electronic transfers and/or payments within their programs and/or within their organizations.

Examples of projects that could be considered for funding:

• Implementing or transitioning a cash transfer program (e.g., cash grants, cash-for-work, voucher) to using electronic payments instead of in-kind goods or physical cash for an emergency humanitarian scenario or in a non-emergency development program
• Electronifying the distribution and repayment of microloans or other financial services
• Electronifying payments to NGO field staff
• Electronifying significant payment streams for local suppliers in the field

By helping humanitarian and development organizations transition to electronic payments and transactions, Visa believes that these grants will help foster financial inclusion in the communities they serve as well as strengthen the organizations’ ability to realize their missions.

Refugee Protection: UNHCR Protection Manual

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/532700d86.html

UNHCR Protection Manual

© UNHCR/B. Szandelszky

A repository of protection policy and guidance

The Protection Manual is the UN refugee agency's repository of protection policy and guidance, gathering some 1,000 publications ranging from the 1951 UN Refugee Convention to the latest UNHCR policy positions.

It is updated whenever a new protection policy or guidance document is published, and can thus be relied upon to represent the current state of UNHCR protection policy and guidance.

The manual is organized thematically or by subject, including legal topics (reflecting, for example,

UNHCR guidance on the different elements of the refugee definition) and operational protection guidance (for example, on asylum-seekers at sea or age, gender and diversity).

Under each heading, the documents are arranged in reverse chronological order and are accessible individually through a hyperlink.

Documents from external sources are generally not included, unless they provide guidance on protection-related topics that also applies to or has specifically been endorsed by UNHCR, such as inter-agency guidance.

At the end of each subject heading, relevant related sources are listed, containing older guidance and documents which serve as background reading.

Thursday, May 15. Health Disparities Seminar - Forging a Research Program on the Health of the Black Middle Class -

NOTE:  For all.  

         Have you attempted to obtain a new physician?

           Are any physicians in your community accepting new patients?

           How far ahead do you have to schedule an appointment for your annual physical?

           Is the problem with the entire industry, and not just for minorities?

           Although disparity for health care is increased for blacks, other minorities and others of lower income

NIH Health Disparities Seminar - Forging a Research Program on the Health of the Black Middle Class - Thursday, May 15

PRESENTATION:

Forging a Research Program on the Health of the Black Middle Class

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Kris Marsh, PhD

Assistant Professor of Sociology

University of Maryland

College Park, MD

Rashawn Ray, PhD

Assistant Professor of Sociology

University of Maryland

College Park, MD

DATE/TIME:

Thursday, May 15, 2014

3:00 - 4:30 P.M.

LOCATION:

NIH Campus

Natcher Conference Center, Building 45, Conference Rooms E1 & E2   

45 Center Drive

Bethesda, MD

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW:

The black middle class is viewed as an example of racial progress. Yet, the health outcomes of middle-class blacks fall dismally behind those of middle-class whites. In this regard, the health outcomes among middle-class blacks stall this alleged progress because middle-class status does not seem to provide the same health benefits to blacks as it does to whites. Without a better understanding of racial differences among the middle class, we cannot devise effective policy solutions to combat health disparities among the most underserved of our population. In their presentations, Dr. Kris Marsh and Dr. Rashawn Ray will provide an overview of a research agenda centered on psychological distress, physical activity, and aging among the black middle class. Using U.S. census and national data, as well as a unique data set on middle-class blacks and whites, they will document how health disparities among the middle class are very much centered on the experiences of black women. They will focus on how the stigma of being single affects the mental health and wealth decisions of middle-class black women as they age and show how the structure of neighborhoods and the social construction of bodies are privileged to support other raced and gendered groups leading to lower levels of physical activity and higher levels of obesity among middle-class black women. Drawing upon the intersectionality framework, they will discuss how the interactive effect of race and gender can be costly for middle-class black women.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Dr. Marsh is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and affiliate faculty of the Maryland Population Research Center, Department of Women's Studies, and African American Studies Department. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Marsh has combined her interests of the black middle class, demography, racial residential segregation, and education to develop a research agenda. This agenda is divided into three broad areas: the black middle class, the intersection of educational attainment and racial identification, and intra-racial health disparities. The common theme in her work is decomposing what it means to be black in America by focusing on intra-group variability in class, space, identity and educational achievement. Dr. Marsh has published work on the demographic shift in the black middle class with the emergence of single and living alone (SALA) households and the residential segregation patterns and trends of black and white SALA households. She received a doctoral degree from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Ray is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley/University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ray’s research addresses the mechanisms that manufacture and maintain racial and social inequality. His work also speaks to ways that inequality may be attenuated through racial uplift activism and social policy. Dr. Ray is the editor of Race and Ethnic Relations in the Twenty-first Century: History, Theory, Institutions, and Policy. His work has appeared in Ethnic and Racial Studies, American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Journal of Higher Education, and Journal of African American Studies. He received a doctoral degree in sociology from Indiana University.  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

There is limited parking on the NIH campus.  The closest Metro is Medical Center. Please allow adequate time for security check.  

The seminar will be video cast and made available in the NIH Video archives and on the NIMHD website after the seminar.  

Sign Language Interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations to participate should contact Edgar Dews at (301) 402-1366 or the Federal Relay at 1-800-877-8339.