Relief aid project points to future investment
Experience from the Deciphering the Relief Aid Market-project demonstrates that early investment in innovative partnerships is key to developing sustainable projects.
As the project ‘Deciphering the Relief Aid Market’ draws to an end, the participating partnerships sum up their experiences from the last two years.
The project was supported by the Danish Industry Foundation and featured partnerships between Danish companies, international CSOs and university researchers.
The aim was to provide start-up funding for partnerships to innovate sustainable solutions for the relief aid market and position Danish companies as purveyors to organisations like the UNHCR and the International Red Cross.
“The outcome of this project clearly shows that early funding is crucial when it comes to helping innovative partnerships establish themselves on the emerging market,” says Jacob Ravn, CEO at access2innovation.
To the small and medium sized companies in the project, participation has been an eye-opener to the possibilities
“Our business has grown a new leg that would have been impossible without this project,” says CEO Jakob Bejbro Andersen from MASH Biotech – a company that specialises in building biomass reactors. “Before, we had very little focus on East Africa. Now, we are focusing something like 90 percent on the East African market,” he says.
The partnerships were focusing on various solutions within access to energy, health, water and sanitation and shelter solutions for refugee camps.
A virtual platform for cross-sector partnerships will be launched later this year.
