SheConnects Digital Accelerator Africa Round 2 ( Up To USD 1,000,000 Grants)

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Applications are open for SheConnects Digital Accelerator Africa Round 2. The SheConnects Digital Accelerator: Africa aims to scale proven, high-impact solutions that enable women and girls to participate fully in the digital world, improving their lives and livelihoods.

By catalysing innovative partnerships and use cases in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Accelerator will strengthen evidence on what works, foster south-to-south learning, and help shape a more inclusive global digital ecosystem. The Accelerator’s initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa are managed by CARE and the GSMA Foundation with support from the Gates Foundation.

The SheConnects Digital Accelerator: Africa invites applications for Accelerator Round 2: Partnerships for Women’s Digital Empowerment at Scale. This funding round focuses on three priority sectors where digital technologies can drive transformative change for women: health, education, and agriculture/livelihoods.

This funding round seeks to support high-potential organizations that are using digital technology, strong delivery partnerships, and women-centered design to expand women’s meaningful digital participation across Sub-Saharan Africa.

SheConnects Digital Accelerator Africa Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this RFA is to identify and support organizations that are well positioned to implement and scale approaches that expand women’s meaningful access to and use of digital technologies to support better health, education, and agriculture/livelihood outcomes for women – and their families and communities.

Applicants should propose models that are practical, inclusive, and appropriate to low-resource settings, and that demonstrate credible potential to impact at least 50,000 women users within an 18-month grant period.

The SheConnects Digital Accelerator: Africa is particularly interested in approaches that:

Place women’s lived realities, needs, and risks at the center of program design and implementation;
Focus on solutions and teams with a track record;
Use digital technologies in ways that are practical, scalable, and responsive to local contexts;
Demonstrate a realistic path to reaching 50,000 or more women users within the grant period;
Build on trusted delivery channels, community partnerships, or strong direct distribution mechanisms;
Articulate how the project could be sustained, scaled, or shared beyond the grant period;
Demonstrate the potential for adaptation or extension across geographies, donor types, and government integration; and
Use responsible AI practices and safeguards if AI is used.

The SheConnects Digital Accelerator: Africa will not fund proposals that:

Focus only on access, including infrastructure (hubs/labs) and equipment provision
Propose digital literacy curricula
Do not support sectoral outcomes
Are focused only on customer acquisition by increasing the number of female users

Scope of Work and Eligible Delivery Models

Applications may propose one or both of the following delivery models: support for Last Mile Service Providers (LMSPs) and Direct to Participant (D2P) initiatives. These models have historically produced the most scalable pathways for reaching women intentionally and effectively. LMSPs provide trust and local context, while D2P often offers a path to efficiency, replication, and large-scale growth. The Accelerator expects that some of the strongest applications may combine both approaches.

Last Mile Service Providers (LMSPs)
- Last Mile Service Providers are frontline actors that already work directly with women and are trusted intermediaries.
- These may include community-based organizations, health workers, educators, agricultural extension agents, savings
  groups, women’s associations, or other local service providers with established relationships and delivery capacity.
Direct to Participant (D2P)
- Direct to Participant approaches reach women directly through digital channels, platforms or services, without relying primarily on frontline intermediaries for ongoing delivery.
- Applications using this model should clearly explain how women will be reached, onboarded, supported, retained, and safeguarded throughout implementation.

SheConnects Digital Accelerator Africa Funding Details

Awards under Accelerator Round 2 are expected to range from USD 500,000 to USD 1,000,000 for an 18-month period of performance.
Final award amounts will depend on the strength of the proposed approach, the credibility of the pathway to scale, the reasonableness of the proposed budget, and the applicant’s demonstrated capacity to deliver.
The SheConnects Digital Accelerator: Africa reserves the right to make multiple awards, negotiate budget levels, implementation scope, or workplans, request revisions or clarifications from applicants, or make no awards under this solicitation.
Important: Proposals that solely or primarily ask for devices, equipment, buildings, and support for
creating digital literacy curriculum will not be eligible.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible entities for this initiative include:

Nonprofit and Civil Society Organizations, including registered nonprofits and charities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community-based organizations
Mission-Driven For-Profit Organizations. For-profit entities that have a clear public-benefit mission aligned with the goals of the RFP are eligible. Funding cannot be used for core commercial product development, customer acquisition, or general business operations.
Consortia, Partnerships, & Collaborative Proposals. Proposals may be submitted through partnerships and other collaborative arrangements. In such cases, one lead organization must serve as the primary applicant and submit the
proposal, with partner organizations included as sub-grantees.
Academic institutions