We-Fi is pleased to announce it has received proposal submissions from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and World Bank Group, for We-Fi’s third round of funding. This call for proposals, which closed last week, focuses on Women-led SMEs in Value Chains, Disruptive Technologies and Digital Financial Inclusion for Women-led SMEs, Scaling Early Stage Finance for Women-led SMEs, and COVID-19 related support for WSMEs. This year was an especially unique year, where due to the coronavirus crisis and related lockdowns our Implementing Partners were developing and finalizing complex proposals in an environment where many teams were working virtually for the first time, adjusting to having family members, roommates, or being alone in their new makeshift home-based offices. Accordingly, the Governing Committee provided Implementing Partners with a four week grace period for proposal submissions to account for this changing context, and to allow for COVID-19 related support to be included in the proposals. Over the coming two months, the Governing Committee and an external panel of technical experts will be reviewing the proposals and requesting any necessary clarifications from implementing partners. The Governing Committee plans to finalize and announce this round’s allocation decision in July 2020.
