Part of the AstraZeneca Young Health Programme (YHP) Step Up! provides grants of up to US$10,000 to help small, innovative, youth-focused non-profits develop and deliver effective health promotion programmes – with an emphasis on under-resourced and marginalised communities in low- and middle-income countries.
In particular, they wish to ensure the next generation of formal and informal healthcare workers can increase their knowledge of non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors and prevention strategies, and create practical methods to increase equitable access to training, employment and entrepreneurship in NCD prevention.
To further their commitment to gender equity, in 2022 they will award 50% of grants to projects which are women-led (either one person or a group of people with the majority being female/identifying as female), with a preference for young women leaders (18-35 years old).
AstraZeneca’s Young Health Programme (YHP) aims to prevent the most common NCDs, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, and mental ill-health. This is done by addressing the primary risk factors – tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and exposure to air pollution – that contribute to NCDs. NCDs are the number one cause of death worldwide according to the World Health Organisation, and 70% of premature deaths among adults can be linked to behaviour initiated during adolescence. The YHP is aligned to Sustainable Development Goal 3.4: reducing premature deaths linked to NCDs by one third by 2030 and reflects our commitment to communities.
The application form will be available for completion between 9 May and 8 June 2022.
Following a thorough selection process, they aim to notify all applicants whether they have been selected for a grant in August 2022. All selected organisations must then complete due diligence/verification with CAF which can take up to a further 3 months. If you cannot provide the requested information at that stage, you will not be awarded the grant. You will also complete a simple authorisation process for AstraZeneca before the grant can be confirmed and payment made. Projects should not be scheduled to start before January 2023.
If you receive a Step Up! grant, they want to understand what has been achieved during your project and find out more about your innovative approaches to these health challenges. They are interested in both what has gone well and what has not worked. They will ask you to provide:
- a receipt for the funds received
- after the end of your project, a detailed report on what you have done, who you have worked with, the difference you have made and what you have learned.
Benefits
Grants of up to USD $10,000 will be awarded to support the delivery of approximately 20 projects which:
- strengthen health systems
- improve equitable access
- enable the next generation of young healthcare leaders (age 18-35) to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among young people (age 10-30 years)
- can be completed within a 12 month period, not starting before January 2023
In addition to the funding, Step Up! grantees will be
- invited to join AstraZeneca’s Young Health Programme (YHP) Alumni Group. This offers learning and development opportunities and networking between Step Up! grantees and young leaders who have received YHP Scholarships.
- offered mini-MBA programmes, opportunities to share their work with global audiences, and masterclasses on fundraising and digital skills to build effective health promotion programmes.
Eligibilities
- The fund is open to registered non-profit or charitable organisations with solid experience working with young people to increase awareness of NCD risk factors and NCD prevention strategies.
- Organisations must have been registered and operational for at least 3 full years, and have had a total reported income in the last financial year of more than USD $50,000 and less than USD $1,000,000.
- Organisations must be ‘funding-ready’ and able to provide appropriate documentation (in English) to verify their organisation’s charitable status, governance and financial situation.
- They will support organisations from under-resourced communities worldwide. These are likely to be in low-income or lower-middle-income countries or settings.
- Organisations funded previously by AstraZeneca are welcome to apply, but not for the same project that was previously supported.
- They will not be able to support every organisation that applies and will choose those projects which most closely fulfil the priorities listed below.1. aims to prevent NCDs among young people
2. empowers young healthcare leaders to address the primary risk factors – tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, and exposure to air pollution – that contribute to NCDs
3. develops the knowledge and capacity of future healthcare leaders (under 35 years old) through NCD prevention education. This might include working with medical students, community health workers, caregivers or young people following a healthcare career pathway.
4. is sustainable (eg can be scaled up or implemented in other communities/settings)
5. is working to improve equitable access for diverse members of the community
6. can show existing partnerships at a local level which will lead to a strengthened local or national health systems
7. is run by an organisation with an income and capacity to deliver a grant of this size
8. is structured to provide evidence at the conclusion of the project of what has been delivered, outcomes for young people and what has been learned in preventing NCDs
Their aim is that 50% of funding will be awarded to women-led projects.
Eligible Regions: Open for All
APPLICATION PROCESS
- Go to the application portal
- Log in to CAF’s online grantmaking portal, or register if you have not previously used it, with your email address and a password.
After successfully completing the eligibility questions, you can then access the full online application form to answer questions about your organisation and project.
- Submit your application by Wednesday 8 June (midnight, in your timezone). The application form can be saved and revisited on an ongoing basis. It does not need to be completed at one time.
Apply Here