D-MADE will grant prizes between €10,000 and €40,000 to innovative entrepreneurs from the Sub-Saharan African diaspora in Europe, for projets implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as technical assistance and monitoring during project implementation.
1. Call for proposals
The competition will be officially launched during a plublic event at which representatives from the diaspora, donors, private sector, academia, the media, etc. will convene in Brussels, on 17 September 2007.
2. Submission of proposals
All Sub-Saharan Africa Diaspora members or organizations living in Europe are invited to submit a brief project proposal outlining their idea or activity, in the provided format. Please refer to the section 'To Apply' for submission modalities.
3. Pre-selection of finalists
All proposals will be screened by a group of assessors against a pre-determined set of criteria - please refer to the 'eligibility' and 'evaluation' criteria sections. From all the applications received, approximately 70 finalists will be selected and announced on the website in February 2008.
4. Orientation workshop for the finalists and Submission of business plans - The selected finalists will be offered a comprehensive training to improve their proposals and prepare a business plan, which they will have to submit by May 19th, 2008.
5. Selection of winners
The selected finalists will be invited to attend the Marketplace and Knowledge Exchange Forum, held in parallel, in Brussels on 23-24 June 2008. The finalists will each have a booth, where they will publicly display their project . They will be individually interviewed by a panel of international jurors comprising members from the diaspora, donors, entrepreneurs and other private sector representatives, academia, non-governmental organizations, etc.
At this time, the jury will select 10 to 15 winning projects according to how well they meet the selection criteria. Prizes, which will be announced during the awards ceremony, will be awarded according to the needs stated in the business plans.
6. Technical assistance during project implementation
The technical assistance is meant to help build the capacity for the sustainability of the business. It will be tailored to address the needs of each winning project.