The consortium of Circle Innovation and E4Impact Foundation is excited to work with Nesta Challenges to support in the Assessment Process of the Afri-Plastics Challenge that is running from August 2021 to March 2022.

About the Challenge

The Afri-Plastics Challenge is a challenge prize delivered by Nesta Challenges and funded by the Canadian government; it is an element of the $100-million Marine Litter Mitigation Fund announced by Prime Minister Trudeau at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Charlevoix in June 2018.

The Challenge aims to reduce marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries by developing and scaling innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement. It involves a public competition that will reward the best solutions to addressing marine plastic litter in developing countries in a way that promotes gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. The Challenge will help communities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to prevent plastic waste from entering the marine environment by finding ways to minimize reliance on plastic, new ways of managing plastic waste, and/or new uses for plastic that has been discarded.

The Challenge is split into three strands:

• Strand 1: Accelerating Growth – Applications are open!

Seeking small and medium-sized enterprises that have a proof of concept and the ability to scale nationally or regionally to reach a high target number of people, particularly engaging women and girls.

• Strand 2: Creating Solutions (Launching October 2021)

A call for new ideas particularly those that respond to a particular gap in the innovation landscape in specific Sub-Saharan African countries or with specific population groups.

• Strand 3: Promoting Change (Launching December 2021)

A call for large scale campaigns that raise awareness and engage women and girls in the plastics value chain. The strands will end together with final prizes being awarded for all 3 strands by March 2023.

Assessor’s Profile

Are you experienced in assessing ideas and innovation in the field of marine plastics waste and general waste management? Do you love to discover the next big ideas that can turn into sustainable businesses? Then join the Afri-Plastics Challenge as an assessor.

We are looking for Assessor’s with the following profile:

• Experience in developing business ideas to commercial business models.
• Knowledge around some of the challenges and opportunities within marine plastics waste and general waste management
• Knowledge and understanding of the entrepreneurship and innovation landscape in Africa (excluding North Africa)
• Knowledge of methods and initiatives to support the advancement of women and girls
• Knowledge and experience in building and scaling ideas into sustainable businesses
• Knowledge and experience in assessing innovations and/or startup ideas

What does it mean to be an assessor?

 As an assessor you would be asked to review assessments of eligible entries to the Afri-Plastics Challenge over the course of a couple of weeks during the below months (exact dates will be confirmed).

• Strand 1: Accelerating Growth – September 2021
• Strand 2: Creating Solutions – January 2022
• Strand 3: Promoting Change – February 2022

Assessing an entry entails scoring it against assessment criteria (detailed guidance will be provided), recommending whether the entry should be shortlisted and writing some additional comments or feedback to support your recommendation. Each eligible entry will be reviewed by two assessors. Using a combined average of their scores all entries will be ranked and a moderated shortlist of entries will go to the external judging panel. The judges will then meet to review the shortlist and select the semi-finalists, who progress to the next stage of the challenge.

What is in it for you?

Assessors’ knowledge and expertise provide a highly valuable initial review of all the entries; based upon which an external panel of judges will make crucial decisions regarding which innovators advance through the challenge. You will help decide which entries have the potential to succeed in the challenge. Assessors will also have the opportunity to gain a real insight into the forefront of innovation within Sub-Saharan Africa and into some of the most pressing global challenges like plastic waste and gender inequality.

 As an Assessor you:

• Will be compensated with a fee of £100 per day to assess approximately 150 submissions over the assessment period across the 3 strands
• Have the opportunity to assess the next big ideas in the area of marine plastics in Africa
• Connect with the broader circular economy network in Africa and Europe
• Work with like-minded creative people to select innovations and ideas in your community and country

Workload

• Each assessor will be expected to review approximately 50 entries over the course of 5 days per strand (Strand 1 – September 2021; Strand 2 -January 2022, Strand 3 – February 2022).
• Assessors are expected to spend approximately 45 minutes on each assessment.
• Assessors must attend a short virtual training session on Submittable – the online assessment platform and ensure they have created their login before assessment begins (this will only be done once).
• The exact workload for Strand 1 will be confirmed on Thursday 16th September 2021, once all entries have been received.
• After completion of the assessment, each assessor will be asked to complete a short feedback survey as a key milestone before payment.

Targeted Geographies:

Since the Afri-Plastics Challenge is receiving applications across various Sub Saharan Africa countries, nationalities from the different countries are encouraged to apply. Applicants with excellent oral and written French are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply and Timelines

Submit your brief bio and CV that clearly demonstrates your experience based on the above assessor’s requirements to accelerator.kenya@e4impact.org with the email subject: ‘Afri-Plastics Assessor’ by Wednesday 8th September 5pm EAT.

Download the full Consultancy Assignment here>> Afri-Plastics Assessor Recruitment Full Description

Assessor’s Recruitment Timelines

 The successful assessors will be notified by Thursday 9th September before 5pm and they will be required to attend the virtual platform training on Monday 13th September.

In case of any queries, send an email to accelerator.kenya@e4impact.org before the 8th of September 2021.