| Â |  | | Â | Jim Wolfensohn with one of the winning groups at Thursday's awards ceremony. |
December 8, 2003—In an awards ceremony at the Washington offices on Thursday, President Jim Wolfensohn awarded more than $6 million in seed money to be shared by 47 small-scale, innovative development projects from 27 countries. (Click here for a list of the winners.) This year’s Development Marketplace had 2,700 applications and 183 finalists who displayed their ideas in the Atrium last week. In the last six years the Marketplace has come a long way, and this year awarded the highest amount of grants ever in the history of the program. According to its sponsors, this year’s competition also came closest to the vision of a true marketplace. The Development Marketplace is seen as a "different way of doing business" at the Bank Group, where the competition process emulates a venture approach to innovative project financing. It was launched as a recognition that solutions to development challenges can have small beginnings and are often found by those living closest to local problems.  |  | |  The MC Atrium during the Marketplace. |  |
Last week’s marketplace, said John Wilton (Vice President of Strategy, Finance, and Risk Management) reflected the highest standard of proposals yet seen. But the Marketplace has been very successful in leveraging financing from other sources. In fact, it raised $1 million in additional financing in its final hours on Thursday. Because of the exposure to other sources of financing including the private sector, even those finalists last week who did not win money awards stand a very high probability of still getting resources or technical assistance. Financing partners for this year’s awards included, for the first time, the Global Environment Facility—which contributed nearly $1 million to the award pool—as well as UNAIDS, Microsoft, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, among others. A number of units within the Bank also provide support, including InfoDev, the HIV/AIDS program, and IFC. The Development Marketplace provides seed capital to people at the grassroots level, said Wilton. It enables the Bank Group to work with people who work on development without going through government and line ministries. The Development Marketplace 2003 chose for its theme this year’s World Development Report, Making Services Work for Poor People and aimed to provide funding for pilot projects that explore new ways of providing effective service delivery to those whom traditional channels have failed. Winning concepts ranged from training rats to detect tuberculosis in Tanzania or using car tires to reinforce walls in earthquake-prone Turkey. For 47 new programs, this seed money will help to turn the winners’ innovative local ideas into viable programs that will yield concrete benefits for their communities and help reduce world poverty. |  |  | |  | Competition judges questioning one of the 183 finalists. |
"All of these finalists are stars and seeing them all in one place is highly inspirational, and something that only the World Bank can put together," said Mirjam Schoning, a jury member and Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. For Blandine Le Bourgeois of the Handicap International—Philippine Mission, and one of the winners, the money will enable the NGO to build a boat to sail to remote islands to access people with disabilities who currently don’t have access to health services. For the "Community Empowerment and Fynbos Conservation of South Africa", the funds will help to develop a wild cut flower industry as a conservation-based alternative to current exploitive harvesting practices.  |  | | Back-to-back finalists throughout the Marketplace explaining ideas and ambitions. |  |
"Chili as a Tool for Conservation and Development in Zimbabwe" will promote the production of chili peppers in the Zambezi Valley of Southern Africa as a way to protect farmers from incursions by elephants, which in turn reduces human-animal conflict. In addition, the chili crop creates a new high-value export product for the farmers. In Nepal, the "Doko Dai Mobile Library" hopes to raise literacy rates among children and increase employment opportunities for villagers in Nepal’s remote mountainous areas by using traditional channels (Doko Dai) to bring books and educational materials to these communities. "Empregar: Job Market Insertion for AIDS Orphans in Brazil" wants to empower poor adolescent AIDS-orphans in Salvador, Brazil by helping them enter into steady, legal jobs that will help break the cycle of poverty they are trapped in. |  |  | |  | Entry to the Marketplace in Washington's MC Atrium. |
"At a time when we are in a race to attain the Millennium Development Goals—and achieve a new balance between rich and poor nations—the need for creative ideas and uncommon partnerships is ever greater," said Wolfensohn. "These imaginative individuals, non-governmental organizations, academics, development professionals, and private companies gathered here collectively demonstrate the best of development. They remind us that the world can indeed come together to solve difficult problems and provide innovation during these challenging times." A number of new awards were introduced this year. Among them was a People’s Choice which was an opportunity to see how those who visited the booths—staff and others—would have given awards. Interestingly the following are the top three projects selected by the non-jury voting public: Dress for Development (and Success) Picture
Volcanic Stones Marketing from the Philippines Picture
Training African Rats as a Diagnostic Tool from Tanzania  Picture Since 1998, Development Marketplace has funded more than 370 innovative projects in 61 countries, with investments of $22 million. Recognizing these accomplishments, the November 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review described Development Marketplace as "Best Practice" in innovation. |
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