From the Development Marketplace website, “The Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program that identifies and funds innovative, early stage development projects that are scalable and/or replicable, while also having high potential for development impact. The grant beneficiaries are social entrepreneurs with projects that aim to create jobs and/or deliver a range of social and public services to low income groups. We also serve as an intermediary and broker to connect our grantees to advisory services and follow-on funding. Though we are a global program, our current focus is on countries in East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Since its inception in 1998, the DM program — housed in the World Bank and administered by the World Bank Institute — has awarded more than $60 million in grants to more than 1,200 innovative projects. All of these projects have been identified through country, regional and global DM competitions. Using DM funding as a launch pad, many projects have gone on to secure additional funding support from other donors, foundations, governments, impact and CSR investors.”