More than 3 billion people around the world—mostly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America—can’t afford a diet of nourishing, diverse foods that provide enough essential vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). HarvestPlus works across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to support SDG 2: Zero Hunger through biofortification, a process that uses conventional breeding to increase the levels of essential vitamins and minerals in staple crops that vulnerable populations rely on. By the end of 2023, over 100 million people on-farm will be consuming these nutrient-enriched staples, which reverse micronutrient deficiencies, improve cognition and physical activity, and decrease days with illness. With additional resources and partnerships, HarvestPlus aims to catalyze the scaling up of these naturally nutritious foods to benefit 1 billion people globally by 2030.

Launched in June 2016, 100&Change(2017) was the MacArthur Foundation’s first global competition for a $100 million grant to fund a single proposal promising real and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time. One thousand nine hundred proposals were submitted to the competition and were evaluated using four criteria: meaningfulness, verifiability, durability, and feasibility. Eight Semi-Finalists were announced in February 2017, and four Finalists were announced in September 2017. In December 2017, the MacArthur Foundation selected Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee as the $100 million Awardees for their project focused on early childhood education for Syrian refugees.

Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems (DREAMS) is an innovative initiative designed by Village Enterprise in partnership with Mercy Corps to support entrepreneurs and sustainably lift their households out of poverty by integrating two evidence-backed approaches: poverty graduation and market systems development. DREAMS, which is currently implemented with displaced populations in Uganda and Ethiopia, was awarded Fast Company’s World Changing Idea for 2023. Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps’ joint vision is that DREAMS is recognized as ‘the’ approach to poverty alleviation in the next 5 years and advances SDG 1 – No Poverty.

Launched in January 2020 in partnership with ICONIQ Impact and sponsored by Chris Larsen and Lyna Lam, and the Sea Grape Foundation, the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award was a $12 million competition to identify actionable ideas to transform the lives of refugees and displaced people in the long term. 88 proposals were submitted to the competition and were evaluated using four criteria: whether they were community-centered, impactful, feasible, and evidence-based. Five Finalists were announced in December 2020. In May 2021, Resourcing Refugee Leadership Initiative was announced as Chris Larsen and Lyna Lam’s $10 million Awardee and DREAMS for Refugees was announced as the Sea Grape Foundation’s $2 million Awardee. Through peer-to-peer fundraising efforts, ICONIQ Impact and the Award’s sponsors mobilized an additional $12.25 million in funding from donors in the ICONIQ network, bringing the total funds raised to $24.25 million.