4. “Initiative Description and Innovations” in the nomination form of the Equator Prize seeks “a description of the origin of the initiative and its purpose, activities, and achievements. Identify the main social and environmental issues and challenges addressed by the initiative and describe what innovative approaches are being taken to address them.”
You have some 300 words to explain the background and the description of your initiative. Please note that you need to provide details of the work you are already implementing at the community level – DO NOT propose a new project here.
You can start by giving a background to your work. Explain the geographical area, the community with whom you are working and the natural resources available in the area. Remember that it is better to provide references to research data or documents while writing the background rather than just put up a blank story.
For example, you can refer to the nomination form submitted by Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, which was one of the previous winners of the Equator Prize from Bangladesh:
You can then end the background with a reference to the problem. Effectively, you need to give the problem description carefully here. It means that the problem that you noticed in your project area that made you think of starting your initiative. For example, refer to the nomination form below submitted by another previous winner from Cameroon, the ITOH Community Graziers Common Initiative Group
After giving the background and problem description in about 100-150 words, you can start providing information about the work you are doing by giving the purpose, activities and outputs. Remember not to just list out activities (such common activities may be undertaken by everyone). It is important for you to highlight the innovation or the unique intervention that your organization has adopted to respond to the problem in the area. You can also mention the outputs you have achieved from implementing the initiative so far. While writing down the outputs, do not forget to mention the number of people who have benefited from your intervention.
