Riyadh: At the Misk Global Forum in Riyadh this week, in the presence of Bill Gates, the Misk Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced the Challenge for Change, a program aiming to support non-profits and social enterprises across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
According to Saudi Press Agency, following the success of the Misk Foundation’s Youth Non-profit Organization Building Program launched in 2021, which helped launch 41 non-profit organizations and supported 14 existing ones, the Challenge for Change program is set to further this initiative. Led by the Misk Foundation in partnership with the Gates Foundation, the program will provide up to $2.5 million in grant funding to incubate Saudi-based non-profit and social initiatives that build technological, environmental, or health and wellbeing solutions with both local and global impact.
Bill Gates, Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, expressed his enthusiasm, stating that young Saudi entrepreneurs are working at the foref
ront of AI, cloud computing, climate technology, and more. He noted the thriving digital startups and social entrepreneurs committed to making the world a better, healthier place, acknowledging the generation’s remarkable legacy of innovation and expressing eagerness to see the new solutions it will pioneer.
The program invites proposals specifically from researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and non-profit leaders whose solutions can create development advances within their communities and have scalable potential across the Middle East and in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Dr. Badr Al-Bader, CEO of the Misk Foundation, highlighted that the Challenge for Change program is the result of Misk Foundation’s efforts to support non-profit organizations with social impact. In partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the program aims to promote innovation in Saudi Arabia and support initiatives that address local and global challenges. The announcement during the eighth edition of the Mi
sk Global Forum reflects the forum’s role as a platform for fostering local and global partnerships that support youth and prepare them for the future.
The launch coincides with the Misk Global Forum 2024 (MGF), the largest youth forum in the Middle East, hosted by the Misk Foundation to empower and connect young leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs globally. This year’s MGF theme, ‘By Youth For Youth,’ aims to foster discussions, create networking opportunities, nurture youth potential, encourage collaboration, and catalyze positive global change.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s participation at MGF 2024 follows a landmark partnership announcement in April 2024 with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including a $600 million pledge by the Kingdom to help protect 370 million children annually from polio and lift millions out of poverty across 33 Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) member countries. As part of implementing the new partnership, the Gates Foundation also announced the establishment of a region
al office in Mohammed Bin Salman Nonprofit City.
