Geneva – The Global Accelerator and the M-GA launched their third funding round in April and May 2026, by organizing two complementary calls for proposals. The first one is organized with the Joint SDG Fund, and the other with the World Bank Social Protection Response Umbrella Trust Fund (UTF).
The funding call through the Joint SDG Fund aims to support pathfinder countries that have benefited from seed funding to move to High Impact Track (HIT) joint programmes, building on the experience, results and lessons learned from the previous joint programmes started in 2024 and 2025. In 2024, eight pathfinder countries—Cabo Verde, Colombia, Nepal, Paraguay, the Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal and Viet Nam—received seed funding to support the participatory design of their Global Accelerator national roadmaps; with these now endorsed by their governments, the initiative has entered the implementation phase, positioning them to become high-impact countries delivering results at scale.
This funding round aims to translate pathfinder countries’ high-level political commitment into concrete action, advancing decent work and universal social protection by aligning ministries of finance, labour, and other key stakeholders, and by embedding employment and social protection priorities within budgets, investment plans, and broader fiscal and economic strategies. An important criterion for this round is the demonstration of a clear and credible pathway towards a financial leverage ratio of 1:6 or higher, mobilizing public, private or blended finance. This way, the joint programmes will act as catalysts to unlock more and better investments on jobs and social protection, and support countries to deliver on the commitments from 2025’s 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) and Second World Summit on Social Development (WWSD2). In particular, the funding round aims to support countries in delivering on the WSSD2 and FFD4 commitment to expand social protection coverage by at least 2 percentage points per year in the coming years. Countries will be able to access funds up to USD 1.8 million in the first phase in 2026 and 2027, and contingent to results, additional resources for a second phase.
The second call, organized through the World Bank SPR UTF, provides grant funding to support joint activities between the World Bank and participating UN agencies in pre-selected countries and regions, focusing on two thematic areas: (a) fragility, conflict, and forced displacement, and (b) climate change. This funding round will support approximately 10–12 UN–World Bank joint programmes and will be open to a shortlist of both pathfinder and non-pathfinder countries, with up to USD 750,000 available per programme.
The 2026 funding round for the Global Accelerator and M-GA has been made possible by the support of the Joint SDG Fund and Germany, through its Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).