- Loan Successfully Funded On 12 Apr 2024 and Fully Repaid
Accelerating Arms Reduction Technology Solutions **
CAVR
- Sydney, NSW, Australia
Menu
- 60,000 AUD
Loan has been fully repaid
Growth in demand for armed violence reduction tools around the world means that the Centre for Armed Violence Reduction (CAVR) needs to invest in upgrades and improvements to its technology products. Due to systematic payment delays from some of its customers (especially UN agencies), CAVR wants an impact loan so that work can commence on its product upgrades now, rather than wait an uncertain amount of time to fund it from customer receipts.
- 1 Lenders
Committed
- 6 months
Loan Period
- 8%
Interest Rate
- BACKGROUND
Loan summary
The purpose of this loan is for the Centre for Armed Violence Reduction to invest $120k into required enhancements and upgrades to its 3 technology products for armed violence reduction – (1) its arms control solutions through ArmsTracker, (2) its global database of gun and related regulation through GunPolicy.org, and (3) its new initiative to assist all violence-affected, developing countries to better Prevent and Respond to armed violence through Armed Incidents Management (AIM).
The funds will expand functionality, increase and maintain access, and support CAVR in continuing to onboard new jurisdictions to tackle the challenges of armed violence in their countries.
Note: this loan represents an extension/rollover for a previously issued loan.
Borrower's mission
CAVR is a not-for-profit public health charity which seeks to make the greatest impact wherever needed.
Its mission is to develop solutions to implement international arms control standards for better management of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and armed incidents.
Ultimately, CAVR wants to reduce armed violence as much as possible, and applies all its resources and finances in pursuit of this goal.
Read more at https://armedviolencereduction.org/about/
This loan underpins significant annual growth in revenues and expanding access to and use of its tools to prevent and reduce armed violence.
The activities funded by this loan are helping to achieve the above Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the UN.
Intermediary's experience with impact enterprises
For more than 8 years, Red Hat Impact has helped impact enterprises by raising capital and providing other kinds of business and strategy support. We have raised more than $3M from our network of impact investors, and loaned this capital to support 30 enterprises. We use a crowd-lending model to raise loan capital. As of May 2024, we maintain a 98% success rate on loan repayment. We establish close working relationships with all of the impact enterprises we raise debt capital for, and co-manage risks with them during the loan term.
- IMPACT
Impacts and how they are measured
CAVR develops solutions to reduce armed violence in developing countries, through better control of arms, ammunition, explosives and violent incidents. We do this through three initiatives which we are expanding: ArmsTracker, GunPolicy.org and AIM. ArmsTracker ArmsTracker continues to grow. In addition to the four Pacific Countries where it was initially tested, ArmsTracker is now being used or installed in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Burkina Faso (in French), and Cambodia (in Khmer and English). We are also assisting other countries, such as Cote d’Ivoire (in French), who want to add the features of ArmsTracker to their existing system. It will soon be installed in Ecuador, our first Spanish version, which will open doors to other Latin American countries where it is desperately needed as they have the highest gun violence rates in the world. The funder for our Ecuador project is keen to see ArmsTracker proven in Ecuador before funding us to expand it to other Latin American countries. In order to update the Spanish translations, IT customisation and to arrange additional support in Ecuador, we need to invest an additional A$52,000. GunPolicy.org Effective implementation of global instruments on arms regulation is highly dependent on accurate, up-to-date information and tracking. GunPolicy.org is the world’s leading source for such information. It was visited by 686,691 new users alone in the past year and we achieved media reach in the hundreds of millions. Our site is regularly quoted by those working to implement and improve, to compare and to write about arms regulation across countries and regions. Launched by the Australian Government at the UN in 2010, our site has relied on the same database architecture and server stack for 13 years. In that time, much of the original software has become obsolete and the entire system is now in urgent need of an overhaul. As with other sites that attract disagreement, our server fends off thousands of automated and manual hacking attempts every month. Basic upgrades and patches can no longer be relied upon. If our site is to remain online, it must now be rebuilt with a thorough security upgrade and the latest versions of essential software. We are confident of obtaining a grant for this work, though they will not pay until August. We need to get started earlier than that to ensure the site stays online. We require A$32,000 for the work that needs to be done prior to August. AIM The Armed Incidents Management system (AIM) is our new initiative and it is being built to assist all violence-affected, developing countries to better Prevent and Respond to armed violence. AIM gathers, tracks, analyses and enhances: Prevention measures undertaken by communities and authorities, including information on their effectiveness and promotion of successful interventions. Prevention work includes Public Campaigns, which AIM seeks to enhance or develop with human support and AI-driven tools. These campaigns range from risk education (eg about unexploded ordnance and landmines) to arms collection, amnesties and anti-violence campaigns. Responses to incidences, including feports of armed violence, illicit arms possession and trafficking using new and existing reporting options; and responses by law enforcement, enabling greater oversight and coordination by relevant authorities. We currently collect, map and analyse information about every incident of armed violence over the past 3 years in our pilot countries of PNG and Nigeria. We are confident of funding for these pilots in the coming months. There are already over 30 staff and post-grad researchers from Macquarie University working with us on this new initiative and that is expected to grow to over 100 shortly. Those researchers are from various departments, including Security Studies, Social Sciences and Computing (Artificial Intelligence). We require a one-time A$36,000 loan to cover IT development on additional elements of AIM, especially the AI-driven tools, in order to ensure the PNG and Nigeria trials are successful and grants can then flow.
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