
The SEED Awards aim to develop the most promising social and environmental start-up enterprises in emerging economies, developing and least developed countries and give them expert advice on developing their business plans, enhance their skills through workshops, connect them to an international network of businesses, governments and development institutions and help scale up their businesses.
With support from the European Union, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the government of Flanders, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the international law firm Hogan Lovells, SEED will make available up to:
- 15 SEED Awards to enterprises in Ethiopia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda;
- 5 SEED Awards for enterprises in South Africa;
- 3 SEED Awards for South African enterprises in the provinces of Free State, Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal;
- 10 SEED Low Carbon Awards for enterprises in Colombia, India, Tanzania, Uganda and Viet Nam;
- 2 SEED Gender Equality Awards, for enterprises in other countries (except countries that are OECD or EU members).
SEED Awards applications ate open online till Wednesday, June 12th, 2013, 23:59 Central European Time (CET).
SEED Award Winners in the previous round of SEED Awards in 2011 included 35 start-ups. Notable ones include one that transformed groundnut shells into fuel briquettes in The Gambia; developed solar ovens in Burkina Faso; trained and employed street youth to collect waste materials in Ghana, which they then transformed into handmade designer products; and employed women to produce aloe-based skin care products in Kenya.