News & Press Releases - The SEED Initiative

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2012-02-09T17:04:02Z

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Announcement: Meet the 2011 SEED Winners!

2011-12-15T08:30:39Z

It is with great pleasure and excitement that the SEED Initiative today announces the 2011 SEED Award Winners!

With applications from over 75 countries, the selection was tough, but the independent international Jury was able to select a record number of 35 SEED winners, who exemplify innovation and the Green Economy at local level.

These 35 winners represent the collaborative efforts of non-governmental organisations, women and youth groups, labour organisations, public authorities, international agencies and academia.

2011 saw some very exciting initiatives, from a company that transforms groundnut shells into fuel briquettes in Gambia, to an enterprise that has developed solar ovens in Burkina Faso, to an initiative that trains and employs street youth to collect waste materials in Ghana, which they then transform into handmade designer products, to a business in Kenya where women produce aloe-based skin care products, These are just some the 35 winners of the 2011 SEED Awards that will now receive from SEED a package of tailor-made support.

As last year the 2011 SEED Awards have a special focus on Africa, identifying 33 initiatives from Burkina Faso, Cameron, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, who, with the SEED support, will now be able to scale-up their activities across the continent.

This year, in addition to the general SEED Awards, a special Gender Equity Award was announced as part of SEED’s partnership with UN Women. This award is part of an initiative that will not only fulfil the general criteria of the Awards but in addition is women-led, or owned, and prioritises gender equality or women’s empowerment as a core objective.

Meet the 2011 SEED winners, by visiting the SEED winners’ database.

Read the full UNEP press release here

UN Announces SEED Award Winners 2011 With Focus on African Entrepreneurs

2011-12-15T08:26:06Z

Nairobi, 15 December 2011 From a company that transforms groundnut shells into fuel briquettes in Gambia, to an enterprise that has developed solar ovens in Burkino Faso, to an initiative that trains and employs street youth to collect waste materials in Ghana, which they then transform into handmade designer products, to a business in Kenya where women produce aloe-based skin care products, these are just some the 35 winners of the 2011 SEED Awards, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.

And this year, in addition to the general SEED Awards, a special Gender Equity Award was announced as part of SEED’s partnership with UN Women. This award is part of an initiative that will not only fulfil the general criteria of the Awards but in addition is women-led, or owned, and prioritises gender equality or women’s empowerment as a core objective.

As last year, in addition to seeking innovative start-ups throughout the developing world, the 2011 SEED Awards have a special focus on Africa, placing particular emphasis on initiatives from Burkina Faso, Cameron, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. This focus is part of a larger project linked with UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, which is funded largely by the European Union’s Green Economy and Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship in Africa.

Read the full press release here or download the hard copy

2011 SEED Annual Report is out!

2011-12-13T13:31:26Z

“One of the most urgent – but not widely explored - questions at the centre of the debate on transitioning to the Green Economy is how to engage with and deploy the main engine of the global economy – small, micro- and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs).

Given the right public policies, SMMEs can create significant numbers of green jobs, help to strengthen social structures and resilience at the local level, and use natural resources sustainably. But insights are needed into how best to shape these policies. As a champion of social and environmental entrepreneurship, now with considerable experience of working with locally-led start-ups, SEED unquestionably has a contribution to make” Helen Marquard, Executive Director of the SEED Initiative.

Do you want to :

learn about SEED’s significant expansion, and how SEED offers an ever-more comprehensive package of support to try to fill some of the gaps encountered by social and environmental entrepreneurs
discover more about SEED’s focus in Africa
find out about the insights revealed SEED’s first high-level Symposium on the Green Economy, in South Africa, and
gain better understanding of the obstacles and opportunities social and environmental enterprise face

then click on the here to read the 2011 SEED Annual Report

The Green Economy: SEED’s activities to help accelerate the transition.

2011-08-16T09:17:38Z

SEED Symposium:

On 15th April 2011, nearly 200 people gathered in Pretoria to explore the role of social and environmental enterprises in shaping the Green Economy. The SEED Symposium on The Green Economy: Accelerating the Transition, brought together start-up entrepreneurs, government leaders, international organisations, research institutions and the private sector in one of the first international meetings on this challenge.

Through keynote presentations, guest speakers, panel sessions and discussion, Symposium participants explored two central questions:

Whether and how these enterprises – other with only one or two owners or employees – could accelerate the transition to the green economies in their countries and regions.
What they might need on the way of support and enabling conditions from their governments.

The Symposium was a benchmark event in a larger, multi-year programme of work by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative and the SEED Initiative, largely supported by the European Union (EU), to foster the Green Economy and to encourage the growth of socio-environmental entrepreneurship in Africa. Embedded in this programme of work is the SEED award itself.

Throughout the Symposium, the SEED winners showcased their products and services in an open marketplace and contributed to the discussions. This created the first real platform for SEED winners to share their ideas and experience , and to network with each other. Following the Symposium, the winners also met for a full day in their own workshop to explore further common success factors, challenges and discuss solutions and opportunities.

The participants reconvened in the evening for the International SEED Award ceremony where the 2010 SEED Winners were recognised for their innovation in sustainable entrepreneurship by Jerry Liu, VP Communications, Hisense, and Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director.

Read the full report here

The Green Economy Coalition

Furthermore SEED has now also become a member of the Green Economy Coalition (GEC). GEC is a diverse set of global organisations and sectors, from NGOs, research institutes, UN organisations to trade unions, that together encourage, promote and help accelerate the transition towards a green economy, which is a resilient economy that provides a better quality of life for all within the ecological limits of the planet.

Through mobilising a global civil society movement on a green economy; GEC builds a shared understanding of a green economy in different economic and cultural contexts; and influences decision-makers to bring about that vision.

Over the last year the GEC has supported a series of national dialogues in Brazil, India, Mali and the Caribbean which helped understand the dimensions of a green economy on the ground. The dialogues enabled them to build a unique understanding of the challenges, barriers and opportunities of a green economy in a range of contexts.

Read more about the Green Economy Coalition here

UN Women partners with SEED and sponsors a 2011 SEED Gender Equality Award

2011-07-18T10:52:02Z

UN Women, the UN organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women has partnered with SEED and will sponsor one special SEED Gender Equality Award in 2011 to initiatives that are women-led or owned, and prioritise gender equality or women’s empowerment as a core objective.

Aiming to encourage gender equality within the whole programme, SEED will also be looking at the integration of components that respect and advance gender equity and balance in all the SEED applications.

UN Women, which was created by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010, aims to meet the needs of the World’s Women by:

Supporting inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.
Helping Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
Holding the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

“THE DREAM CAME TRUE! - Oro Verde’s Green Gold reaches the red carpet in Hollywood and is recognised by Greg Valerio at the launch of Fairtrade Gold

2011-07-18T10:29:29Z

Oro Verde, 2009 SEED Gold Winner, which was created by and for small-scale miners in the Chocó region (Colombia) has now reached international recognition and its impacts is growing.

It was green gold from the Oro Verde mines that Livia Firth wore on the red carpet, when her husband, Colin, accepted his Academy Award for Best Actor at the Oscars 2011 ceremony. This first ever Fairtrade Fairmined Ecological gold jewellery was created with Oro Verde gold and designed and hand-made by goldsmith Anna Loucah in collaboration with CRED Jewellery. (full article here).

Greg Valerio, Fair Trade and human rights campaigner, and founder of both CRED Jewellery and the CRED Foundation, also recognised Oro Verde’s invaluable role at the launch of Fairtrade Gold and testified that ‘Oro Verde put soul back into Gold’ . (view the full video below or click here).

Oro Verde, which created the first Certified Green Gold programme in the world, was the inspiration for the Fairtrade and Fairmined certification and proved on the ground that ecological gold mining was possible. They are founder members of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), and togther with CRED have been working with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) towards the creation of the world’s first “Fair Trade Gold” standard.

You can read more about Greg Valerio and Oro Verde here

2005 SEED Winner, Blue Ventures, has real national impact.

2011-07-14T10:16:27Z

Madagascar is working towards a national plan for marine turtle conservation. Sponsored by the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding (IOSEA), the Madagascar's national environmental research agency, the Centre National de Recherche sur l'Environment (CNRE) and the non-governmental organization Blue Ventures, have organised the development of a countrywide conservation plan for threatened marine turtles in the form of a national workshop taking place in Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo.

" Madagascar's vast coastline and territorial waters provide habitat for five species of marine turtle, all of which are included on the IUCN Red List of endangered species. Threats to these increasingly rare animals include direct targeting by fishermen, raiding of nests for eggs, and accidental capture in commercial fisheries."

They aim to bring together community leaders, fisheries managers, marine scientists, fishermen, conservationists and government representatives in a national workshop and together develop a national conservation and management plan for Madagascar's turtles. Read the full article here

Application for the 2011 SEED Awards is now closed

2011-07-12T14:53:08Z

Nairobi, 05 July 2011 - Social and environmental entrepreneurs who can demonstrate innovation, leadership and sustainability have the chance to win expert assistance and support for their sustainable development initiatives in the 2011 SEED Awards.

The SEED Initiative - hosted by the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) - is a global partnership for action on the Green Economy. The annual SEED Awards help to develop the most promising social and environmental start-ups in emerging economies and developing countries.

SEED Award winners will receive expert advice on developing their business plans, take part in tailor-made workshops to enhance their skills and benefit from high-level profiling of their initiatives through the SEED Initiative's international network of businesses, governments and development institutions.

By helping entrepreneurs to scale-up their activities, the SEED Initiative aims to boost local economies and tackle poverty, while promoting the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems.

As in previous years, entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies across the globe can apply for a SEED award. In addition, as part of an EU funded project, specific awards will be made available to initiatives in seven pilot countries in Africa: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa.

This year, one special SEED Gender Equality Award will also be made available to initiatives that are women-led or owned, and prioritise gender equality or women's empowerment as a core objective.

The full list of available 2011 SEED Awards is as follows:

up to 14 awards for initiatives in South Africa;
up to 20 awards for initiatives in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal;
and up to 5 awards, including the 2011 Gender Equality Award, for initiatives in other countries (except countries that are OECD members).

Click here to apply. The deadline for applications is 22nd August 2011, 23:59 Central European Time (CET).

View the full UNEP Press Release here

SEED Symposium: The Green Economy: Accelerating the Transition

2011-04-15T08:09:31Z

Pretoria, South Africa - 15th April 2011

Together with UNEP, SEED hosted a high-level symposium on the Green Economy in Pretoria, South Africa, on Friday 15 April. Speakers and panelists from government, civil society, industry bodies, international organizations and academia will underline the importance and necessity of moving towards a greener economy.

The event includes two panel discussions and presentations from:

Deputy Minister of Economic Development in South Africa, Enoch Godongwana
UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner
UN Resident Coordinator UNDP Resident Representative, Agostinho Zacarias
EU Ambassador to South Africa, Roeland van de Geer
Chief Director, Department of Science and Technology, Imraan Patel
Director, Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Economy, University of Johannesburg, Susan Steinman

Click to view for the full programme

The symposium was planned as a platform for exchange and has been designed to look at the big policy drivers, but also to reveal the Green Economy at the local level, from the point of view of practitioners and those who set out to assist emerging green enterprises to flourish. By bringing those together, SEED hopes to uncover how to accelerate the transition to a Green Economy.

Through interventions from expert speakers and panellists from a variety of institutions and practitioners the symposium is to expose some new ideas on how to build linkages between the national, regional and international policy drivers, and grassroots efforts to grow new green enterprises and to green existing ones.

South Africa was a natural choice to host the symposium as it is one of the key emerging global economies; it is actively pursuing the Green Economy agenda; it is to host the forthcoming Climate Change COP in Durban where the role of the Green Economy in providing solutions to climate change adaptation and mitigation will feature; and a number of eminent South African universities have established centres of social entrepreneurship. Furthermore, last year, SEED and UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative embarked on a joint pilot project, largely funded by the European Union, to support certain African countries as they refocus their policies and investment in green economic sectors such as renewable energies and energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, forests, water and waste management, green construction and transport, and to enhance social and environmental entrepreneurship. South Africa was one of the countries selected. As part of the project, SEED, working with its South African Partner the Independent Development Trust (IDT) and UNDP South Africa, will also establish for the first time a country-level SEED scheme whereby dedicated South African SEED Awards will be made and strong links forged with critical policy and decision-makers.

The Symposium is coupled with a celebration of the thirty 2010 SEED Winners in an international award ceremony, generously supported by the SEED Awards Corporate Sponsor Hisense International Ltd.

Read the press release here.