Green Economy Initiative Names Innovation Award Winners In Africa

By Catherine Saez

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that 27 African eco-enterprises were the winners of a contest based on business models bringing social and environmental benefits to local communities. Affordable light and electricity, reusable, fireproof bricks made from waste plastic, a mobile phone application used by health professionals for eye care, and the empowerment of waste pickers, are some of the examples of the winning initiatives.

The SEED Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development “is an annual awards scheme designed to find the most promising, innovative and locally-led start-up social and environmental enterprises in countries with developing and emerging economies.”

SEED was established in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg by UNEP, the United Nations Development Programme, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The SEED winners are here. The UNEP press release is here.

The winners come from South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Namibia, and Ethiopia.

Initiatives range from bringing solar products to rural communities, to reusing abattoir waste to produce high quality, low cost animal feed, and to empowering impoverished Ethiopian women to produce and sell fuel-efficient stoves to refugee camps.

SEED Award winners receive a financial contribution, technical assistance, free access to different supporting institutions, and tailor-made support to develop their business and skills, the release said. “They will also join a network of more than 200 enterprises that have received the award so far.”

The 2015 call for application received contributions from 55 countries, according to the release, most of them in agricultural and rural development, energy and climate change.

 

Image Credits: SEED