UN Announces SEED Award Winners 2011 With Focus on African Entrepreneurs

Submitted by The Internation... on Thu, 2011-12-15 19:46

Women Win Recognition for Innovative Businesses

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, 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. The annual international SEED Awards, which is part of the SEED Initiative, recognise inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs whose grassroots businesses in developing countries can help to meet sustainable development challenges. The SEED Initiative is a global partnership for action on the Green Economy.

By helping entrepreneurs to scale-up their activities, the SEED Initiative aims to boost local economies, tackle poverty and improve livelihoods, while promoting the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems. The Award winners will receive from SEED a package of individually-tailored support for their businesses, access to relevant expertise and technical assistance, and profiling at national and international level at conferences and through the SEED’s partners and associates.

All the SEED winners will be honoured at a high-level award ceremony in South Africa which will form part of the SEED Green Economy Symposium at the end of March 2012.

The 2011 SEED Gender Equality Award Winner

(Nepal) The "Solid Waste Management and Community Mobilization Program" is a waste collection and recycling initiative of over 1,000 households and businesses and is run by a women’s environment committee and supported by a local municipality.

The 2011 SEED Award winners

(Burkina Faso) The "Solar bread oven" is a large hybrid solar/gas-fired oven usable for all kinds of baking and roasting
(Cameroon) "TAYAB ECO-ORCHARDS" aims to relieve the effects of land scarcity leading to further deforestation. The initiative is introducing organic agro-forestry, combined with eco-tourism, to generate alternative sources of income for the community. The initiative is led by a farmers’ association.
(Egypt) "Karam", a local partnership initiative, is driven by a social enterprise marketing traditional Egyptian handicraft products from natural or recycled resources which are made by rural artisans.
(The Gambia) "GreenTech Company Ltd" markets briquettes made from groundnut shells in combination with fuel efficient stoves. Waste groundnut shells are transformed into affordable fuel briquettes which are distributed with fuel-efficient stoves produced by local welders.
(Ghana) "Waste Enterprisers" has developed innovative ways of reusing human waste with the aim of improving sanitation services for the poor and restructuring the economics of sanitation in developing countries.
(Kenya) "Upscaling the silviculture-based enterprises of coastal communities in Kenya" This initiative supports community-based organisations and small-holder farmers in establishing mangrove-based operations, such as aquaculture, bee keeping, and ecotourism, linking mangrove preservation with the creation of alternative sources of income.
(Madagascar) "SEPALI" is a local spin-off of an international non-government organisation which provides technical and financial assistance to farmers and community-based enterprise groups introducing wild silk production and processing from silk moths raised on indigenous trees which can be intercropped with existing agricultural produce.
(Nigeria) "Sawdust Entrepreneurial Initiative" Local non-government organisations and a sawmillers’ association introduced the recycling of waste sawdust into briquettes as a cheap and clean alternative fuel for stoves.
(Rwanda) "Project for producing edible mushroom spores" is pioneering the local production of primary mushroom spores through a laboratory run by a cooperative of HIV-infected women and widows.
(Senegal) "Feed yourself, care for yourself and beautify yourself with the same plants" is a women's cooperative and a phyto-pharmaceutical laboratory which joined forces to promote natural local products and is building a supply chain of natural ingredients based on fair-trade principles.
(South Africa) "Thrive" is a non-government organisation partnering with governmental and research institutions to start up entrepreneurial triple-bottom line spin-offs in the areas of waste, local food, water, energy, and biodiversity and producing tangible environmental benefits while at the same time building capacity, creating jobs and generating income for local communities.
(Tanzania) "Enhancing women farmers’ access to profitable markets by developing a toolkit for value-added post-harvest solar fruit drying, handling and utilisation of horticultural crops for local and regional market procurement in East Africa" is driven by an enterprise partnering with non-government organisations and government institutions to tackle a critical lack of food preservation and storage means through innovative solar drying technology.
(Zimbabwe) Sustainable development through processing natural products” Supported by non-government organisations as well as research and trade institutions, this initiative supports women entrepreneurs to harvest, process and market Marula-tree products, combining individual production and processing with collective training and marketing.