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*SEED Initiative*
/Supporting Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development/
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*Making sustainable development happen:** SEED announces its 2008 Award
Winners*
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*/IUCN Headquarters, Gland, 21 August 2008/**.*
Five highly resourceful and innovative local entrepreneurial
partnerships which can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals
were today celebrated as the SEED Initiative announced its 2008 /SEED
Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development/.
*/Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN's Director General/*/ said/: "These SEED
Award Winners have real talent and are among those who can lead the way
in showing how it is possible to take action to solve some of the major
problems facing the world today and at the same time to act responsibly."
*/Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director /*/said/: "The SEED Awards
again underline that creative and entrepreneurial solutions to many of
the pressing challenges facing the world are being found. It is now
vital that these shining examples are federated and mainstreamed across
communities and countries to maximize their undoubted and
potentially significant impact."
*/Kemal Dervis, UNDP's Administrator /*/said/: "By rewarding and
supporting grassroots entrepreneurial partnerships committed to
contributing to their community and the environment, the SEED Awards are
playing an important role in helping to bring about positive change. The
winners identified show all of us how, working together, we can make
real progress towards meeting our development goals."
The 5 winning partnerships, each of which will receive from SEED a
package worth $25,000 of tailor-made support services, international
exposure, and networking activities to assist its development from a
project idea to a sustainable enterprise and to create real impact, are:
* In Brazil, partners in /Pintadas Solar /are triggering community
approaches in the semi-arid Northwest to water-efficient crop
irrigation and biofuel production to address climate change
adaptation and mitigation, and food security and poverty.
* In Cameroon, /Guiding Hope /partners plan to expand their
production of organic, fair-trade honey from the remote Adamoua
savannah to reach international markets and to become Cameroon's
largest exporter of high quality beeswax, as well as building an
international market chain for the community-owned soap- and
candle-making businesses.
* In India, local businesses and an NGO have teamed up with a UK
university and identified an essential oil from high altitude
Himalayan oregano as an antimicrobial agent that could be used in
handsoaps and surface disinfectants in hospitals as a preventative
against the bacterium Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA).
* In Nicaragua, a university research centre, a women's cooperative,
an NGO and experts on solar technology will launch a cooperative
business that will produce and market solar products made from
recycled solar cells and solar cookers adapted for local needs.
* In Thailand, tsunami-affected communities on the Andaman coast
plan to expand employment opportunities through community-based
tourism while the proceeds will support local projects such as
handicraft marketing, a community centre, recycling, and youth-led
conservation programmes.
An International Jury, composed of global experts across a range of
sectors, advised the SEED Initiative on the selection. Jury members were
deeply impressed by the promise of these projects, each of which is
likely to be able to scale up its activities considerably; some might be
replicated elsewhere.
This third round of International Awards represents a significant
scaling up of SEED's efforts: formerly a biennial competition, the SEED
Awards are now given annually. The 2008 call for proposals was met by an
overwhelming response: close to 400 applications from over 100 countries
worldwide, representing the collaborative efforts of some 1629
organizations from the private and public sector, including
non-governmental organizations, women's groups, labour organizations,
public authorities, international agencies and academia.
For more information, please contact:
Helen Marquard, Executive Director; Tel: +44 7785 706 646; Email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**
*NOTES FOR EDITORS*
*/About the SEED Initiative/*
"Supporting Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development" -- */the SEED
Initiative/* -- is a global network for action on sustainable
development partnerships, founded by* IUCN, UNDP and UNEP*, to deliver
concrete progress towards the internationally-agreed, aspirational goals
in the UN's Millennium Declaration and the commitments made at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.
SEED focuses on *locally-driven, entrepreneurial partnerships* in
developing countries. Its goal is to *inspire, promote and build
capacity* to support the many innovative ways in which diverse groups
are working together to improve incomes and strengthen livelihoods;
tackle poverty and marginalisation; and manage and conserve natural
resources and ecosystems.
Through an annual, global awards scheme SEED *reveals a wealth of novel
ways of doing business* through partnerships* *and provides
international recognition to the most promising enterprises.
SEED Award Winners then receive a tailored package of support services
to help them to *become established and to increase their impact*. This
includes access to relevant expertise and technical assistance, meeting
new partners and building networks, developing business plans and
identifying sources of finance.
By tracking their progress as they grow, SEED also seeks to *increase
technical knowledge and understanding* of these small-scale, locally-led
activities. It studies what partnerships like these need to succeed and
grow and how successful ideas can be replicated elsewhere.
SEED then uses its *extensive network, publications and events* to
promote these innovative approaches, to disseminate its findings to
partnerships practitioners and policy and decision-makers and to provide
a platform for shared learning and collaboration.
*/
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*/SEED Partners/** *
Partners in the SEED Initiative are IUCN (the World Conservation Union);
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP);the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP); and the governments of Germany, the
Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United
States of America. SEED also works closely with GlobalGiving and the
UN's Global Compact.
*/SEED International Jury/*
*//*The SEED Initiative is extremely grateful to the 2008 International
Jury -- a panel of experts in various fields of sustainable development
- who have kindly given their time to help to identify the most
promising partnerships from the nearly 400 applications received this
year. Jury members were Eugenio da Motta Singer, founder of the
Instituto PHAROS and President of EZ CARBON SOLUTIONS in Brazil; Kofi
Nketsia-Tabiri, Regional Manager of E+Co Africa; Yves Renard, co-founder
of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute and independent expert;
Jennifer Seif, Executive Director of Fair Trade in Tourism South
Africa;* *Hanumappa Sudarshan, founder of VGKK/ /and Karuna Trust/ /in
India; Nino Tevzadze, Regional Coordinator for the Caucasus
Environmental NGO Network; Sarah Timpson, Senior Adviser to UNDP on
Community-based Initiatives;* *George Varughese, President of the
Development Alternatives Group in India.
