Financing and capacity building for micro and small Climate-smart Enterprises: Filling the gap of the missing middle

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make significant contributions to climate protection by developing and offering innovative services and products for greenhouse gas mitigation or to adapt to the consequences of climate change. The project combines the development of knowledge and resources for socially-inclusive and climate-friendly SMEs by supporting a favourable institutional framework. As part of the Corona Response Package, the SEED project supports inclusive and sustainable enterprises at different stages, from start-up to growth and scaling. Selected start-ups receive the “Low Carbon Award”, which, in addition to the prize money, also includes technical accompanying measures. . Innovative business ideas are disseminated and cooperations for a resilient, green and socially-integrative economy are launched via the high-profile award ceremony, web-based tools, virtual platforms and personal exchange formats.

Project data

Countries: Ghana, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda
IKI funding: 7,340,437.74 €
Duration: 04/2013 till 06/2024
Status: open
Implementing organisation: adelphi research gemeinnützige GmbH
Political Partner: Diverse climate change relevant institutions in the respective partner countries/Diverse klimarelevante Institutionen in den entsprechenden Partnerländern
Implementing Partner: Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP)

Nexii

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment)
Online: https://www.adelphi.de/en/project/seed-%E2%80%93-supporting-green-economy-and-sustainable-businesses-developing-and-emerging-countries

Skip to Project data

State of implementation/results

The project combines knowledge and resource building for socially-inclusive and climate-friendly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the promotion of enabling institutional frameworks, and extends this offering with a combination of green-recovery-related topics.
To date, numerous winners have been awarded the "SEED Low Carbon Award" in public ceremony, including participants from Ghana, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda. The startups receive proven SEED training programs (conducted in collaboration with local business development service providers) to improve and scale up their business models.
To improve access to finance for socially-inclusive and climate-smart SMEs, Practitioner Labs Climate Finance were held in South Africa, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Uganda between 2019 and 2022. The Labs promote the design, development, and implementation of prototype financial products and instruments in the areas of climate change daptation and THG-mitigation.
SEED conducted national policy dialogues in South Africa, Ghana, Thailand, India and Indonesia. An additional Lab is planned for October 2022 in Uganda. Moreover, three regional multi-stakeholder innovation and policy labs are currently being implemented in cooperation with Go4SDGs.
National SEED Hubs will be established in Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Indonesia, India and Thailand in collaboration with local actors and organizations. The national hubs are direct contacts for SMEs on the ground, provide local networks, and coordinate the project's upcoming activities in the respective country.
On the occasion of the Stockholm+50 - Conference, SEED organized two events on the topic of changing business models.
To kick off SEED's 20th anniversary celebrations, SEED hosted the online seminar "From Impact to Scale: Challenges & Successes Leading the Way to an Eco-Inclusive SME Action Agenda". The study "Green SMEs and their success Factors for Scale-up and Replication" provides direct insights from small and medium-sized enterprises on critical success factors for scale-up and replication.
During the High Level Political Forum in July 2022, SEED organized an official side event on sustainable development, among others in cooperation with Go4SDGS, the UN Environment Programme, and the UN Global Compact.

Latest Update:
04/2023