1 February 2021 – SEED Awards 2021 is on the search for innovative small and growing businesses delivering environmental, social and economic impacts. Applications are now open.

Up to 48 prize packages will be awarded to innovative and promising locally led enterprises in social and environmental sectors from emerging economies. This year, in its 14^th cycle, two award categories are offered:

SEED Low Carbon Awards
Open for applicants from: Ghana, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda

SEED Climate Adaptation Awards
Open for applicants from: Botswana, Malawi and Zambia

Enterprises that fulfil the below criteria are encouraged to apply:

• Innovative market-driven enterprise providing solutions to social and environmental problems
• Have intention and potential to become financially sustainable
• Is in partnership between different stakeholder groups
• Is locally founded and locally led
• Has potential for scale-up and replication
• Is operational and in the early to growth stages

Applications are accepted on the SEED Platform at https://app.seed.uno/

Prize packages

A total of €163,500 funding is offered in the form of grants and matching grants for SEED Award recipients. SEED Award Winners and Runners-up will also participate in the SEED Accelerator and Catalyser programmes, respectively. These programmes are run by local business development organisations and designed to support high-potential enterprises to scale up, optimise their eco-inclusive impacts and financial planning.

In addition, Award recipients will get access to the SEED Enterprise Toolkit for collaboration and hands-on design thinking methods for enterprise development. Winners and Runners-up will join more than 300 SEED Award alumni and be profiled at our high-level awards ceremony as well as SEED partner events.

Supporting small and growing green enterprises

Beyond celebrating achievements of businesses that create social and environmental impact, the SEED Awards and enterprise programmes play an important role to support green and social impact SMEs with their challenges.

“SEED support has helped us improve our products and services, which will also help us expand our offerings to more related products that we feel would complement our present ones,” says SEED Award 2019 recipient StoneSoup, India.

“SEED has helped me to build confidence in me. I have been able to stand and speak in front of different donors, stakeholders, financiers and government officials,” explains SEED Award 2019 winner Joyce Sikwese from Green Impact Technologies, Malawi.

Apply now

Applications are now open on the SEED Platform at https://app.seed.uno/

More information can be found in the Call for Applications and Information Sheet & FAQ.

About SEED Awards

More than 300 small and growing businesses from emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America have received the prestigious SEED Award. The SEED Awards are made possible by the generous support from SEED partners. The SEED Low Carbon Awards are sponsored by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The SEED Climate Adaptation Awards in Malawi, Zambia & Botswana are sponsored by the Government of Flanders.

About SEED

SEED is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and the green economy that was founded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. SEED is based on the understanding that the promotion of social and environmental enterprises is pivotal to a world of flourishing communities where entrepreneurship drives sustainable development.  SEED is hosted by adelphi research gGmbH, based in Berlin, Germany.

For any media queries, please contact Linde Wolters This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

For SEED Award application queries, please contact the Awards Team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

Find SEED also on www.facebook.com/seed.uno and www.twitter.com/SEED_SustDev