News & Blog

Today, on March 28th, thousands of cities around the world will turn off their lights during Earth Hour to draw attention to the urgent need to act on climate change. Even though the devastating impacts of climate change are becoming ever more visible, global carbon emissions – one of the main contributor to climate change – continue to rise at an alarming rate. Read more

This year, World Water Day* emphasises the crucial relationship between water and sustainable development. Indeed we all know that water is fundamental to our well-being and when we think of water, the first thoughts that often spring to mind are access to drinking water or water for food production. Read more

In October 2014, UN Women Executive Director proposed 2030 to be the expiry date for gender inequality (UN Women). How can we make this bold goal a reality? Where do we start? Let’s start by envisioning the world in 2030. Read more

It has long been acknowledged that the equilibrium between humans and wildlife is one that can hang in the delicate balance at the best of times, a devastating one-sided scaling at worst. Read more

SEED will participate in a Regional Workshop "Inclusive Green Economies for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development in Africa: From Inspiration to Action" which will be help in Cairo on 28 February and 1 March. Read more

For a long time, waste management and recycling were primarily discussed in the context of environmental preservation. However, with natural resources becoming scarcer and prices of raw materials increasing, it is no surprise that materials and energy recovered from recycling waste are gradually recognised as a valuable commodity, particularly by enterprises. Read more

SEED in collaboration with ANDE network organised the “start-up hacks” as part of the Sankalp Africa Summit that took place on 5-6 February 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya. Innovative and inclusive financing was one of the key topics of this year’s forum. Read more

The UK has been a strong supporter of SEED since it was established in 2002. It has been a real pleasure to see SEED grow from a small biennial awards scheme, with a modest research programme, to a much broader global initiative promoting social and environmental entrepreneurship. Read more

Since the end of the civil war in 1992 Mozambique has experienced impressive growth rates of 6-8 per cent; embodying the new optimism regarding Africa’s economic outlook. Read more

Are locally-driven social and environmental enterprises too small to have an impact? We at SEED don’t think so, and Organic Africa demonstrates that. In 2007, when everyone was leaving Zimbabwe due to political and economic turmoil, Dominikus Collenberg started to train smallholders in the organic production of herbs, spices and oils. Read more

SEED’s achievements in 2014 are captured in the 2014 SEED Annual Report. Read more

Today is International Mountain Day. Are you wondering what this is all about? We did too when we first heard of it. Read more

SEED and its hosting partner Adelpi Research participated in the launch of the Inclusive Business Action Network (IB Action Network) that took place on 18-20 November 2014 in Berlin, Germany. Read more

UN Women has now launched iLearn, a global mobile-learning platform for and by women entrepreneurs. Read more

SMMEs like the SEED Winner from Rwanda have and continue to make their own valuable contributions to Closing the Gap by creating economic opportunities for HIV-infected as well as affected women and their families. Read more

SEED was invited to partake in the sixth Global Social Business Summit (GSBS 2014) that is taking place in Mexico City on 27-28 November 2014 under the theme: “Shaping Social Business to Shape the World of 2020”. Read more

Over the last four years, SEED has hosted a series of unique multi-stakeholder for a focussed on the Green Economy and Africa - the SEED Symposia - where each year innovative and promising start-up enterprises, that won a SEED Award for their remarkable efforts to address social and environmental challenges at the grassroots, are presented. Read more

When UNEP, UNDP and IUCN decided to register the SEED Initiative as a Type II partnership at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, they clearly thought they were on to something – but possibly not quite what SEED is now. Read more

They are one of the most visually-enthralling trees on the planet. The ancient Baobab – endemic mostly to semi-arid regions of tropical Africa including Mozambique – can live for over 1000 years. Read more

As one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi is characterised by a largely rural population; 84 per cent of Malawi’s population lives outside cities and depends on agriculture as their primary source of income. Read more

Nairobi plays host to one of the largest gatherings of start-up social and environmental enterprises ever, as 41 green entrepreneurs are celebrated at the 2014 SEED Awards Africa Symposium. Read more

‘Teach a man how to fish‘ or, as in this case, ‘ride a bike’, espouses the core aim of the founders of a social and green enterprise that is intent on improving the living standards of rural Mozambicans. Read more

Current ways of production and consumption are not sustainable, disregarding the efficient use of natural resources, the minimization of toxic materials and the emission of waste. Read more

The exponential growth of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in Africa, Asia and Latin America has contributed significantly to the burgeoning green economy. Read more