Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) provide 50% of jobs, contribute to over 35% of the GDP in emerging economies, and overall make up 90% of registered firms across the world. They are especially impactful in emerging economies as they work toward inclusive growth and equality for marginalised populations. At SEED, we focus on growing eco-inclusive enterprises which in turn contribute socially, economically, and environmentally to empowering the 5.2 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid worldwide. This report examines the yearly impact of 80 of our eco-inclusive enterprises in three of our SEED countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. These locally embedded enterprises, 51% of which are women-led, demonstrate that driving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can indeed be profitable and with a success rate of 82.5% still in business, they show long-lasting impact in each of their communities and sectors.
Resilience is an indispensable tool to help MSMEs prepare for the unknown, especially now when COVID-19 induced curfews and lockdowns expose MSMEs to new vulnerabilities. With fewer resources and access to information than larger companies, MSMEs in emerging markets have experienced severe disruptions to their businesses, with around 42% worldwide facing potential failure within six months. This report demonstrates how MSMEs, particularly eco-inclusive enterprises, are weathering the COVID-19 pandemic and how governments and intermediaries can lend support. In this report we outline six essential resilience factors and good practices that SEED’s eco-inclusive enterprises have employed in emerging markets. Our SEED enterprises serve as an excellent example of how other enterprises can incorporate resilience into their business models in the face of the pandemic and to become more adaptable for future shocks.
The holidays are approaching and like many others around the world, SEED is searching for a way to send gifts and joy to our loved ones from a safe social distance.
To better support small businesses when you're looking for a unique gift for your friend or family member, we encourage you to shop from our gift guide of eco-inclusive SEED supported enterprises! From home decor to handbags, from fair-trade products to face masks, there’s something in it for everyone!
Read the report to learn more about how SMEs in emerging economies help their local communities adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change, and how this community engagement paves the way for providing secure livelihoods and a more sustainable future for all.
In January 2021, SEED and the Green Economy Coalition held an online, interactive roundtable gathering small enterprise networks, policy practitioners, NGOs and think tanks to exchange knowledge and share interventions on how to ensure that our Green Recovery efforts are impacting small businesses.
This snapshot report is intended for national policy makers and shapers; global policy and finance institutions; researchers and civil society networks. Drawing on direct insights from micro, small and medium enterprises as well as eco-system support organisations, it highlights the existing support gaps, concrete examples and new opportunities for catalysing a green, inclusive recovery from COVID-19.
In this primary edition of a series of reports, we illuminate the black box of eco-inclusive entrepreneurship by providing readers with a first-of-its-kind comprehensive typology on eco-inclusive SMEs.
This scoping paper provides the basis for the implementation of the collaborative, multi-step process of the SEED Hack for Climate Finance in Thailand in 2021. Thailand’s high environmental richness and fastly evolving landscape of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) present a significant opportunity for the country to meet its climate action and development objectives. In particular, climate-smart SMEs- offering products and services for climate change adaptation and/or mitigation- are well-positioned to absorb and scale the environmental, social, and economic impacts of global climate finance flows in line with Thailand’s climate action objectives.
The Circular Economy (CE) policy context as it relates to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India is essential to integrating and mainstreaming the transition to the circular economy in India.
The Indonesian government has placed a strong emphasis on the development of local economies across the country, and have put into place important steps to align government spending on procurement with this priority. Linking eco-inclusive MSMEs to public procurement opportunities can leverage the potential for MSMEs to drive local sustainable economic development through their growth.
Pemerintah Indonesia telah memberikan penekanan yang kuat pada pengembangan ekonomi lokal di seluruh negeri, dan telah menempatkan langkah-langkah penting untuk menyelaraskan pengeluaran pemerintah untuk pengadaan dengan prioritas ini. Bersamaan dengan kampanye #BanggaBuatanIndonesia untuk mendorong minat dan permintaan barang dan jasa produksi dalam negeri, Peraturan Presiden Nomor 12 Tahun 2021 tentang Pengadaan Barang dan Jasa Pemerintah (“Peraturan 12/2021”) mewajibkan Kementerian, Lembaga, dan Pemerintah Daerah untuk menggunakan setidaknya 40% anggarannya untuk mendapatkan produk dalam negeri dari usaha mikro dan koperasi. Prioritas untuk mendukung usaha mikro, kecil dan menengah (UMKM) untuk mengakses pasar melalui belanja pemerintah berpotensi mendorong upaya pemulihan ekonomi di tingkat lokal dan nasional.
The report expands the still-nascent body of case study-based literature on adaptation entrepreneurship, and is thus suited for academia and practitioners active in this field. It is the first one to identify opportunities for successful adaptation entrepreneurship as well as barriers to growth and scale in the region.
Manifested through the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement, the international community has agreed to tackle prevalent economic, environmental, and social challenges, whereby the private sector and businesses can make a pivotal contribution. This report analyses the international market potential of end-consumer products offered by enterprises from the SEED network from a supply and demand perspective, as well as identifying possible avenues for support.
The purpose of this Driving Green Recovery Pathways in South and Southeast Asia: Insights from Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Intermediaries report is to showcase the importance of green and social MSMEs to drive Green Recovery and identify the supports that the intermediary and policy could provide. The insights in this report are derived from The Green Recovery Forum: Leveraging the contributions of MSMEs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
This report analyses small and medium-sized enterprises (hereby SMEs) with green business models and explores how selected enterprises scale and replicate their activities. Its main objective is to provide insights into the critical success factors for scaling and replication. It is intended for policymakers and intermediaries to draw direct insights from SMEs. It analyses the critical success factors for scale-up and replication of enterprise activities and highlights concrete recommendations to close existing gaps in order to maximise their contribution to the SDGs. Green SMEs can find inspiration through the case studies in the annex of this report. This report was prepared in collaboration with GO4SDGs.
This policy landscape paper provides an overview of the state of green finance in Uganda, an overview of the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks, and highlights the challenges to accessing (by MSMEs) and delivering (by banks and finance institutions) green finance in Uganda.
