Seed Initiative Winners from Ghana

It's with much surprise and delight to post that G-lish Foundation, the organisation founded by my inspiring partner, Godwin Yidana, is one of the winners of this year's SEED Initiative Awards.

"The SEED Awards recognise inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs whose businesses can help meet sustainable development challenges. By helping entrepreneurs to scale-up their activities, the SEED Initiative, which is hosted by UNEP, aims to boost local economies and tackle poverty, while promoting the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems."

The UNEP's full press release can be read here.

As the press release explains, the award seeks to recognise and support young organisations that focus on sustainable development. 

The winners receive support in the form of tailored workshop training in-country and via distance (remotely) to help them develop their business plans and find solutions to barriers to growth so that the orgs can break through whatever problems they're facing and continue their good work. 

"The prize they will receive from SEED is a package of individually-tailored support for their business. This includes access to relevant expertise and technical assistance, meeting new partners and building networks, developing business plans and identifying sources of finance. SEED will furthermore contribute towards meeting each winner's most immediate needs by contributing to a jointly developed support plan."

You can visit the G-lish facebook page and read more about their activities by clicking the link on the right of this page.  

The winners from Ghana are truly inspiring. The other winners are: 

• Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative
• High Value Syrup from Prekese Fruits
• Biofuel Production in Promoting Sustainable Land Management
• DeCo! Decentralised Composting for Sustainable Farming 
• The Shea Economic Empowerment Program (SEEP)

Some of the winners from African and further afield that caught my eye are:

Kenya: EcoPost - Fencing Posts from Recycled Post-Consumer Waste Plastic

Burkina Faso: Manufacture and Popularization of Biomass Briquettes (when you see how many trees are cut down for charcoal for cooking fires you understand why an alternative source of fuel is so important).

Senegal: Micro Power Economy for Rural Electrification 

"The goal of this enterprise involving local partners from the private and microfinance sector is to set up a profitable rural power provider based on off-grid power system operation and the utilisation of renewable energy sources, such as wind-solar-diesel hybrid power systems."

China: SolSource

 You can check out all the winners at the 2010 Awards link.

Global Social Benefit Incubator

We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Global Social Benefit Incubator there.


Social Edge's site is brilliant for anyone interested in social entrepreneurism.

Global Social Benefit Incubator Competition on Social Edge - Up to 20 will win US$25,000 Scholarship - Enter by Jan 20 2009Are you a social entrepreneur or the leader of a social venture, or do you know someone with a social venture that could benefit from capacity building, in-depth consultation on their business plan and mentoring by Santa Clara University faculty and Silicon Valley start-up veterans?The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™) is a capacity building program for leaders of social benefit enterprises run by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society.Enter now for a chance to attend.The competition is hosted on Social Edge, the online community for social entrepreneurs. The online application for Santa Clara University’s seventh annual GSBI is available now at http://www.socialedge.org/ and social benefit entrepreneurs from around the world should complete their first exercise online by January 16th. Deadline extended to 20/1/09 08:00 GMT.Through the GSBI competition, up to 20 candidates, who best demonstrate a sustainable and scalable approach to addressing urgent human needs throughout the world, will each receive a full scholarship valued at US$25,000 to attend the GSBI program which combines 4 months of on-line preparation and culminates with an intensive two-week residential program at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.Press release: http://tinyurl.com/GSBI2009Apply now: socialedge.org/features/gsbi

Social Entrepreneurs Mean Business

We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Social Entrepreneurs Mean Business there.


I came across a fantastic little article at Tree Hugger about social entrepreneurism, a phenomenon that is transforming the economic--and therefore social--well being of communities in developing countries. Basically, business is used to address social issues and income generating projects are usually the basis of this approach, such as that of Global Mamas, here, where I have worked for the past 18 months. Here is a great story about the evolution of fair trade, social entrepreneurs and Global Mamas in the USA.

Watch this space for more news on social entrepreneurs in Ghana, Africa and other corners of this spherical world.