Fourteen start-ups have been selected for this year’s SEED awards.
The awards, an annual affair, are granted to organisations working on sustainable development. For 2019, out of 906 applications across nine countries, 14 winners and 52 finalists have been selected for innovative and locally-led start-up eco-inclusive enterprises.
The award highlights the contribution of green and social enterprises to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Every year, awards are decided under various categories.
This year’s categories includes SEED Low Carbon, SEED Africa Awards, SEED South Africa Climate Adaptation Awards and SEED Gender equality award.
SEED 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.
It is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and the green economy. This initiative works in Asian and African countries including Ghana, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and Uganda and supports small and growing enterprises with business and capacity-building support.
Under the SEED Low Carbon category, an organisation called Aikya Organics, located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has won the award from India.
Aikya Organics has been working on promoting gender equality by training 1,200 women farmers. They also try to achieve SDGs by providing livelihood opportunities to framers and following natural farming techniques. The non-profit sells various products including local rice grains, mustard oil and organic lentils under the name Dhaanika.
Apart from Aikya, four more finalists have been selected from India which include Stonesoup, Aarohana Ecosocial Development, Ecozen Solutions and Farmers Fresh Zone.
