Swedish government, in line with its efforts to fight against poverty, has provided grants to twelve innovative entrepreneurs that implemented innovative ideas within the fields of energy, agriculture, water, sanitation and financial services. These entrepreneurs received the funds up to 20,000 euros under Swedish Innovations Against Poverty program.
The organizations that received the funds include: Ignitia, MAKIT, Vagga till Vagga, GreenLaiti, Calimera (SOlokraft), Lotus Foods, Greenway Ecodevelopment, Imagine Rural Development Initiative, Pamoja Cleantech, HiNation, Farm Business, and See My Tree.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) is operating the Innovations Against Poverty initiative since April this year. This program provides financial funding and assistance to allow people in developing countries to lift themselves out of poverty by help of businesses that take advantage of new ideas and include local people. Small and large grants up to 200,000 euros are available and the first application process that recently closed saw 157 companies originating from 25 different countries applying. Twelve companies from Africa, Europe and the US were awarded small grants and another 14 have been shortlisted to continue the application process for the large grants. The top sectors targeted by the selected companies are agriculture, energy, healthcare, consulting and financial services. Projects include for example new types of battery rechargers, municipal sanitation, high nutrition food production, safe drinking water and farm business advisory.
The grants of up to 200,000 euro per year are available to cover up to 50 per cent of the cost for new projects and products, and companies can also apply for advice on how they can transform their business models to include the poorest. SIDA cooperates with a group of specialists led by PwC and the British initiative Business Innovation Facility to offer external expertise, networks and a platform to share experiences of doing good business in poor countries.