The G-20 SME Finance Challenge is the new competition launched by Ashoka’s Changemakers in partnership with the Group of 20 and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. The competition is “looking for the best models worldwide that catalyze finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This challenge is open to all private sector participants, including private financial institutions, private investors and companies, socially responsible investors, foundations, and civil society organizations.”
Solutions can be submitted or projects can be nominated under this competition “for how public finance can unlock private finance to small and medium enterprise on a sustainable and scalable basis. The goal of the Challenge is to identify catalytic and well-targeted public interventions to unlock private finance for SMEs. Maximizing leverage of scarce public resources is at the core of the Challenge.”
Private sector organizations, socially responsible investors, foundations and civil society organizations can submit the entries. They can even submit proposals in collaboration with other eligible organizations. Besides the following criteria, entries should also demonstrate innovation, leverage, social and economic impact and sustainability and soundness.
- Reflect the theme and objectives of the G-20 SME Finance Challenge;
- Demonstrate efficient solutions to leverage public interventions to maximize private financing for SMEs;
- Demonstrate success and sustainability in practice;
- Demonstrate impact in at least one of the six regions (Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, the Western Hemisphere, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia); and
- Are submitted in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese.
The deadline to submit nominations is 25 August 2010. For more, visit this link.
