Deadline: 4-Aug-21
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is offering Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs (AWCE) Fund to build the gender-lens investing ecosystem for women climate entrepreneurs to grow scalable climate-related businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa.
AWCE defines women climate entrepreneurs as women entrepreneurs whose locally available, contextually-appropriate goods and services prioritize or significantly contribute to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change.
ANDE’s Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs (AWCE) Fund will award projects in Sub-Saharan Africa to support the growth of women climate entrepreneurs in the SGB sector.
ANDE is specifically focused on submissions catalyzing early-stage, growth-oriented capital to enhance capacity of local entrepreneur support organizations to support women climate entrepreneurs in SGBs starting and growing climate-related businesses such as expansion of market production and supply of green goods and services.
Categories
ANDE encourages submissions employing creative solutions to both supply and demand components of the climate financing gap with a gender lens within AWCE priority sectors of Agriculture, Sustainable Energy, and Water and Sanitation; and that fit any of the following categories:
- Entrepreneur support organizations supporting innovative approaches in agriculture to help women entrepreneurs, including smallholder farmers, to start and grow climate resilient agribusinesses amid vulnerabilities to weather-related shocks such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and fluctuations in rain seasons in Sub-Saharan Africa. This includes agri-production and agri-processing, cold-chains, data and information services, insurance and credit guarantee, market access and product distribution.
- Entrepreneur support organizations supporting innovative and affordable clean off-grid renewable energy solutions that can be accelerated for deployment or scaled up amid intensifying environmental degradation and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. This includes solutions such as but not limited to: small scale solar and wind-solutions and related products and services; energy efficient technologies; green transportation solutions, clean cooking solutions and training for women entrepreneurs to venture into clean energy solutions.
- Entrepreneur support organizations supporting innovative approaches to environmental conservation, greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and natural resource management. This includes sustainable housing and building materials, community forestry, fisheries, efficient irrigation, wastewater reuse and recycling technologies and interventions.
- Entrepreneur support organizations with climate related novel and practical methods that inform best practices to help funders and credit providers among other institutions invest more in catalytic capital, credit and offer better financing products and services to women climate entrepreneurs. This includes approaches to integrate gender equality and safeguarding measures in funding processes.
Funding Information
ANDE intends to fund a minimum of three and a maximum of six projects for this round, from a total funding pool of US $196,500. Submissions should be for activities of up to 11 months duration with a minimum total request of US $30,000 and a maximum total request of US $65,500.
Eligibility Criteria
Non-profit entrepreneur support organizations, such as:
- Incubators, accelerators, investors, capacity development providers, nongovernmental organizations, operating (non-grantmaking) foundations, and research and advisory service providers, are qualified to apply.
For more information, visit https://www.andeglobal.org/awce/