Africa has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but many people remain excluded from the benefit of this growth with almost half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than USD1.25 per day. At the same time, the continent is increasingly affected by climate change, pollution, deforestation, and resource depletion. In this context, the proliferation of social and green enterprises takes on a crucial element in the shift towards sustainable development.

The SEED Initiative aims to support the efforts of many African countries to make their growth sustainable by fostering the Green Economy at the grassroots and by encouraging the growth of social and environmental entrepreneurship. In this context, the SEED Initiative convenes annually to the SEED Africa Symposium in Nairobi, Kenya - a unique high-level forum for businesses, policy makers, civil society and support institutions to share their knowledge and experience, explore partnerships, and develop solutions to stimulate the growth of social and green entrepreneurship.

This year this high-level forum will take place at the Safari Park Hotel on 10-11 September 2014 under the overarching theme “Making growth sustainable: co-creating solutions through social and green entrepreneurship”. The event will bring together more than 250 representatives from the private sector, government, development and inclusive business community with the objective to explore best-practices examples and innovative ways of collaborations between small-scale social and green entrepreneurs and businesses. The event will furthermore look at barriers faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) upscaling business model and examine how best to build business linkages, and seek to find solutions to stimulate a more enabling environment for social and green entrepreneurship in Africa.

The participants will discuss best practices, enablers and solutions for accelerating social and green entrepreneurship in Africa. Moreover, the winners of the 2014 SEED Awards – innovative start-up enterprises that offer sustainable and scalable solutions to social and environmental challenges – will be celebrated at the International Awards Ceremony and showcased at the Symposium’s Expo.

Key confirmed speakers include Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director; Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom; Manu Chandaria, CEO of Comcrafts; and Helen Marquard, Executive Director of the SEED Initiative.

Through keynote speeches, panel discussions and solution forums, the event provides a variety of opportunities for knowledge sharing and networking:

• An international forum to learn from successful business models and find out about the latest trends in the field of entrepreneurship and inclusive business in Africa
• High-level public-private dialogue to create a supportive ecosystem for green entrepreneurship and inclusive business
• Interactive sessions and inspiring keynotes with renowned entrepreneurs, business leaders, policymakers and inclusive business experts
• Insights into the innovative approaches of the 2014 SEED Award winners which will be officially announced at the International Awards Ceremony

Early-bird registration for the SEED Africa Symposium is now open!

Register by 31 July 2014 and save up to 50%!

For further information and early-bird registration please visit http://www.seed.uno/symposium/.

The SEED Initiative is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and the green economy. Established in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg by the UN Environment Programme, UN Development Programme, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature, SEED sets out to stimulate and support innovative, small-scale and locally-led enterprises which integrate social and environmental benefits into their business model.

For further information on SEED please visit http://www.seed.uno

Note: This blog article has first been published on the website of our 2014 SEED Africa Symposium Online Partner "The Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business" on 9 June 2014.