It is particularly difficult for female entrepreneurs who not only face barriers in setting up their business but also social and cultural barriers in gaining access to networks and social acceptance. As Nomcebo Manzini, Regional Program Director of UN Women, which sponsored the 2011 SEED Gender Equality Award, noted, "This award is testimony to women's creative potential even in the midst of seeming insurmountable barriers. It remains extremely important that rural poor men and women are empowered to create such opportunities and manage them effectively."

The symposium was coupled with an International Awards Ceremony to celebrate the 2011 SEED Award Winners as well as the establishment of SEED South Africa, which is hosted and whose program is managed by the Independent Development Trust (IDT). The IDT CEO, Thembi Nwedamutswu, pointed out that, "Growing and nurturing SMMEs, including supporting cooperatives, is key to implementing intergenerational strategies for wealth creation. Grassroots-based entrepreneurship anchored on social and environmental consciousness provides a means to redressing inequality and fostering shared prosperity in South Africa. Indigenous knowledge, untapped solutions and creativity is at the heart of these ventures."

SEED SA will be officially launched in October 2012, during South Africa's premier development knowledge sharing platform, the Development Week, which is hosted by the IDT.

Out of over 400 applications from 76 countries, 35 outstanding grassroots social and environmental businesses, mainly from Africa, were selected for their innovation, their potential to scale up and for helping to meet sustainable development challenges in a developing or emerging economy. With the help of the EU who largely supported SEED's focus on Africa, initiatives like some of the following received awards:

A company in The Gambia that transforms groundnut shells into fuel briquettes; an enterprise in Burkina Faso that has developed solar ovens; a business in Sri Lanka where women produce aloe-based skin care products; an initiative in Ghana that with its business partners produces biomass-fuelled cooking stoves made from scrap metals; a partnership in Rwanda that pioneers the local production of mushroom spores through a laboratory run by a cooperative for HIV infected women and widows; a community based public private partnership that in South Africa aims to augment rural income by manufacturing and marketing products from indigenous trees such as Marula nut oil; and an initiative in Nepal that recycles, collects organic waste and transforms it into biogas.

Lucy Morassutti, National Sales Director for Hisense, South Africa, which is the SEED Awards' corporate sponsor on this occasion, said, "Hisense has a deep appreciation for small businesses and especially their development, having itself started off as a small radio factory in 1969. Now we are a multibillion dollar global conglomerate. But we have always remembered where we started."

Hisense has welcomed the opportunities provided by the South African government to enhance the lives of the unemployed and under-privileged, ultimately developing the otherwise lost sectors of society. It's a privilege to be part of these SEED Winners' growth and development and to see them already giving back to their communities and the environment.

Each SEED winner has received a package of individually-tailored support for their business that includes access to relevant expertise and technical assistance, building their networks, helping with developing business plans and identifying sources of finance.

(For more information:UNEP Spokesperson and Acting Director of the Division of Communications and Public Information; Tel: +254 733 632755; Email: nick.nuttall@unep.org; Jade Bethell, Hisense, Mobile: +27 (79) 302 1781, Email: Jade@hisense.co.za; Constance Hybsier, Program Manager, Email: constance.hybsier@seedinit.org

Please visit www.seedinit.org)