BPF Call for Projects: Enterprises for SDGS 2023

Deadline: 5 September 2023

The Business Partnership Facility (BPF) provides grants to support and develop private sector involvement in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries.

The BPF is funded by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) of the Belgian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The BPF supports viable, entrepreneurial business initiatives with a strong social impact.

Each applicant is preferably a partnership that brings together actors from the private sector, civil society, academia and/or the public sector. The partnership consists of a minimum of one business partner.

BPF-funded projects must demonstrate their social impact and economic viability:

Social/environmental impact, contributing to SDGs. For example:
- Creation and maintenance of decent jobs
- Improvement in average income for low income families
- Accessibility to affordable goods and service
- Inclusion and economic development of women and young people
- Positive impact on the environment through saving resources, reducing emissions and/or preserving biodiversity
Economic viability
- Applicant must clearly demonstrate the submitted projects/initiatives are:
  - able to become self-sustainable
  - scalable
  - replicable

Themes

This call is open to projects in different sectors, but the project must focus on at least one of these three themes:
- Climate, environment and biodiversity
  - This includes projects that facilitate the transition to sustainable and renewable energy for businesses, promote access to adequate, affordable and sustainable energy services for the population, promote sustainable agricultural techniques, encourage access to bio- and environmental certification, promote the reuse of goods and waste treatment, etc. Candidate projects may also respond to the environmental changes that are already affecting their environment by adapting their (production) processes to limit the impact of these changes.
- Gender and female entrepreneurship
  - Special attention will be given to projects and enterprises led by women, creating real employment opportunities for girls and women, promoting equal treatment and remuneration for women and men, strengthening the position of women in the family and in society, offering products that meet the specific needs of girls and women in the context in which they live.
- Decent work and social protection
  - In pursuit of these objectives, initiatives will be supported which strive to ensure a fair and viable income for workers and/or suppliers (farmers, etc.), promote fair trade, foster safety at work, stimulate the creation of social protection systems, etc.

Funding Information

The BPF provides a non-refundable grant between 50,000 and 200,000 euros, that represents maximum 50% of the total investment.

Eligible Countries

Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia.

Eligibility Criteria

Each applicant is preferably a partnership that brings together actors from the private sector, civil society, academia and/or the public sector. The partnership consists of a minimum of one business partner. The project must be part of the ‘core business’ of the company involved. The partners can be Belgian, European or international legal entities.
The projects must take place in one of the eligible countries.

Selection Criteria

Project management
- Efficiency: the ratio between overhead costs and the overall budget will be used to calculate the efficiency of the project. Projects with high overhead costs will not be retained.
- Experience and capacities of the beneficiary: the beneficiary must be able to show through a simplified business plan that it has sufficient resources (both human and financial) to implement the project.
Economic viability
- Economic self-sustainability: projects must show how they will become financially independent, without future grants or subsidies.
- Additionality: the role of the BPF as a catalyst must be shown. The BPF supplies a limited grant in terms of time and money. This is additional to the capital mobilised and lowers the risk for the private investor. Moreover, the principle of the untying of aid, as set out in Belgian law relating to cooperation, will always be verified.
- Innovation, replicability and scalability: priority will be given to innovative projects. The innovative dimension will be evaluated both in terms of the product (characteristics, functions and performance of the products/services) as well as in terms of processes (the manner in which the products are made or delivered, e.g. manufacture, distribution and product or service support). Initiatives must be replicable and scalable.
- Impact on the sector or market: subsidized projects must create a clear and sustainable change from the current operation. The actors involved will have increased their capacities (scaling-up) at the end of the subsidized phase, including to access external large financing if necessary.
Social and environmental impact
- Effects the project will have on development: the expertise and financial means, contributed by the private sector as part of partnerships, bringing change that contributes to one or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Synergy and complementarity with other actors: projects that show proof of complementarity and synergy with other existing projects and/or with actors and partners of the Belgian development cooperation will be favoured.