Africa-wide
Competition
Entrepreneurship
Details
The BPF is funded by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) of the Belgian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The operational management of the BPF is entrusted to the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF).
On the initiative of, and with financing from, the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGD), the Business Partnership Facility awards subsidies of EUR 50,000 and EUR 200,000 to support and develop private sector involvement in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries.
The projects targeted by this call must contribute to achieving at least one clearly-identified SDG.
The Facility aims to simultaneously achieve two types of result:
- Social impact: creation and maintenance of jobs, improvement in average income for families with low incomes, access to affordable goods and services for those on low incomes (by gender), inclusion and economic development of women and young people with low incomes, positive impact on the environment through saving resources, reducing emissions and by preserving biodiversity etc.;
- Economic viability: partnerships must clearly explain how the supported initiatives will become sustainable, present a competitive financial performance and show signs of potential scalability and replication.
Type of Projects:
- The projects targeted by this call must contribute to the achievement of at least one clearly identified SDG.
- The starting point of the project must be an entrepreneurial initiative, carried out by one or more companies, pursuing a development objective.
- The project must be part of the ‘core business’ of at least one of the partners involved, ideally the project leader.
This call for projects is planned for a period of 5 years so you can submit an application at any time. After the preselection and ESG screening, we will forward the application forms to the independent selection committee which meets twice a year and makes the final selection.
Criteria
- The projects will have to take place in one of the developing countries included in the list of BIO, the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroon, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia,Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, South Africa, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Mongolia, Palestine).
- Projects on the African continent and more specifically in one of the 14 partner countries of the Belgian Development Cooperation (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, DR Congo, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Palestinian Territories) will be evaluated positively.
- Each application must be part of a partnership that brings together different actors from the private sector, civil society, academia and / or the public sector in the North and South, and always with a development goal in the country in the South. The partnership should include at least one organization from the for-profit sector.
- The partners can be Belgian, European or international legal entities, public law or private law. The partnership must be represented by a project leader responsible for implementation, to whom the grant will be contractually awarded.
- The Belgian members of the partnership will be asked to sign the Belgian SDG Charter, if this has not already been done.
Each eligible project will be reviewed according to the following criteria:
- Development effects
- Sustainability (economic, environmental, social and good governance)
- Innovation, reproducibility and scalability
- Additionality
- Impact on the sector or the market
- Experience and capacity of the beneficiary to implement the project
- Degree of co-financing
- Efficiency
- Inclusiveness
- Synergy and complementarity with other actors
Benefits
- The BPF provides non-repayable funding of up to 50% of the total investment needed to implement the project.
- Funding is between EUR 50,000 and EUR 200,000. This amount reflects only the BPF contribution, so the total project budget must be larger (between EUR 100,000 and EUR 400,000 minimum).
About King Baudouin Foundation
The King Baudouin Foundation's mission is to contribute to a better society in Belgium, in Europe and in the world.The Foundation is an actor for change and innovation in Belgium and Europe, serving the public interest and increasing social cohesion. It seeks to maximise its impact by improving skills in organisations and for individuals. It also stimulates effective philanthropy by individuals and corporations.
The Foundation’s most important values are integrity and transparency, promoting solidarity, respect for diversity, pluralism and independence. Our vision for the future is to anchor our activities in Belgium on every level, to continue to put the KBF on the map in Europe and to become a significant player in cross-border philanthropy internationally - with the help of our KBF family: KBFUS and KBF Canada.
We develop activities around these programmes to serve the public interest:
• Social justice and poverty
• Health
• Heritage and culture
• Social engagement
• Africa, Latin America, Asia
• Education and development of talents
• Europe
• Climate, the environment and biodiversity
The King Baudouin Foundation was set up in 1976, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of King Baudouin's reign.