Enterprise Challenge Fund for the Pacific and South-East Asia - AusAID
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Aim —
The Enterprise Challenge Fund provides an opportunity for private-sector businesses to participate in an open competition for matching grants to fund commercially viable business projects.
Providing access to employment and markets is vital to generate a sustainable reduction in poverty. The Enterprise Challenge Fund aims to stimulate growth and ensure the poor are included in the benefits and opportunities provided by growth.
In many countries in our region, innovative private sector projects fail to attract financial backing, not because of low returns, but because of weaknesses in financial markets and the 'public good' nature of some of their benefits. The private sector may be reluctant to undertake pro-poor projects because of perceived risks, lack of information or the high costs of creating new markets. The ECF will help to overcome these constraints. Through open competition, grants of $100,000 to $1.5 million will be awarded to business projects with pro-poor outcomes and that cannot obtain financing from commercial sources.
More information — Due to high demand and a consistently high quality of bids, all available ECF grant funding (a total of AU$14.5 million since July 2007) will have been allocated by the end of bidding round 3. No further bidding rounds are likely to be conducted during this phase of the pilot program. A mid term review, currently scheduled for September/October 2009, will inform a decision by the Australian Government about the future of the Enterprise Challenge Fund. Please continue to check our website for updates.
Interested parties are being asked to sign up for the ECF e-newsletter (external website) on the website to keep updated with the latest information.
Sectors —
Who can apply
Type of organisations targeted —
Specific organisations targeted —
Type of projects —
Specific type of projects —
Project stadia —
Target world region —
Specific information on target countries —
Papua New Guinea and The Pacific region, as well as Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Criteria —
How to apply
Application procedure —
Selection procedure —
