Call for Application: Participate in a Business Sprint Fostering a Rural and Green Economy in Uganda
Are you an established entrepreneur driven to transform rural livelihoods in Uganda? Do you want to validate your innovative idea in a Business Sprint and pitch for funding as part of the TeamUp Innovation Fund? Does your solution tackle critical challenges in climate and environment, health and well-being, as well as socio-economic developments? If this sounds like you, seize the opportunity and apply until January 14, 2025.
About the Program
Entrepreneurship is vital to Uganda’s economy, with 35.5% of the labor force engaged in entrepreneurial activities. Often ranked among the world’s most entrepreneurial nations, Uganda’s high rate of self-employment stems from limited formal job opportunities. Social entrepreneurship, particularly in rural areas, addresses challenges like unemployment, education access, healthcare, and environmental issues through innovative, community-driven solutions.
This approach is driving rural transformation and advancing Uganda’s sustainable development goals, especially among its youth, with over 75% of the population under 30. Supporting these efforts, Siemens Stiftung is launching a call for applications for social entrepreneurs under the theme “Fostering Rural and Green Economy.” The program includes a 10-week Business Sprint and a chance to pitch for up to €50,000 in funding.
About the Business Sprint
Siemens Stiftung invites innovative entrepreneurs to participate in the transformative Business Sprint Program, a 10-week hybrid journey running from February to April 2025. The Business Sprint is designed to validate selected project proposals and accelerate the development of impactful, locally relevant solutions for rural communities in Uganda, particularly youth, women and people with disabilities. To support rural development in Uganda, project proposals must be tailored to local needs, ensuring accessibility, affordability and acceptability for rural communities and focus on addressing the following areas:
- Climate and Environmental Solutions: Develop solutions that tackle environmental impact and promote sustainability, that help preserve the local ecosystem while benefiting rural communities.
- Health and Well-being Enhancements: Contribute to improving health and well-being conditions for rural communities women and youth.
- Socio-economic Opportunities: Generate economic benefits for the community, including job creation, skills development, and new market opportunities with a particular focus on women and youth.
This Business Sprint provides a dynamic, agile framework for social enterprises with the aim of transforming project proposals into impactful, scalable solutions. Through a blend of in-person and online sessions, participants will gain hands-on experience, practical tools, and expert guidance to refine their approach and enhance their impact.
Business Sprint Structure
- Kick-off Bootcamp: A two-day, in-person event in Kampala that facilitates team onboarding, peer networking, and mentor introductions, laying the groundwork for a successful sprint.
- Weekly Expert-Led Digital Workshops: Deep-dive sessions (2–3 hours weekly) covering Market Analysis, Customer Segmentation, Product Development, Production Optimization, Financial Planning, and Accounting.
- Tailored Mentoring: Ongoing support from experienced mentors guiding the enterprises through each stage of the program, both digitally and in person. Mentors work closely with enterprises to set weekly milestones and actionable tasks, requiring 8–10 hours of dedicated work per week.
- Final Event: A two-day culminating event in Kampala, providing an opportunity to present refined proposals, pitch for funding, and engage in peer-to-peer learning.
Applicants Profile
Minimum eligibility criteria for social enterprises
Siemens Stiftung is seeking applications from early-stage social enterprises that meet the following criteria:
- Registered in Uganda with a proven presence in the rural Ugandan market. Companies operating in the TeamUp districts of Mityana, Kassanda, Nakaseke, Kyegegwa and Kikuube will be preferred.
- Established track record: The business must have been operational for at least three years.
- emonstrated success: Proven history of serving paying customers or clients, especially in rural areas.
- Demonstrated success: Proven history of serving paying customers or clients, especially in rural areas.
- Clear social or environmental mission: The enterprise should aim to create a positive impact on rural communities.
- Strong team capacity: The team must be capable of effectively implementing the proposed solution.
- Legal standing: The business should not be involved in litigation or have existing contracts with Siemens Stiftung.
Applications meeting these criteria are strongly encouraged to apply. Siemens Stiftung especially welcome submissions from female-led and youth-led enterprises, including those founded by women and/or youth, as well as organizations actively tackling gender-specific or youth-related challenges.
Please note that applications seeking debt refinancing or those focused solely on financing the core business without introducing an innovative new element or solution are not eligible.
Contract Details
Siemens Stiftung conducts a thorough due diligence and eligibility check for all project ideas.Up to ten social enterprises will be selected to take part in the business sprint, which will be held from February to April 2025. Interested applicants are requested to submit their application including all necessary documents electronically via online submission.
Mandatory AttachmentsApplication form in a pdf-format
- CVs of core project team
- Registration certificate of company/organization
- Form 1-Notice of Beneficial Owner
- Proof for existing products and initial users, e.g. photos, data protocol, or blueprint
Proposals should clearly articulate how the project will address the three core areas: climate and environment, health and well-being, as well as socio-economic opportunities as well as the team working on the project.
Ressources
The call opens on November 26, 2024 and applications will be accepted until January 14, 2025 via online submission.
Please register for the first Q&A Session on Wednesday December 11, at 3pm EAT
If you face any issues with your online submission or your registration for the Q&A Session, please contact us via e-mail.
Contact
If, at any stage of the application or evaluation process, the applicant considers that a mistake has been made, the evaluators have acted unfairly or failed to comply with the rules, and the applicant´s interests have been prejudiced as a result, the following complaint mechanism is available. A complaint should be drawn up in English and submitted by email to opencall@siemens-stiftung.org.
Please add “Complaint Fostering Green & Rural Economy” to the subject of the email and include:
- Contact details
- The subject of the complaint
- Information and evidence regarding the alleged breach
Partners
Unique cooperation between foundations
The TeamUp Innovation Fund has been established with the aim to further widen the impact of the TeamUp program, which presents a new multi sectoral approach to development cooperation initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and managed as well as co-financed through the three foundations Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW), Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) and Siemens Stiftung.
Under that fund the Call “Fostering Rural & Green Economy” is dedicated to advancing innovative solutions for improving the living conditions in rural areas, concentrating on three thematic areas of 1) climate & environment, 2) health & well-being, and 3) income opportunities (incl. job generation).