BiD Challenge: Final Award Event - June 3rd 2005
The 10 final prize winners of the Business in Development Challenge were selected from a total of 792 plans for poverty reduction and profit. A high-profile jury announced the winners on June 3rd at the Rabobank headquarters in Utrecht (The Netherlands).
The BiD Challenge received 792 plans on poverty reduction and profit from around the world. From Papua New Guinea to Jamaica and from Groningen to Cape Town. On the 3rd of June the 10 prize winners were announced. Go to www.bidchallenge.org for an overview of the award event and the prize winners.
The Business in Development Challenge is the first international business plan competition aimed at profit and poverty reduction. Dutch and developing country nationals were encouraged to join. This initiative of the Dutch Committee for Sustainable Development (NCDO), received a total of 713 plans of which 684 met the criteria of the competition. 67% of the plans are from developing countries, the rest from the Netherlands. The largest developing country participation came from Ghana, the Philippines, Kenya, Cameroon, India, Nigeria and Peru. The plans are diverse and creative: ranging from titles like “accountancy for poverty" and “from trash to cash". 22% are agriculture realted, 11% small industry, 11% education, and there are some 30-50 plans per sector on toerisme, ICT, healthcare, energy, housing and water.
The ‘screening’ of the plans in a period of 3 weeks was a challenge in itself. Over 200 professionals from KPMG, Rabobank, FMO, Nuon, Stichting Intent and many volunteers scored each plan.
The BiD Challenge has been made possible with the support of our partners: FMO, Nuon, Rabobank, TPG, Ministries of Economic and Foreign Affairs, The DOEN Foundation.
Information:
Carolien Wegener or John van Duursen
Fair Ventures
Tel: +31 20 525 5913 / 525 5834
carolien@fairventures.nl / john@fairventures.nl