THE ENTERPRISE CHALLENGE FUND:
Australia challenges business to help reduce poverty in Fiji

17 October 2007
A new opportunity for the Fiji private sector to bid for Australian Government-funded grants will be launched in Suva tonight, at the Tanoa Plaza.

The Enterprise Challenge Fund for the Pacific and South East Asia is a new, innovative opportunity for businesses to develop commercially-sustainable enterprises whilst contributing to poverty reduction.

Through open competition, matching grants of between FJ$125,000 to FJ$2 million will be awarded to private sector business projects which improve livelihoods and incomes and which generate better access to vital goods and services for the people of Fiji. By challenging business to look for new market opportunities, the Enterprise Challenge Fund aims to stimulate growth and to ensure that the poor are included in the resulting benefits.

The Enterprise Challenge Fund will assist the private sector to overcome some of the obstacles they face in developing commercial projects that benefit a wide range of the community. In that context, applicants must show that projects could not be implemented without a grant from the Fund and that commercial funding is unavailable. The Fund is also designed to share risk and applicants must meet at least half the cost of the proposed projects.

The Enterprise Challenge Fund is a FJ$28 million six year pilot program. Funded through Australia’s international aid agency, AusAID, and administered by an independent panel, the Fund is based on a successful British model that has supported projects in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, renewable energy and telecommunications.

Examples of success stories under this funding model include the development of a commercial egg industry in the Maldives, a project to turn waste from copper mines into affordable fertilizer for subsistence farmers in Botswana, and a ‘fair trade’ export label for fruit growers in South Africa.

Fiji is included in the first round of funding, which also covers projects in eastern Indonesia, the southern Philippines and Papua New Guinea. The pilot program will be extended next year to East Timor, the Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

Applications close on 31 December 2007.

Further information about the Enterprise Challenge Fund can be obtained from [email protected].