GreenWorks Fund for Just Transition

The GreenWorks Program, implemented by an alliance led by Hivos, contributes to climate change mitigation by creating sustainable business and job opportunities for more than 9000 young women and men in the green economy in North Africa.

Why climate change and economic development are connected? High unemployment and lack of financing opportunities in North Africa for small and medium enterprises prevent young people – particularly women and marginalized groups – from developing their full potential. At the same time, rising temperatures and sea levels associated with climate change are expected to set economic development in the region back many years. So we want to align local approaches to climate change with development efforts that address poverty, unemployment, sustainability, and climate justice issues.

How the program will align the two? To this end, the program focuses on:

• supporting the creation of “innovation clusters” that enable businesses in the green and digital economies to scale
• enhancing the capacities of Business Development Support Organizations and Employability Hubs to create jobs and develop private sector activities beyond program support
• training youth in 21st-century skills to afford them economic opportunities in future-oriented green sectors
• enabling social enterprises operating in the green economies to scale their businesses and create new jobs
• The GreenWorks Alliance is led by Hivos and comprises more than 15 members, among which incubators, accelerators, think tanks, vocational training institutes, and angel investment networks in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, and the Netherlands.

About the fund

The GFJT is a fund managed by Hivos’ GreenWorks Program that offers conditional equity-free cash induction to support the scalability of Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) that contribute to the Green Transition process while incentivizing other potential financiers (Commercial and Non-Commercial) to co-invest in the GFJT supported SGBs.

In order to make this free-equity fund as much as beneficial as possible, the GFJT can match between 50% to 100% of commercial and non-commercial investments about to be secured by Green SGBs with a ceiling of EUR 50,000.

For example, for every EUR 1 secured by the SGB, the GFJT can offer between EUR 0.5 and EUR 1. The specific ratio will be decided based on the quality of the application and the potential for green job creation.

The beneficiaries of this fund can be Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) operating in the green economy* (operating in renewable energy, sustainable food, and waste management) that fit the following criteria:

• SGBs must be legally incorporated and registered in Algeria, Egypt, and/or Tunisia.
• SGBs must have a minimum of 3 full-time employees and expect to create new or support 20 existing jobs within 6 months.
• SGBs must have other financing leads in their pipeline where the GFJT funds can be used to leverage (for example advanced negotiations with angel networks or VCs, loan applications to commercial banks, applications for other grants, etc…)

Planned activities

• The Alliance’s innovation clusters and new partnerships will source innovative, market-based solutions within the digital & green economies.
• Alliance partners’ capacity-building activities will help local intermediaries (Business Development Social Organizations and Employability Hubs) increase job creation and private sector development.
• The Alliance’s six Green Accelerator Programs will work to speed up the growth and up-scaling of local and regional social enterprises.
• The Alliance’s employability training and placement activities will give young people the skills needed for employment in the green economy and tackle the mismatch between supply and demand in local labor markets.

How to apply?

For those who are interested, they should submit the documents in the checklist below no later than June 15, 2022, to greenworks@hivos.org

• GFJT application Form: download and fill out the application
• Budget: Kindly use this template for the proposed project
• Proof of financing leads: Letters of Intent, links to grants being pursued, and/or loan applications

If you have any further questions, please send them to greenworks@hivos.org, and we will answer them on the FAQ section on the GFJT Webpage which will be updated weekly.

We are also happy to schedule one on one calls to answer specific questions when needed – Based on the availability of the team

* Please note that the selected applicants will have to go through a further assessment to verify the information submitted in their application and to ensure their capacity to handle the funding offered by the GFJT