Partner Countries

While local cleantech enterprises have limitless potential for innovation, they also require favorable conditions to thrive. Very often, they encounter multiple barriers to scaling-up and commercialization , such as institutional and policy obstacles or a lack of business training opportunities, also referred to as weak entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. GCIP fosters conducive national innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in its recipient countries to create enabling conditions for cleantech entrepreneurship to thrive. GCIP experts and executing partners design capacity-building tools, policy recommendations and regulatory frameworks to build institutional capacities of government agencies focused on business development and innovation.

GCIP facilitates knowledge creation and exchange to promote synergies within and across ecosystems. The programme works closely with national industry associations and shares accumulated expertise to help them expand their membership, better communicate industry needs to policymakers, advocate for greater women's engagement and strengthen their positions.

Building on decades of expertise in supporting the private sector, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has designed GCIP to systematically foster cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship in frontier markets. By leveraging UNIDO’s thought leadership in sustainable industrial development and its network of partners, GCIP provides tailored support to each partner country, which allows for smarter resources allocation and the long-term sustainability of interventions.

GCIP’s ecosystem approach focuses on systems change, combining policy support and capacity building with the direct acceleration support to cleantech enterprises, uniquely placing the GCIP as the only comprehensive cleantech ecosystem-building initiative. Additionally, GCIP contributes to the operationalization of national policy and international commitments in the field of climate, innovation and entrepreneurship, including the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Knowledge products and policy tools for ecosystem development and regulatory frameworks

  • Global cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem assessment framework for country-level analysis
  • Global cleantech innovation cluster development framework
  • Global cleantech capacity building framework
  • Cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship-related policy recommendations and strategies at national and global levels
  • GCIP impact assessment framework for cleantech enterprises comprising multiple tools to forecast SMEs environmental, social and economic impact
  • GCIP Web Platform connecting GCIP alumni from all partner countries, featuring enhanced stakeholder engagement instruments, fostering proactive know-how spreading and supporting advanced data analysis with tailored IT tools.
  • Training and certification system for cleantech experts
  • Methodologies, guidelines, tools for national cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship accelerators.
Contact the GCIP team for more information about partner country opportunities at g.mckuur@unido.org

Donors

The Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) seeks strategic bilateral partnerships with country donors to foster private sector initiative, entrepreneurship and engagement in accelerating the uptake and investments in innovative cleantech solutions at scale for climate action and low-carbon development. GCIP delivers key environmental and economic benefits, in particular, low-carbon economic growth, creation of green jobs, women’s empowerment and engagement of youth.

GCIP is aligned with the Paris Agreement goals and works long-term and strategically to contribute to both donor funding priorities and national development objectives. GCIP has a vast experience of successfully contributing to the climate donors’ development objectives, including through its successful partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The Programme seeks strategic donor partners to support its mission to improve and advance cleantech entrepreneurship and innovation support in more frontier markets of the Global South and beyond. GCIP interventions in a new partner country include:

  • Business acceleration support and technical assistance to develop early-stage cleantech innovations into market-ready businesses.
  • Targeted interventions and the creation of a national support structure for women cleantech entrepreneurs.
  • Training and certifying cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship experts (coaches, mentors, and judges) and national innovation and industry-related institutions.
  • Facilitation of workshops and multi-sectoral dialogues to raise awareness on the business, investment and job creation opportunities embedded in climate action and energy transition.
  • Development of policy recommendations and frameworks to strengthen national ecosystems supporting and enabling cutting-edge cleantech solutions.
  • Facilitating curated interactions among cleantech enterprises of the newcomer partner country and the bilateral donor’s country to explore technology collaboration, market expansion and business and investment opportunities.
  • Connecting the newcomer GCIP partner country with the donor’s country and other GCIP countries to promote linkages, collaboration and synergies across national cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems.

With the support of strategic donors interested in climate technology and cleantech promotion, GCIP has the potential for further expansion and upscaling as the largest cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship support Programme in frontier markets.

At the Global Environment Facility, we recognize the central role of cleantech SMEs in delivering game changing solution. By promoting cleantech innovation, entrepreneurship development and long-term ecosystem sustainability, GCIP has the potential to contribute to the critical systemic transformation needed to accelerate climate action.

Filippo Berardi

GEF, SENIOR CLIMATE CHANGE SPECIALIST

Corporate Partnerships

The Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) enables corporations to access, collaborate with and invest in the most innovative cleantech start-ups offering cutting-edge solutions.Through GCIP, corporations interested in cleantech innovation gain exclusive access to a global network of credible and impactful cleantech solution providers. Corporates have access to GCIP's platform convening early-stage enterprises from its national business accelerator programmes in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as from its global accelerator programme.

Previous GCIP Accelerator cycles have trained more than 1,0 cleantech start-ups, many of whom have raised millions of dollars in funding, entered regional and global markets and engaged in long-term corporate partnerships.

“Through its training workshops and mentoring, focus on green economy and funding opportunities, GCIP helped us put a framework in place that we have continued using to this day”, says Simon Hazell, a young entrepreneur and 2019 GCIP global winner from South Africa, whose insect protein-producing company Inseco succeeded to raise US$5.3 million in South Africa’s biggest start-up seed funding round in spring 2022.

When partnering with GCIP, corporations:

  • Access a truly global network of innovative cleantech start-ups.
  • Collaborate with start-ups to test climate and environmentally friendly technologies and business models.
  • Realize CSR & ESG policies by implementing measured and validated solutions.
  • Source early-stage investment possibilities (pre-seed to series A financing).
  • Support the growth of the cleantech industry and entrepreneurship by providing their technical expertise and other key resources.

To facilitate the identification and development of cleantech solutions to address their prioritized decarbonization and sustainability challenges, GCIP defines its unique Global Innovation Challenges with key corporate partners. In addition, the Global Accelerator of GCIP provides advanced support to the cleantech start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises participating in the Global Challenge to refine and further validate their product and business models.

The first GCIP Global Innovation Challenge and Accelerator will be conducted in 2023 with corporate partners, Cleantech Champions, that have a key role in enabling the climate transition within their sector. The Cleantech Champion has the opportunity to:

  • Co-define an Innovation Challenge specific to their sustainability priorities and targets.
  • Get matched with innovative pilot-ready solutions.
  • Showcase partnership and pilot innovative solutions at the COP28 in Dubai and during the GCIP’s Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum.
  • Provide an award (monetary or non-monetary) to the selected start-ups, with the option to:
  • Pilot the technology and/or business model in a testing facility or in operations;
  • Get support from experts and thought leaders in identifying, developing, piloting and evaluating solutions.

Contact the GCIP team for more information about corporate partnership opportunities at e.jensen@unido.org

GCIP is unique in that it fosters a systemic approach by combining direct support to start-ups with ecosystem building, which leads to a multiple value creation and ensures an extremely wide impact.

Olga Rataj

GCIP GLOBAL PROGRAMME MANAGER
Partner Countries Donors Corporate Partnerships