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Why the Future is African – And Why SMEs Should Lead the Way
It’s conventional wisdom that small and medium enterprises are key to economic growth in emerging markets. This is particularly true in Africa, where local SMEs dominate the business landscape, and a fast-growing young population needs the services, jobs and economic growth they provide. But as Trevor Hambayi at Development Finance Associates explains, these enterprises face several unique challenges – starting with a lack of finance. He explores the problem, and some solutions that could help unlock the SME sector’s potential.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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Immigrants Create Jobs – Small Loans Can Help: New Research on the Impact of Supporting Underserved Entrepreneurs
Did you know that immigrants and their children have helped found 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S. (currently worth $3.8 trillion)? That statistic highlights a fact that’s being lost in the immigration debate: Recent immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, who create jobs and economic growth for themselves, their families and their communities. Opportunity Fund’s vice president, Gwendy Brown, explores new research showing how small loans can help immigrants and other underserved entrepreneurs build their businesses and maximize their impact.
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- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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The Least Sexy Approach to Development: Why We Need to Focus on Systems Change
Even within the systems-change sector, people joke that it is one of the least “sexy” facets of development work. Focused on addressing the faults in social, economic and political systems that lead to problems like poverty, the approach can be overwhelmingly complex, which has limited its widespread implementation. But as Lexi Doolittle at S3IDF explains, a market-based approach that nudges these systems towards greater inclusivity and productivity is a vital tool to catalyze social change – one that we cannot afford to overlook.
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- Entrepreneurship
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The ‘Start Small, Stay Small’ Dilemma: How Nonprofit/Private Partnerships Can Boost Women-Owned Businesses
Women-owned businesses tend to start small and stay small, in part due to challenges accessing credit. They're also more likely to be discouraged from applying for financing for fear of being declined. Gina Harman, CEO of Accion's U.S. Network, and Andrea Jung, CEO of Grameen America, explain how their organizations are serving these entrepreneurs – and highlight some important ways this work can be expanded.
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- Entrepreneurship
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We’re Undervaluing Value Addition: How Ag Processing Will Fortify Food Security, Incomes and Development
The world's cocoa farmers get only 3 percent of the value of a chocolate bar, and Africa, home to 60 percent of the world’s arable land, is a net importer of food that could be processed at lower cost on the continent. The problem is that agriculture producers in emerging markets grow the crops only to watch as others grab the profits. The solution, says Donna Rosa, is to improve the solid food processing industries in developing countries.
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- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Why Do Low-income Women Entrepreneurs Fail? New Research Provides Some Answers
Everybody loves a business success story, so research on entrepreneurship tends to focus on the Facebooks and Ubers of the world. But in reality, new ventures are more likely to fail than to succeed, and there's a dearth of research on the reasons why – particularly when the entrepreneurs are women in emerging markets. The Failure Institute joined with Pro Mujer to study the failures of hundreds of small businesses run by low-income women in Mexico. Leticia Gasca of the Failure Institute explores the four main causes of failure these women faced.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Getting Real About Innovation: Why Accion’s U.S. Network Made the Leap to Digitize its Lending Operations
Technology can boost small businesses' access to finance, but can also risk trapping them in a cycle of debt. And for lenders serving lower-income entrepreneurs, these risks and rewards are more acute. Gina Harman, CEO of Accion’s U.S. Network, discusses its ambitious efforts to digitize lending operations across its national online platform in this podcast Q&A, exploring how established organizations can adapt to emerging technologies – without compromising their missions.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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The Millennial Employment Gap: Three Lessons Learned Supporting Young Entrepreneurs
Across Latin America, about 20 million young people are neither studying nor working. Helping them find economic opportunities is one of the region's top challenges - and entrepreneurship can help, since businesses with five employees or fewer generate 60 percent of the region’s jobs. TechnoServe discusses three effective approaches for supporting young entrepreneurs, learned through its Crece Tu Empresa (Build Your Business) program.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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