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When Uncertainty Becomes Structural: Entrepreneurship Support Organisations as Ecosystem Infrastructure in a New Fiscal Reality
Over the past year, the global development sector has changed at a speed and scale that would have seemed unlikely even two years ago. According to long-time development consultants Stephen Hunt and Nelson Okwonna, as funding dries up and uncertainty becomes structural, entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) are increasingly providing the collective functions that were once financed, governed and sustained through donor- and publicly funded programs. They discuss the implications of this shift for ESOs and entrepreneurs, exploring what it reveals about the key needs of entrepreneurship ecosystems — and about how ESOs must evolve to meet those needs.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Viewpoint: The Economy That Remembers: Institutional Amnesia and the Regenerative Correction
Modern capitalism has perfected a hidden discipline: the systematic design of economic systems that forget. What we call “externalities” are not costs that disappear — they are consequences displaced. The regenerative economy, at its core, is not simply greener or more inclusive. It is an effort to build systems that remember.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Storytelling for Velocity, Not Visibility: Why African Development Organizations Need a New Communications Playbook
Something subtle yet profound is changing in how global development organizations in Africa communicate about their work and impact. According to Chrisphine Omondi, a communications specialist with experience across the continent, these organizations have often relied on external communications consultants who produce reports, recommendations and strategies, then exit before those plans are fully implemented. He argues that this model no longer fits the pace and complexity of Africa’s evolving development ecosystem, and explores how African organizations can create a more holistic, systems-based communications model that aligns with the broader changes that are reshaping global development.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Rethinking What it Means to Start a Business: Why Systemic Venture Building Matters for Africa’s Food Future
Africa’s entrepreneurs are often seen as risky investments not due to any limitations of their own businesses, but because of the risks in the systems around them. As a result, as Dieuwertje Nelissen, Eveline Jansen and Rachael Kirui at Enviu argue, it's important for development stakeholders to move beyond de-risking individual businesses and to put greater effort into strengthening and de-risking the systems that support them. They explore this systemic approach in the context of African agriculture, sharing a venture-building model that can help entrepreneurs reduce early-stage risk and scale sustainable impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Analysis: A Defining Moment for African Economic Transformation
For the first time, the world’s largest economies gathered on the continent to examine the unfair cost of capital, the inefficiencies that block domestic investment, and the reforms needed to support Africa’s trajectory toward a more prosperous, equitable future.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: Why Impact Investing Might Collapse and How to Stop It
The current paradigm of viewing impact in isolation from the systems surrounding investments is not sustainable. Applying a systems lens helps investors make better decisions related to sourcing, management, and measurement that lead to lasting positive impact.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
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Report: Reimagining the Future of Entrepreneurship Support in East Africa
A new report from WDI, "Reimagining the Future of ESOs in East Africa," integrates insights from accelerators, incubators, investors, ESO donors and intermediaries in the East African entrepreneurship ecosystem.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, Transportation
- Region
- Global
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The ABCs of Catalytic Sunsetting: How Foundations and Other Philanthropic Funders Can Exit Boldly — And Leave a Bigger Legacy
What if the best way to ensure your philanthropic legacy … was to close your doors? As Nancy Swanson-Roberts at Linked Foundation and Kusi Hornberger at Dalberg Capital argue, the world’s most pressing problems demand urgent, bold action that incremental giving over generations often can't enable. They explain why philanthropic organizations like Linked Foundation are deliberately spending down their assets within a defined timeframe to catalyze systemic change — an approach they call “catalytic sunsetting" — and share three strategies that can help any funder exit with purpose and power.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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