Built on the momentum of Day 1, Day 2 of the ANDE Pan-Asia Convening 2026 explored practical approaches to supporting entrepreneurs through stronger ecosystems. Across discussions on gender inclusion, financial resilience, collaborative financing models, and professional networks, participants explored how ecosystem actors can design more inclusive institutions, strengthen partnerships, and build solutions that respond to the realities of entrepreneurs and the communities they serve.

Walking the Talk: Measuring Gender Inclusion Across Entrepreneur Support Systems

Gender inclusion was explored not just as an outcome for entrepreneurs, but as a practice that organizations themselves must actively embrace. Co-led with Sweef Capital, the session introduced participants to the Gender ROI™ framework, a practical assessment tool that helps investors, Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs), and businesses evaluate how gender inclusion is reflected across leadership, workplace culture, policies, value chains, and community impact. Rather than focusing only on representation, the framework encourages organizations to take a more holistic view of gender equity and identify opportunities for improvement.

Participants had the opportunity to apply the framework to their own organizations, using it to assess current practices and identify actionable next steps. Discussions emphasized that meaningful progress starts with establishing a baseline and making continuous, incremental improvements rather than striving for perfection. 

The session highlighted that the Gender ROI™ framework is not intended to produce a one-time score, but to help organizations measure progress and continuously improve over time. Rather than focusing on the number itself, participants were encouraged to view the framework as a tool for learning, reflection, and sustained action, reinforcing that meaningful gender inclusion is built through an ongoing commitment to improvement rather than a single assessment. The framework’s adaptability across different types of organizations demonstrated how embedding gender inclusion into everyday decision-making can lead to stronger, more resilient institutions over time.

Beyond Access: How Entrepreneurial Households Really Manage Money

Co-led with EPIC World, featuring insights from EPIC World Foundation, Good Return,  and SarvaGram, the session opened with a short film about an Entrepreneurial Household from Southern India. The couple described how migrating to the city let them diversify income and invest in trusted local savings while staying cautious of unfamiliar digital finance with hopes to eventually return home and build a farmhouse. Their aspiration illustrated the financial choices, trade-offs, and long-term ambitions that characterize many Entrepreneurial Households.

The discussion argued that the next frontier of financial inclusion isn’t about expanding access to accounts or digital payments, but designing products around the realities of Entrepreneurial Households. Drawing on EPIC World Foundation’s EH360 study of more than 5,200 Indian households, panelists described these families as an “unseen middle”—multiple income streams driving local economies, yet underserved by conventional finance.

A recurring theme was households don’t see formal and informal finance as competing, but as a continuum chosen based on need, cost, and trust; reframing informal finance as integral to resilience, not a gap to close. Panelists called for evaluating households as interconnected economic units rather than single businesses, recognizing women as active financial decision-makers, and shifting from basic literacy toward long-term planning for education, assets, and wealth-building.

Audience examples from Asia and Africa reinforced this, citing Pakistan’s Kamatee, India’s chit funds, and Uganda’s Village Savings and Loan Associations as trusted alternatives. Participants noted women often receive loans without controlling decisions. Questions from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka stressed that building trust in financial institutions requires far more than expanding credit. It demands locally relevant products, transparent engagement, and sustained relationships with communities.

Closing polls showed physical bank branches remain many households’ first point of contact even as digital services grow. Panelists emphasized that trust comes from long-term relationships, not transactional lending or automation, and that products should be co-created with communities. The session closed with a reminder that women are already making complex financial decisions. The challenge is for institutions to build products around that reality, not expect households to fit conventional models.

Pooled ESO TA Facility Design Workshop

Access to capital for small and growing businesses often stalls not because of lack of investor interest, but because deploying impact capital remains a slow, fragmented, and resource-intensive process. This interactive workshop, co-led with Sattva Consulting and Mekong Inclusive Ventures, brought together practitioners and investors to co-design a pooled technical assistance (TA) facility for ESOs, exploring how shared funding mechanisms and standardized processes could reduce transaction costs across the ecosystem. Participants discussed the lengthy timelines involved in raising and deploying capital, highlighting the need for harmonized tools that help both investors and ESOs assess enterprise readiness, clarify expectations, and streamline due diligence from the outset.

A central theme was the unique role that local ESOs can play in lowering the cost and risk of impact investing. Unlike short-term consultants, local ESOs work alongside enterprises over extended periods, providing ongoing operational support, monitoring progress, and responding quickly to emerging challenges. Participants argued that this proximity creates tangible value for investors by reducing portfolio risk and improving investment readiness. Rather than relying solely on grants, the workshop explored how these savings could be reflected in funding structures, for example, by embedding modest fees within investment facilities to compensate ESOs for customer acquisition and post-investment support. The discussion ultimately pointed towards a more collaborative financing model in which investors and ESOs share responsibility for building stronger enterprises while creating more sustainable revenue streams for the organizations that support them.

IMT Alumni Exchange — Reconnect, Reflect, and Shape What’s Next

The Investment Manager Training (IMT) Alumni Session brought together graduates of ANDE’s IMT program to reflect on insights from a recent alumni survey and explore how the network can continue creating value beyond the program. The discussion reinforced the program’s lasting impact, with most alumni continuing to work in the impact investing sector, while also marking the launch of the IMT Alumni Group to strengthen collaboration and ongoing learning.

Survey findings showed that alumni are looking for more than networking opportunities. They expressed strong interest in advanced learning, peer knowledge exchange, collaboration around capital access, and opportunities to co-create solutions with fellow practitioners. Many alumni now hold senior leadership positions across impact investing, advisory, and ecosystem-building organizations, giving them an increasingly influential role in shaping where capital flows and how entrepreneurs are supported. At the same time, strong interest in serving as future trainers and facilitators pointed to an encouraging shift: the IMT community is evolving from a group of program participants into a growing network of practitioners who are helping build capacity for the broader ecosystem.

We then hosted a breakout session titled “Inside the Investment Room,” where participants discussed the investment or portfolio challenges and notable market trends Despite differing areas of focus and roles, several common themes emerged from the discussions. A shared challenge across groups was sourcing strong pipelines and identifying good micro finance institutions amid ongoing regulatory and currency barriers. Participants also noted that social enterprises often struggle not because their products are overpriced, but because they are built for conscious consumers, a positioning that frequently falters at the sales stage. Tracking utilization after due diligence emerged as another pain point, particularly when the due diligence was conducted by a third party, with mission drift, weakening impact focus, and gaps in measurability and accountability making it harder to build investment-ready pipelines. Groups also raised the ongoing tension between balancing profit and impact, and observed that investors are currently more cautious, holding back capital or favoring co-investment structures. Additional themes included how far AI adoption should go and where its limits lie, as well as the potential for smaller cities to become key growth engines in markets like India and Indonesia, extending impact beyond major urban centers.

Across the day’s sessions, one message remained consistent: meaningful ecosystem change depends on designing systems around people rather than expecting people to adapt to systems. Whether through embedding gender inclusion into organizational practice, recognizing the financial realities of Entrepreneurial Households, creating more collaborative approaches to deploying capital, or strengthening communities of practitioners, Day 2 underscored that lasting impact is built through continuous learning, trust, and collaboration. As the conversations concluded, participants left not only with new ideas but with practical approaches to building more inclusive and resilient entrepreneurial ecosystems across the region.