ANDE’s research practice serves as a think tank for the SGB sector, translating data into insights and moving evidence to action.
Every entrepreneur operates within an ecosystem that determines the access to talent, finance, and markets that they need to grow their businesses. ANDE’s Ecosystem Snapshots provide data about financial and non-financial support available for small and growing businesses in a specific city or country.
GALI aims to rigorously investigate the effectiveness of the hundreds of accelerators around the world working to support early-stage entrepreneurs in growing and securing funding. ANDE launched GALI in 2015 in partnership with Emory University and a consortium of public and private funders. Add your accelerator to the directory or download the data for your own research and benchmarking.
The SGB Evidence Fund, a joint effort between ANDE and the International Growth Centre (IGC), supports collaborations between researchers and practitioners to understand the most effective ways to support SGBs and the economic and social impact of SGB growth.
ANDE collects and aggregates data and evidence on the SGB sector through our flagship State of the SGB Sector and Impact Investing in Latin America reports and other sector-building research.

"Entrepreneurs need to be prepared to measure and communicate their contribution to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience to key stakeholders. However, there is currently no standardization of climate impact reporting in the small business sector, leaving the burden on entrepreneurs to grow a successful business and implement the right tools to measure climate impact. Climate Collective Foundation and the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) have published this guide to provide SGBs, impact investors, and ESOs with a consolidated list of available tools and frameworks for climate impact measurement, along with guidance on how to select best-fit resources based on their industry and impact area."

"This knowledge brief captures key takeaways from six learning lab meetings about practical ways to measure decent work and job quality in the small and growing business (SGB) sector, facilitated by The Good Economy.
The learning lab emphasized the importance of practical measurement solutions and conceptual clarity when measuring decent work. This report seeks to provide an overview of the content discussed, useful resources, and global best practices shared during each of the learning lab meetings."

"After more than two years of living with the acute challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the small and growing business (SGB) sector is now facing a longer-term reality that affects not only business operations but also how these businesses measure and communicate their impact. The SGB sector is at a critical junction in the pandemic where organizations need to reflect on how hastily crafted impact measurement and management (IMM) solutions may or may not fit into their longer-term IMM strategy.
For these reasons, the purpose of this brief is to:
Highlight the unique IMM challenges faced by Sub-Saharan African SGBs due to COVID-19;
Guide entrepreneurial ecosystem builders in adapting their IMM systems within the context of the new COVID-19 reality; and
Provide tailored resources to enable entrepreneurial ecosystem builders to further adapt their IMM systems to best support entrepreneurs in the «new abnormal.»"

Entrepreneurial ecosystems comprise the set of cultural, political, and economic elements that allow entrepreneurs to start, sustain, and scale a new business. While the concept of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is well-established, the evidence base on how exactly ecosystems grow and whether interventions can accelerate this growth is still emerging. This report synthesizes the existing evidence on the complex process of building entrepreneurial ecosystems and offers key lessons from the literature.

With the launch of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, "SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth" has become a rallying cry for practitioners aiming to boost entrepreneurship as a means of economic and social development. However, while the concept of decent work may seem straightforward, clearly defining a “quality job” has proven to be a complex endeavor. The report by ANDE first summarizes how job quality is defined and measured, then provides an overview of the current evidence on the quality of jobs within SMEs, and finally examines the effectiveness of interventions to improve job quality.

The term talent management can be defined in various ways, but in general refers to a business’ processes to recruit, develop, and retain employees whose roles have the greatest potential to contribute to a firm’s competitive advantage. SMEs face certain constraints given their size and fragility and therefore need different approaches to find and retain a high-functioning workforce. This report summarizes the existing literature on talent management within SMEs, with a focus on developing economies where possible, and points to specific research gaps that should be prioritized moving forward.
Measurement is about more than just accountability. We believe measurement can build more impactful businesses, improve resource allocation, and support sector-wide efficiency.
When impact metrics are integrated with financial and operational metrics, they can help organizations develop better products and services, make better investment decisions, and become more efficient in achieving impact. And when evaluations support a collective learning agenda rather just a single project, they build knowledge for the entire sector.
ANDE holds convenings and workshops and provides resources to our members to help them better measure the economic, social, and environmental impact of their work. Refer to our Knowledge Hub for the latest guidance and tools and see our IMM-related convenings and trainings.