The Argidius Foundation conducted an assessment of their portfolio of intermediaries and enterprises to understand more clearly whether and how business development services (BDS) are effective. While this research showed that BDS is effective on average, not all programs are similarly impactful. Rather, more successful programs had a common set of characteristics (or “key features”) that Argidius acronymized as “SCALE”. Argidius synthesized this information in a report, titled How to fulfil the potential of Business Development Services using SCALE, and a set of associated tools and resources to make this information available and actionable for stakeholder supporting entrepreneurship globally. The purpose of the study is to inform donors and business development providers on how to maximize their impact.

On Wednesday 10 May in Johannesburg South Africa, the ANDE Southern Africa chapter will host the first dissemination session of 2023 as an in-person panel discussion. The session will consist of showing of a 13-minute SCALE video, followed by the moderator discussing the report in brief and then facilitating a panel discussion among entrepreneur support organisations (ESOs) with experiential learning in one of the five considerations of the report. The panelist will share their insights and thoughts on the report and how beneficial it is for them.