Mexico is a burgeoning economy, ranking as the second largest economy in Latin America. According to the OECD, there are at least four million SMEs in Mexico, most of which are microenterprises. However, both culturally and politically, Mexico is making efforts toward encouraging more growth-oriented entrepreneurship, with Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara becoming known as entrepreneurial hubs.

There is also a focus on entrepreneurship outside the major cities, with rural areas in Mexico increasing in employment opportunities and entrepreneurship rates. However, South and Southeast Mexico still lag behind the northern and central areas of the country.

There has been less research conducted specifically on entrepreneurship in South and Southeast Mexico, defined in this study as the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, and
Yucatán. A significantly greater proportion of the population in these southern states live in poverty compared to the rest of the country,7 and thus, how entrepreneurship may contribute to local economic growth in these regions is of interest to the international development community. A first step to understanding the current
support available to entrepreneurs is to identify the various actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The concept of gender-lens acceleration has taken hold in recent years, with various toolkits outlining how to be more gender inclusive at every step of the acceleration process, from selection to programming and alumni support. However, it is not well understood how effective these strategies have been in producing more equitable outcomes for women. This report aims to fill that information gap by synthesizing the research on accelerating women-led ventures, exploring case studies of two accelerator programs in Asia that have outsized impacts for such ventures, and spotlighting other programs with unique program models or perspectives.

This report is the result of a detailed study on ‘Regulatory Barriers and Levers for Deploying Foreign Catalytic Capital in Impact-Focused Enterprises, Funds & Facilities in India’ conducted by Desai & Associates (D&A) in partnership with Prime Coalition and with the support of the Lemelson Foundation. Overall, the study has the following key objectives:

1. Map the different financial pathways for aggregating US and European catalytic capital in India to support Indian social enterprises, defined as both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises with a social and/or environmental mission.
2. Assess the legal, structural, financial, and operational challenges of channeling capital via these pathways and identify potential solutions, including recommendations for possible intermediation to bring catalytic capital into India.
3. Develop a shared taxonomy for funders and recipients of catalytic capital, and create a public report useful to all stakeholders interested in bringing such capital into India. 

This paper highlights the importance of creating good-quality economic opportunities in middle income countries. It makes the case that harnessing the opportunities of frontier and emerging technologies is a pivotal investment opportunity. It also argues that digital transformation strategies should not be separate from job creation strategies, calling for a whole-of-government approach in collaboration with social partners. The paper concludes by providing examples of where innovative use of technology has led to good job creation in middle-income countries.

This paper marks the concluding milestone of the Global Future Council on Job Creation, building on its previous briefing paper, Key Issues Shaping and Driving Global Job Creation.