"COVID-19 has taken a painful toll on numerous aspects of society, including the small and growing business sector. To restrain the spread of the virus, governments in many countries introduced lockdowns, social distancing, and mandatory shutdowns. However, those measures interrupted many commercial activities worldwide, causing major economic disruption.

Although the pandemic necessitated the transition to virtual program delivery, the experience allowed stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to discover the benefits and limitations of virtual support. Now that lockdowns have largely ended and economic activity is recovering, support organizations need to decide whether to continue with virtual entrepreneurial support, revert to in-person mode, or adopt a hybrid approach to retain the benefits of both virtual and in-person programming. To understand the effectiveness of virtual support and to synthesize lessons learned during this forced experimentation period, ANDE used surveys and interviews to gather perspectives from both entrepreneurs and intermediaries on what worked - and what did not - in the shift to virtual programming."

"COVID-19 has taken a painful toll on numerous aspects of society, including the small and growing business sector. To restrain the spread of the virus, governments in many countries introduced lockdowns, social distancing, and mandatory shutdowns. However, those measures interrupted many commercial activities worldwide, causing major economic disruption.

Although the pandemic necessitated the transition to virtual program delivery, the experience allowed stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to discover the benefits and limitations of virtual support. Now that lockdowns have largely ended and economic activity is recovering, support organizations need to decide whether to continue with virtual entrepreneurial support, revert to in-person mode, or adopt a hybrid approach to retain the benefits of both virtual and in-person programming. To understand the effectiveness of virtual support and to synthesize lessons learned during this forced experimentation period, ANDE used surveys and interviews to gather perspectives from both entrepreneurs and intermediaries on what worked - and what did not - in the shift to virtual programming."

"Après avoir vécu pendant plus de deux ans avec les défis majeurs de la pandémie du  COVID-19, le secteur des petites entreprises et de celles en croissance (PECs) est maintenant confronté à une réalité sur le long terme qui affecte non seulement les opérations commerciales mais aussi la façon dont ces entreprises mesurent et communiquent leur impact. Le secteur des PECs se trouve à un moment critique de la pandémie où les organisations doivent réfléchir à la manière dont leurs solutions de MGI élaborées à la hâte s’inscrivent ou non dans leur stratégie de MGI à plus long terme.

Pour toutes ces raisons, le but de ce rapport est de :

Mettre en évidence les défis MGI uniques auxquels sont confrontées les PECs d’Afrique subsaharienne en raison du COVID-19 ;
Guider les créateurs d’écosystèmes entrepreneuriaux dans l’adaptation de leurs systèmes de MGI dans le contexte de la nouvelle réalité du COVID-19 ; et
Fournir des ressources sur mesure pour permettre aux créateurs d’écosystèmes
entrepreneuriaux d’adapter davantage leurs systèmes de MGI afin de mieux soutenir les entrepreneurs dans la «nouvelle anormalité.»"

"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.»"

"Women-led and women-owned businesses continue to be a largely untapped resource for economic growth in emerging economies. There is promising data, highlighted in this report, for the opportunity to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystems supporting women in emerging economies, despite the negative impacts of the pandemic. This report underscores the potential for women’s businesses, especially startup businesses and high-growth entrepreneurs, and emphasizes the need to fill critical gaps in access to financing, technology, social networks and training. "

"To gain a fuller picture of how MSMEs are using digital tools, DAI’s Center for Digital Acceleration partnered with survey firm Ipsos and Meta to administer a large-scale survey across 13 countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our researchers took a face-to-face approach allowing us to compare responses from MSMEs operating both online and off. The country briefs provide an overview of each country’s digital ecosystem and MSME sector, followed by a summary of findings regarding the impact of digital tool usage on MSMEs and economic growth, highlighting differences in the responses among key segments of the surveyed business population within each country."

"This report reveals the state of social enterprises in Nigeria. It is based on desk research, interviews with key stakeholders and a survey distributed to social enterprises from a diverse range of industries and sectors across the county. The findings are timely. Governments and communities are looking to minimize the economic and social damage caused by Covid-19 and, in the longer term, see the pandemic as an opportunity to rebuild economies on a fairer, more inclusive footing. As businesses that combine positive social and environmental impact with financial sustainability, social enterprises have a vital role to play."

"Endeavor Insight partnered with the Lemelson Foundation and Small Foundation to understand how entrepreneurial agriculture companies can maximize their impact in developing countries. The purpose of the study is to provide a data-backed assessment of the challenges and opportunities for supporting entrepreneurs. Endeavor Insight’s approach used several lenses, including a special focus on the types of innovation the founders have created, as well as an analysis of the dynamics within selected agricultural value chains. The results offer guidance for decision makers who support entrepreneurs as they address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in raising the incomes of smallholder farmers and alleviating poverty, creating transformative solutions that can address global food security, and generating quality jobs. This study builds on recent research in the international development and social investment communities, and takes into account the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis."

Business startup and growth is an important pathway to industry leadership and the
creation of personal wealth, as well as a key source of job creation, innovation and
economic growth. In this sense, women’s entrepreneurship can provide a means to
more rapidly advance gender equality in industries, communities and countries around
the world. The GEM 2020 Adult Population Survey ran from April through August
2020 and offered an important opportunity to examine pandemic impacts on women
entrepreneurs, in addition to an analysis of global trends. This year, we also invited GEM
researchers from around the world to contribute chapters on women’s entrepreneurship.
This year’s GEM Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Report has three main aims:
1. Identify key gender differences and similarities in business stages and
motivations. We identify countries and regions where gender gaps may be
significant and where they may be closing. All of these trends are considered across
countries, geographic regions and levels of national income.
2. Examine the structural and cultural factors that influence women’s
entrepreneurship. This analysis includes demographic characteristics (age,
education, household income), business characteristics and cultural factors,
such as cultural perceptions and high-growth activities that influence women’s
entrepreneurship in complex ways across regions, countries and levels of national
income.
3. Analyse how women entrepreneurs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In doing this analysis of the pandemic’s impact, we allow comparisons across the
country and regional contexts, taking into account the level of income by country as
an important indicator of economic development.
Our findings offer insights to a diverse audience of researchers, policymakers, educators
and practitioners. Our ultimate goal is to highlight areas where there are still gaps,
challenges and opportunities, where women entrepreneurs have made significant
progress and where the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their business performance and
perceptions.

"The 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey is the 10th edition of the GIIN's flagship report, which provides the most comprehensive overview of the impact investing market. This edition captures data from 294 of the world's leading impact investors-the most Annual Survey respondents ever-who collectively manage USD 404 billion of impact investing assets, representing an important subset of the USD 715 billion global impact investing market.

The report looks at respondents' investment activity during 2019 and their plans for 2020, market developments over the past decade, and challenges facing the market going forward. Respondents also shared insights on how COVID-19 might affect their activities."

"Let’s be honest here: Entrepreneurs will need financing to get through this economic downturn. However, most of the investors that we’ve asked said that due diligence has been slowed either due to travel restrictions, their focus on supporting their existing portfolio of entrepreneurs, or those which already had term sheets in place. So where is this financing going to come from?

Our perspective for this article is the investor side of the conversation. What are angel investors thinking about during this global crisis: Is now the perfect opportunity to invest? Is it a time to hold on to your cash and hide it under the bed?It can make sense to halt making any investments all together – and focus on supporting the existing portfolio – given that most angels invest out of pocket. However, this could be an uncommon opportunity to make investments which could generate very good returns..."

"This report provides an analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on Nigeria by first providing an overview of the global situation and Nigerian context, including the response to-date, then by estimating and describing the potential economic impact of COVID-19 on the broader economy and by sector, with a focus on MSMEs. Finally, the report identifies four categories of actions to support the economic recovery: the usual suspects, the unusual suspects, short-term actions, and medium-term actions."