The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) today announced that three organizations in Africa have been selected to receive funds under the Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs (AWCE) Fund.
The AWCE Fund, an activity under the Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs project, aims to contribute to poverty reduction and respond to climate change by identifying and promoting good practices to support women entrepreneurs in climate-related value chains. The AWCE project also places an emphasis on developing a road map for international development stakeholders to provide further gender-responsive support to women climate entrepreneurs and intermediaries.
The fund will allow three organizations to test models to increase investment into women-led small and growing businesses in western, southern, and eastern Africa.
Entrepreneurship is growing in South Africa. On the heels of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Zipho Sikhakhane writes about how levels of entrepreneurship has increased, while pointing out the challenges that remain, based on the latest entrepreneurial ecosystem map that ANDE's South Africa regional chapter just released.
"In the same way that the aspiring runner starts by joining a running club, so should the aspiring entrepreneur tap into the existing ecosystem designed to support entrepreneurs," writes Zipho Sikhakhane in South Africa's Sunday Times. South Africa's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Map, a detailed infographic our ANDE South Africa team created about the main finance, capacity development and ecosystem support gaps and opportunities, is featured in this article.