"For the past five years, GALI has been collecting data on accelerators around the world and the entrepreneurs who seek their support, with a particular focus on accelerators operating in developing economies. By analyzing these data and interviewing dozens of individuals about their experiences with acceleration, the project has been able to release over 30 publications on acceleration and early-stage entrepreneurship. This report serves as a synthesis of the most salient findings from this research, with actionable insights for accelerator program managers, entrepreneurs, funders, investors, and other stakeholders who support and engage accelerators around the world."

"According to a recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, among Latin American countries Guatemalans are particularly likely to view entrepreneurship as a good opportunity to generate income. This report also states that the adult population in Guatemala has the right mix of knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to start a business and that few express fear of failure as an impediment to starting a business, relative to individuals in other countries in the region."

"Entrepreneurship is often touted as a solution to many economic and social development challenges that developing countries face. While Honduras lags in some key areas, including entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and aspirations, there is a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem developing to help existing MSMEs thrive and support the development of new ventures. This report aims to take stock of the current support mechanisms directed toward entrepreneurs in rural areas in Honduras. The following sections offer insights based on data collected from organizations that support entrepreneurs in rural areas of the country."

"As the rural population continues to decline and the country’s economic landscape continues to evolve, it is important to understand how these shifts affect one of the backbones of employment and economic activity in the region – rural entrepreneurs. This report aims to take stock of the current support mechanisms directed toward entrepreneurs in rural areas in El Salvador. The following sections offer insights based on data collected from organizations that support entrepreneurs in rural areas of the country"

"The Adaptation SME Accelerator Program (ASAP) aims to enhance the availability and uptake of climate adaptation solutions by identifying, engaging and empowering SMEs providing such solutions in developing countries."

"This report was commissioned as a product of the working partnership between Root Capital and Value for Women, with the support of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs and the International Development Research Center. The main objective of this partnership is to build evidence around innovations for gender inclusion within small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises globally."

"Entrepreneurship is an essential driver of societal health and wealth. It is also a formidable engine of economic growth. It promotes the essential innovation required not only to exploit new opportunities, promote productivity, and create employment, but to also address some of society’s greatest challenges, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the economic shock wave created by the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic. The promotion of entrepreneurship will be central to multiple governments worldwide for the foreseeable future, especially considering the significant negative impacts on economies due to the pandemic. Governments and other stakeholders will increasingly need hard, robust and credible data to make key decisions that stimulate sustainable forms of entrepreneurship and promote healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems worldwide. During its 22 years of existence, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has repeatedly contributed to such efforts. For example, in this report, GEM is — as it has after other crises — providing policymakers with valuable insights on how to best foster entrepreneurship to propel growth and prosperity once again."

"The year 2020 has been incredibly challenging for the global community. The spread of the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has led to an unparalleled health crisis in countries across the world. The crisis has had unprecedented and serious impacts on all aspects of how people communicate, work, produce, trade, consume and live. The economic ramifications of the pandemic quickly became apparent, and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have been on the front lines. With workers and customers staying indoors, and supply chains tested by shutdowns, the small companies that provide 70% of jobs in countries around the world and about half of economic activity have been put under stress."

"While studies have found that acceleration does, in the aggregate, have a positive effect on new venture growth, further investigation has shown that there is significant unmet need for financial capital, particularly in developing economies. Little investigation has been done on how accelerators (particularly those that do not invest in their ventures directly) make connections with finance providers and whether these efforts are effective. The Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI), a partnership between the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and Emory University, was created to explore questions such as these. Between 2013 – 2020, GALI partnered with dozens of accelerator programs to collect detailed data from entrepreneurs who applied to their respective application processes. These entrepreneurs, including those not selected into a program, were then resurveyed annually to gather valuable follow-up data about the status of their ventures over time. This knowledge brief explores GALI data from Central American startups, as well as qualitative insights from accelerators and finance providers."

"Why do more small firms in developing countries not use the market for professional business services like accounting, marketing, and human resource specialists? Two key reasons maybe that firms lack information about the availability of these services, and that they struggle to distinguish the quality of good versus bad providers. A brand recognition exercise finds that most small firms are unaware of most providers in this market, and a survey of service providers reveals that they largely rely on word-of-mouth and informal reputation mechanisms for acquiring customers. This study set up a business services marketplace that contains information about the different providers present in the market and used mystery shopper visits to develop a quality ratings system. A randomized experiment with more than 1,000 firms provided access to this marketplace to the treatment group and randomized whether firms received just information or also quality ratings. The provision of quality ratings information shifts small firms’ preferences over which provider they would like to use, increasing the average quality rating of their preferred providers by 0.2 to 0.4 ratings points out of 5. However, neither the provision of information nor these quality ratings had any significant impact on the likelihood that small firms go on to hire a business service provider over the subsequent six months. The results suggest that alleviating information frictions alone is insufficient to increase usage of professional business services."