"I am pleased to present the fourth annual Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) Impact Report. ANDE members are united in the belief that supporting small and growing businesses in emerging markets can create lasting, positive change. By the end of 2012, more than 170 ANDE members had collectively supported tens of thousands of small business entrepreneurs in more than 150 countries. ANDE exists to strengthen this work and to promote entrepreneurship as a mechanism for prosperity creation in developing countries.

Throughout this report we have highlighted examples of the work that our members have done in the past year. These stories of collaboration represent a small fraction of the exciting initiatives that ANDE members undertook in 2012. We are pleased to have seen the growth in our sector, with an ever increasing number of actors joining the movement to support small and growing businesses. We are confident that this trend will continue as ANDE enters its fifth year."

"The mission of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is to increase the amount and effectiveness of capital and capacity development assistance for small business entrepreneurs in developing countries. With the right support, we believe that small and growing businesses (SGBs) can generate jobs and address major social and environmental problems. Ultimately, our goal is to significantly reduce poverty in the developing world."

"Entrepreneurial ecosystems have become a prominent concept, yet in its current state, the concept itself represents a paradox. While it draws on a rich intellectual history and provides an opportunity to synthesize different strands of research, it is also under-theorized and the mechanisms that govern ecosystem evolution are not well understood. This paper takes stock of recent advancements in ecosystem scholarship and synthesizes the empirical reality of the causal mechanisms. We use these dynamics to position ecosystems in a broader context, within and beyond the domain of entrepreneurship research, and propose a transdisciplinary research program for ecosystem research and practice."

"A large portion of economic activity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is driven by (micro)entrepreneurs, who face significant challenges in starting and running profitable businesses. More than half of workers in low- and lower middle-income countries run their own business, against around 10 percent in high-income countries (ILO, 2019). Around a third of these entrepreneurs are driven by necessity (e.g., running their own business as a means of providing a subsistence income), rather than opportunity (e.g., hoping to build a business that grows beyond the scope of subsistence needs). Well-documented barriers facing LMIC entrepreneurs include weak education systems that hamper human capital development, limited access to finance, poor infrastructure and information access, and weak institutions. Policy interventions have sought to respond to these challenges with often inconclusive or underwhelming results.

Insights from behavioral science can help us better understand how the complexities of the human decision-making process impact LMIC entrepreneurs and the policies aimed at supporting them. Behavioral science recognizes that people’s behavior does not only depend on internal drivers (personality, preferences) and external drivers (information, incentives, regulations), but also on the decision-making process itself, which is influenced by available mental resources, automatic thinking, social norms and relationships, and mental models. While these influences impact everyone, their importance is exacerbated by challenging living conditions, making them potentially more influential for individuals living in LMICs. The majority of entrepreneurship research and programming continues to focus on building capital and business skills, but adding a systematic focus on behavioral influences shows a broad range of potential barriers that might interfere with an entrepreneur’s decision-making process (Figure A). A deeper understanding of entrepreneurs’ decision-making context can help practitioners improve both their diagnosis of the obstacles facing entrepreneurs and the design of entrepreneurship-related policies and interventions."

"Now in its third year, the annual Mastercard Index of Women in Entrepreneurs (MIWE) continues to provide invaluable insights into the progress and achievemens of women in business. Despite many challenges, female entrepreneurs are opening successful businesses faster than ever before, and MIWE brings to the forefront the broad set of variables propelling this dynamism, globally."

"We initiated this study to identify demand-led macro unlocks that can drive growth for urban women (primarily the homepreneur segment), taking the lens of mass entrepreneurship. The intent was to present opportunities to ecosystem stakeholders, such that innovation, interventions, policies and business models can emerge that can lead to a conducive environment creating a path to bringing more women into the labour force in India."

"Syngenta Foundation India (SFI), established in 2005, is an independent not-for-profit organisation. SFI’s mission is to have small and marginal farmers participate in agriculture development by improving their access to better seeds and other inputs, technology, information, credit and market access. In this context, SFI launched its Agri-Entrepreneur (AE) Program in 2014. Under the program a rural youth is trained as an entrepreneur who provides last mile services to a group of 150-200 farmers. Currently there are 1763 AEs under the program who are supporting over 2, 00,000 farmers across India.

Of the total AEs, 265 are women AEs who are currently active across 5 project locations, i.e; Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The objective of the study was to understand the performance of women AEs and create an enabling environment to improve income and increase participation. The study methodology is based on the integration of quantitative and qualitative research methods."

"This short guide outlines tips for how to apply a gender and inclusion lens while developing and reviewing communications materials. The intention is to provide basic guidance to a group of impact investors working as part of the “Investing in Women” initiative supported by Australian Aid’s DFAT program. It aims to serve as a starting point for thinking more deeply and critically about how gender inclusion and gender equality can be embedded into communications products and processes and coupled with gender-lens investing actions and processes that cut across entire operations of investment firms. Far from exhaustive, this guide is intentionally brief and designed to spur further research and inquiry."

"Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) is implementing the project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE), to promote aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India. Under the name of ‘Her&Now’, the project also implements a media campaign to tell the stories of successful women entrepreneurs and to foster a positive mindset change in society. In this framework, GIZ has conducted this study to: establish the current profile of and barriers facing women entrepreneurs; analyse promising sectors and regions across India for women-owned/led businesses; ascertain potential sectors that would generate income and employment for for women entrepreneurs; and provide recommendations for policymakers and implementing partner interventions on women entrepreneurship."

"This document is a strategic guidebook developed by Argidius Foundation and Dalberg Advisors to support business development services (BDS) providers to successfully adopt digital practices and tools. It explores current practices and opportunities across the landscape to guide BDS providers in using digital technologies to provide services to entrepreneurs in an effective and inclusive way."