"The effect of COVID-19 on economies around the world has been unprecedented. While evidence on this impact is only beginning to emerge, it is clear that the economic damage has been particularly severe for SGBs in emerging markets. This issue brief summarizes initial evidence regarding the impact of COVID-19 on SGBs and the SGB support sector more broadly in emerging markets. Read the brief, which summarizes current risks, impacts, and needs so that organizations and individuals who support SGBs can ensure more effective interventions.This report was prepared as part of the Aspen Partnership for an Inclusive Economy, with generous support from the initiative’s founding partner Mastercard."

"In May 2020, ANDE released an issue brief summarizing initial evidence from the first phase of the crisis in March and April 2020 regarding the impact of COVID-19 on SGBs and the SGB support sector more broadly in emerging markets. As the crisis and its effects on the sector continue to develop, we are working to keep updating information with new data and insights. This addendum to the brief presents new data collected in May-June 2020 from ANDE members regarding their needs, actions they are taking, and updated impressions of the impact that the crisis is having and will have on the sector."

"As volatile commodity prices continue to hover at historically low levels, industry leaders at various points along the supply chain are talking about the need to buffer the women and men who grow specialty coffees from price references that come from commodity markets. This project relies on a progressive group of data donors - exporters, importers, roasters, and other support organizations - who provide detailed contract data covering specialty coffee transactions from recent harvests. Researchers at Emory University use this anonymized information to create tables that describe the distributions of recent prices for green (unroasted) specialty coffees."

"Over the past six years, a new method of incubating technology startups has emerged, driven by investors and successful tech entrepreneurs: the accelerator programme. Despite growing interest in the model from the investment, business education and policy communities, there have been few attempts at formal analysis. This report is a first step towards a more informed critique of the phenomenon, as part of a broader effort among both public and private sectors to understand how to better support the growth of innovative startups."

"The Landscape for Impact Investing in West Africa is a state of the market analysis of the impact investing industry in the region. The report includes regional findings from 15 countries, as well as dedicated chapters covering the most active markets: Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal. Across the region, investors highlight opportunities for impact and financial return, particularly in the key sectors of energy, financial technologies, and agriculture.

The landscape study is based on thorough analysis of relevant literature, large volumes of transaction data, and extensive interviews with key industry stakeholders. Detailed country chapters include information on the supply of capital by investor type, investment opportunities by sector, and regulatory considerations and hurdles for impact investors and investees."

"Fintech recently became the most-active sector for startup investment in the Middle East and North Africa. While much of the media coverage has focused on digital payments and e-commerce, this report will highlight fintech innovation that is improving "financial health" for the region's most marginalized communities: tech that helps people manage their income and expenses, weather financial shocks and plan for a healthy financial future."

"This report seeks to illustrate common challenges that entrepreneurs and intermediating financial service providers are facing because of the coronavirus crisis, as well as various strategies being implemented by impact investors to address these challenges. Specifically, the report explores ways investors work with investees to address immediate solvency constraints, adjust their activities to ensure the achievement of impact and financial objectives, and reimagine business models and processes with the future in mind."

"This report dives into how impact investing is at an inflection point, building off the rich histories of community finance in the United States and other countries, microfinance, international development, and the integration of ESG factors (Environmental, Social and Governance) in institutional portfolios more broadly. For over 30 years, these practices have been laying the foundation for an expanded continuum of investor options for thematic and asset allocations into privately-owned investments structured for financial returns and social and environmental impacts."

"A randomized control trial with 432 small and medium enterprises in Mexico shows positive impact of access to 1 year of management consulting services on total factor productivity and return on assets. Owners also had an increase in "entrepreneurial spirit" (an index that measures entrepreneurial confidence and goal setting). Using Mexican social security data, we find a persistent large increase (about 50 percent) in the number of employees and total wage bill even 5 years after the program. We document large heterogeneity in the specific managerial practices that improved as a result of the consulting, with the most prominent being marketing, financial accounting, and long-term business planning."

"We study the causal impact of credit constraints on exporters using a natural experiment provided by two policy changes in India, first in 1998 which made small‐scale firms eligible for subsidised direct credit, and a subsequent reversal in policy in 2000 wherein some of these firms lost their eligibility. Using firms that were not affected by these policy changes as our control group in each case, we find that credit expansion increased the growth rate of bank borrowing and had a positive effect on exports. The subsequent policy reversal in 2000 had no impact on the growth rate of bank borrowing or on exports."