"Despite the popularity of business training among policy makers, the use of business training has faced increasing skepticism. This is, in part, fueled by the fact that most of the first wave of randomized experiments in developing countries could not detect statistically significant impacts of training on firms' profits or sales. This paper revisits and reassesses the evidence for whether small business training works, incorporating the results of more recent studies. A meta-analysis of these estimates suggests that training increases profits and sales on average by 5 to 10 percent. The author argues that this is in line with what is optimistic to expect given the relatively short length of most training programs, and the expected return on investment from the cost of such training. However, impacts of this magnitude are too small for most experiments to detect statistically. Emerging evidence is provided on five approaches for improving the effectiveness of traditional training by incorporating gender, kaizen methods, localization and mentoring, heuristics, and psychology. Training programs that incorporate these elements appear to deliver improvements over traditional training programs on average, although with considerable variation. Given that training delivers some benefits for firms, the challenge is then how to deliver a quality program on a cost-effective basis at a much larger scale. Three possible approaches to scaling up training are discussed: using the market, using technology, or targeting and funneling firms."

"The Stocktaking Report aims to provide the G-20 Leaders with a summarized but comprehensive framework by which to understand the SME finance gap and its challenges. The first part of the report is conceptual and primarily consists of a review of the literature on SME Finance in the developing world; the second part of the report discusses the analysis of 164 cases of SME Finance interventions compiled through a collective effort involving G-20 member countries, non-member countries, development finance institutions, and private sector players. Finally, the report highlights key recommendations that are proposed to the G-20 Leaders in order to achieve signifi cantand sustainable scale-up of SME access to financial services across the developing world."

"This resource page contains a theory of change template that is free to download and use."

"With the aim of better understanding trends, challenges, and growth opportunities, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) has developed a series of publications about impact investing in four sectors: biodiversity conservation, education, financial inclusion and health. This publication focuses on the specifics ofi mpact investing in biodiversity conservation. It begins with an overview of the social, environmental and economic context in Brazil, which is followed by data on impact investing in the sector taken from the second edition of the report "The Impact Investing Landscape in Latin America", recently publishec by ANDE and LAVCA (The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America). The publication then presents a case study of a business that rec3eived investment, before concluding with recommendations for the sector."

"This publication focuses on the specifics of impact investing in financial inclusion and fintechs. It begins with an overview of the social and economic context in Brazil, which is followed by data on impact investing in the sector taken from the second edition of the report "The Impact Investing Landscape in Latin America", recently published by ANDE and LAVCA (The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America). The publication then presents a case study of a business that received investment, before concluding with recommendations for the future."

"Learn about how our partners are getting sustainable returns for their business, while empowering farmers through service delivery. This report shares our most complete findings on commercially viable and impactful smallholder services."

"The current global crisis of economic exclusion and inequity has millions of people in poverty with limited opportunities to escape. The questions of how markets work, and who they work for, have never been more pressing.

Truly inclusive markets lead to expanded opportunity for more broadly shared prosperity, especially for those facing the greatest barriers. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, we analyzed historical cases where such inclusive transformations actually occurred in order to understand the ways in which they were achieved. Using these insights, we offer practical recommendations for funders and intermediaries seeking to enable more of these shifts in the future."

"This report highlights the potential of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMME) in the process of moving towards a green economy in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also describes challenges that SMME with inclusive business models face and provides policy recommendations on how to support them."

"This publication is intended to raise awareness of the impact of social enterprise supply chains on society and the benefits for companies that do business with them in Peru. These pages contain many examples of companies that work with social enterprises to meet their corporate and social responsibility objectives, as well as a directory of Peruvian social enterprises that are potential suppliers for major businesses around the country. With this guide we hope to inspire the representatives of Peruvian companies and give them the courage to explore new business models that meet their operational needs while generating a positive and lasting social and environmental impact."

"Despite regulatory efforts designed to make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the region, business registration in a national registry is separate from tax registration. This paper provides initial results from an experiment in Malawi that randomly allocated firms into a control group and three treatment groups: a) a group offered assistance for costless business registration; b) a group offered assistance with costless business registration and (separate) tax registration; and c) a group offered assistance for costless business registration along with an information session at a bank that ended with the offer of business bank accounts. The study finds that all three treatments had extremely large impacts on business registration, with 75 percent of those offered assistance receiving a business registration certificate. The findings offer a cost-effective way of getting firms to formalize in this dimension. However, in common with other studies, information and assistance has a limited impact on tax registration. The paper measures the short-term impacts of formalization on financial access and usage. Business registration alone has no impact for either men or women on bank account usage, savings, or credit. However, the combination of formalization assistance and the bank information session results in significant impacts on having a business bank account, financial practices, savings, and use of complementary financial products."