"Mercy Corps’ AgriFin Accelerate Program (AFA) is a $25 million, six-year initiative funded by the MasterCard Foundation to support private sector actors to develop, prototype and scale digitally-enabled services for smallholder farmers across Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. AFA is intended to help partner banks, mobile network operators, agribusinesses and technology companies scale high impact services for at least one million farmers, driving 50% increases in smallholder income and productivity, while working to support all market actors to expand services to farmers through shared learning...In June 2018, AFA contracted the Dalberg Group to assess learnings across these engagements and conduct supplementary research on these youth pathways. The goal of this exercise was to support the development of AFA partners and to inform wider ecosystem growth through public learning."

"Globally, women's involvement in clean cooking value chains has been minimal. This is partly because of the multiple challenges faced by women that impede their capacity to effectively engage in the energy sector. To better discern gender-specific differences in involvement in the energy sector, the authors conducted a randomized trial in Kenya to compare sales performance of newly trained male and female improved cookstove entrepreneurs and to test the effects of an agency-based empowerment training on business activity. A total of 257 entrepreneurs completed either a 4-day entrepreneurial training (control) or a 4-day empowerment training (intervention) and were followed for nearly 8 months documenting business activity and sales. The empowerment training led to more than doubling of sales for both genders. In addition, participants in the intervention group were significantly more likely to demonstrate business commitment over time and nearly three times more likely to be higher sellers (relative risk = 2.7, 95% CI [1.4, 5.4]), controlling for gender and rural/urban locale. Women outsold men by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 and were more likely to continue to pursue leads despite limited sales. Nonactive participants (those selling 1 improved cookstove or less) were a larger percentage of the control group (72%) than the intervention group (50%), and more men were nonactive participants (65% of men) compared with women (56% of women).These data show that women can serve as active improved cookstove entrepreneurs in both urban and rural settings and that targeted agency-based empowerment training can significantly increase women's capacity to engage effectively within the improved cookstove value chain."

"The agribusiness incubator in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India is the result of a partnership between the Indian government and an international crop-research organization that is a member of CGIAR, a global partnership of organizations seeking a food-secure future. As the incubator has developed, it has become relatively independent of its founders, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Indian government’s Department of Science and Technology. From supporting small businesses that can bring new agricultural research and technology to market, ABI has become an incubator of incubators, and is now helping African incubators follow its model."

"This report presents a "state of play" for INGO (International Non-Government Organization) engagement in impact investing, based upon data emerging from the recently fielded INGO Impact Investing Network Survey. It includes an overview of current activities, case studies from members, and findings from group discussions around the key areas of strength and challenge.

The report outlines the data around INGOs' current approaches to making investments, receiving investments, providing technical assistance, and building the impact investing ecosystem. It then delves into some of the most important issues for INGOs, including internal capacity, organizational culture, measurement, and partnerships."

"This report is arranged into two sections. In Part One, the editors overview trends in impact investing among INGOs, drawing on data from a recent survey of 45 INGOs engaged in impact investing. Part Two, a series of chapters, authored by leaders in impact investing, delves into key topics of interest for INGOs. These chapters look more deeply at specific assets INGOs bring to the space, challenges they face, and lessons they have learned over the past few years of engagement. Throughout the report, case studies of what INGOs are doing in impact investing brings the data and lessons to life through real life examples."

"Let’s be honest here: Entrepreneurs will need financing to get through this economic downturn. However, most of the investors that we’ve asked said that due diligence has been slowed either due to travel restrictions, their focus on supporting their existing portfolio of entrepreneurs, or those which already had term sheets in place. So where is this financing going to come from?

Our perspective for this article is the investor side of the conversation. What are angel investors thinking about during this global crisis: Is now the perfect opportunity to invest? Is it a time to hold on to your cash and hide it under the bed?It can make sense to halt making any investments all together – and focus on supporting the existing portfolio – given that most angels invest out of pocket. However, this could be an uncommon opportunity to make investments which could generate very good returns..."

"This research was commissioned as a result of growing interest in the topic of youth-centred Agripreneurship and had the objective to identify the key actors particularly within Academia, Non-Government Organisations and the non-profit sector to help young unemployed, or underemployed, graduates in Africa, or other developing economies, to enter into entrepreneurship in agriculture or agribusiness."

"The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of one productive development program (PROPYME) in a developing nation like Costa Rica. This program seeks to increase the capacity of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) to innovate. Impacts have been estimated assuming that beneficiary firms are trying to maximize their profits and that PROPYME aims to increase these firms productivity. The impacts were measured in terms of three result variables real average wages employment demand and the probability of exporting. A combination of fixed effects and propensity score matching techniques was used in estimations to correct for any selection bias. The authors worked with panel data companies treated and untreated for the period 2001-2011. PROPYME's beneficiaries performed better than other firms in terms of labor demand and their probability of exporting. In addition, the dose and the duration of the effects of the treatment (timing effects) are important."

"The CE concept is fast becoming a new model for resilient growth in both developed and developing economies. In particular, it offers a viable alternative strategy for industrial development and job creation compared with the traditional manufacturing-led growth pathway for developing countries. Political and economic conditions in developing countries will necessitate different pathways to the CE from those employed to date in developed countries, but the CE opens up many new economic opportunities which developing countries are well positioned to harness.

Below we outline a series of priority steps through which national policymakers, international policy and financial institutions, and the ecosystem of stakeholders supporting the UN’s 2030 Agenda can support the deployment and scaling up of the CE in developing countries."

"This report assesses the progress made over the past four years in building the global impact investing industry. It is divided into three parts: first, context, which introduces the structure of and key actors in the impact investing fi eld; next, an examination of the recent achievements and challenges in building the impact investing marketplace; and fi nally, presentation of a set of recommendations for accelerating the rate of growth of the field."