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South Africa

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South Africa faces significant economic challenges, with youth disproportionately affected by high unemployment rates and limited economic participation. Townships, home to a significant portion of the unemployed population, are now focal points for addressing youth entrepreneurship as a solution. However, sparse data on township youth entrepreneurial activity hinders effective support strategies. This research indicates that proximity issues, such as isolation and lack of access to information, are key barriers for both youth entrepreneurs and business development support providers. Current support efforts often lack relevance and fail to target high-growth potential businesses. To improve outcomes, there's a need to shift focus towards reaching more youth entrepreneurs and tailoring interventions to their needs.

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South African politicians frequently refer to entrepreneurship as a potential solution to the economy’s significant unemployment problem. In reality, many entrepreneurs need to come from townships. Numerous reports address challenges faced by South African entrepreneurs. What distinguishes this report from extant studies is that this report features the voices of entrepreneurs and entrepreneur support organisations (ESO) to vividly portray township entrepreneurs’ challenges through in-depth interviews. This report also aims to elucidate the factors that contributed to the success of exemplary township entrepreneurs despite existing challenges and other strategies that ESOs can employ to guide more entrepreneurs to emulate these success stories.

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Since its founding in 2009, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) has tracked the state of the small and growing business (SGB) sector globally through its bi-annual State of the Sector reports.  One of the most dynamic markets for small business growth is South Africa. The South African entrepreneurial ecosystem requires innovative solutions to increase the available finance, improve access to markets, reduce bureaucratic burdens, and strengthen the capacity of small businesses and start-ups. This report examines the state of the SGB sector in South Africa as of 2023 by assessing the amount and type of financial support available to enterprises, the type of capacity development offered, and trends in the policy landscape that affect the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The report concludes by highlighting the activity of ANDE and its member

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"Women entrepreneurs are critical to a thriving and inclusive economy, and yet they face numerous challenges in growing their businesses. These challenges are compounded for women climate entrepreneurs (WCEs), given limited research that assesses the issues or presents actionable recommendations to the wider ecosystem. This knowledge product identifies challenges and opportunities for WCEs with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa - specifcally, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi."

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"This knowledge brief seeks to capture the key takeaways from the recent series of three Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) Learning Labs hosted by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, South Africa Chapter (ANDE SA) in partnership with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. These learning labs explore the importance of understanding impact in context, engaging multiple stakeholders to ensure appropriate contextual perception and the need to guarantee accurate reporting and impact measurement. This enables greater transparency in the data collection process, improved ability to interrogate assumptions leading to greater data-driven decision making to appropriately measure ones’ impact – be it at an intervention or organisational level."

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Currently there are over 500 townships in the South Africa, whose combined land mass surpasses that of Johannesburg and Durban combined and which are home to an estimated 40% of South Africa’s urban population. While more is understood about the small and growing businesses (SGBs) in metropolitan areas, less is known about the entrepreneurial ecosystems in the townships and how to support the primarily micro, necessity-based businesses that operate there. This report focuses on identifying the key actors implementing programmes to support entrepreneurs and small businesses operating in townships in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and Western Cape Provinces, the challenges the entrepreneurial support providers face, and the opportunities to strengthen this ecosystem.

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"The question of if and how business support programmes – particularly accelerators and incubators – can play a role in entrepreneurial growth in South Africa is at top of mind for donors and government alike. And while there is some evidence that these programmes do have an impact on early-stage businesses, there is less clarity on how they can best serve the needs of often-overlooked women entrepreneurs. This brief provides a regional review of the intersection of gender and acceleration in South Africa, drawing on GALI’s global findings while highlighting primary analysis of entrepreneur data collected by Catalyst for Growth (C4G), a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) platform for programme monitoring, analytics, and reporting in South Africa."

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"Our ANDE South Africa Impact Management Knowledge Brief provides a summary and resources from the 'Impact Management for the South African social and creative enterprises sectors' project, in partnership with Social Value UK and supported by the British Council's DICE Fund. The project aimed to further understand the Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) landscape in South Africa, with a focus on social and creative enterprises. In the efforts to drive inclusivity and development, the project supported entrepreneurial support organisations that wanted to learn how to better measure and manage their impact and, in turn, support their entrepreneurs when using data to improve their decisions and performance, regardless of their level of exposure to IMM practices."

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"Timbali Technology Incubator in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa seeks to help rural farmers whose livelihood has been undercut by high-volume large farms. Supported by government financing and fee-based services, Timbali is largely based on a franchise model. Its clients supply cut flowers to Amablom,Timbali’s commercial arm. Individual clients can begin generating revenue almost immediately. Timbali helps clients both onsite and off, training them in business methods and helping them find loans to get started. It is helping clients expand intoother product lines and value-added food processing, and plans to export its model into other parts of South Africa."

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"In light of the recent changes to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment codes, this research study seeks to understand how corporations in South Africa are approaching enterprise development. The research aims to shed light on enterprise development practices across South Africa’s corporate arena and to highlight areas of strength and innovation, as well as core challenge areas. The ultimate goal of this research is to drive more effective and impactful enterprise development practices. It aims to promote practices not only geared towards small business development and job creation, but also sustainable, values-based practices that enable transformative, socio-economically inclusive and environmentally friendly outcomes."

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