The Mastercard Strive initiative, in partnership with Business Fights Poverty, convened over 50 stakeholders to explore how to empower small businesses through digital solutions. The discussion focused on three areas: artificial intelligence and automation, access to finance and capital, and climate resilience and sustainability. This report highlights the five overreaching insights that this convening outlined that spans across all three areas to form a framework of principles that empower organisations looking to better support small businesses to navigate climate disruptions and economic uncertainties
The report by the Enrich in Africa Center (EiA-C) highlights the importance of funding innovation ecosystems in Africa to develop scalable solutions for local challenges. It analyzes grant funding data from 2020 to 2023, focusing on the nine largest funders active in Africa, and incorporates insights from interviews with key stakeholders. The report examines both the overall innovation funding landscape and specific funding for ecosystem support activities and organizations. It aims to equip funders and recipients with the necessary data and insights to create sustainable and impactful innovation ecosystems across Africa. EiA-C plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between funders and recipients by fostering connections and sharing knowledge within the ecosystem.
Technological adoption enables innovative entrepreneurship that addresses climate change and environmental sustainability.
"COVID-19 has taken a painful toll on numerous aspects of society, including the small and growing business sector. To restrain the spread of the virus, governments in many countries introduced lockdowns, social distancing, and mandatory shutdowns. However, those measures interrupted many commercial activities worldwide, causing major economic disruption.
Although the pandemic necessitated the transition to virtual program delivery, the experience allowed stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to discover the benefits and limitations of virtual support. Now that lockdowns have largely ended and economic activity is recovering, support organizations need to decide whether to continue with virtual entrepreneurial support, revert to in-person mode, or adopt a hybrid approach to retain the benefits of both virtual and in-person programming. To understand the effectiveness of virtual support and to synthesize lessons learned during this forced experimentation period, ANDE used surveys and interviews to gather perspectives from both entrepreneurs and intermediaries on what worked - and what did not - in the shift to virtual programming."
"COVID-19 has taken a painful toll on numerous aspects of society, including the small and growing business sector. To restrain the spread of the virus, governments in many countries introduced lockdowns, social distancing, and mandatory shutdowns. However, those measures interrupted many commercial activities worldwide, causing major economic disruption.
Although the pandemic necessitated the transition to virtual program delivery, the experience allowed stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to discover the benefits and limitations of virtual support. Now that lockdowns have largely ended and economic activity is recovering, support organizations need to decide whether to continue with virtual entrepreneurial support, revert to in-person mode, or adopt a hybrid approach to retain the benefits of both virtual and in-person programming. To understand the effectiveness of virtual support and to synthesize lessons learned during this forced experimentation period, ANDE used surveys and interviews to gather perspectives from both entrepreneurs and intermediaries on what worked - and what did not - in the shift to virtual programming."