"This paper provides a synthetic and systematic review on the effectiveness of various entrepreneurship programs in developing countries It adopts a meta-regression analysis using 37 impact evaluation studies that were in the public domain by March 2012, and draws out several lessons on the design of the programs The paper observes wide variation in program effectiveness across different interventions depending on outcomes, types of beneficiaries, and country context Over, entrepreneurship programs have a positive and large impact for youth and on business knowledge and practice, but no immediate translation into business set-up and expansion or increased income At a disaggregate level by outcome groups, providing a package of training and financing is more effective for labor activities. In addition, financing support appears more effective for women and business training for existing entrepreneurs than other interventions to improve business performance."

"There is widespread recognition that unleashing women's talent as entrepreneurs is an effective way to narrow the current gender gaps in the labor market, and thus contribute to inclusive growth. A number of governments, donors, development partners, investors, and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) have geared up to work toward this objective. This report is intended to guide effective decision-making by these stakeholders with regard to supporting women's entrepreneurship in Asia and the Pacific.1 It provides recommendations for programs and policy changes that will create an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs, as well as strategies for addressing gaps and leveraging opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the region."

"Current women's economic empowerment interventions are not enough to overcome all obstacles facing female entrepreneurs. The emerging evidence from psychology and experimental economics on agency; mindset, and leadership show that for successful interventions to be transformative, they need to move beyond basic access to financial and human capital and also tackle central psychological, social, and skills constraints on women entrepreneurs.

Emerging evidence from recent studies on different capital-based, training-based, and gender based interventions, using randomized control trials, present promising interventions to support women entrepreneurs. An experimental study in Uganda found that Providing financial capital (i.e., subsidized microcredit coupled with Start and Improve Your Business training module), while effective for men, does not have any impact on female owned enterprise profits. Similarly, a randomized control trial on Tanzania's Business Women Connect program found that while the mobile savings program substantially increased savings, it did not have an effect on female-owned enterprise profits or sales even when combined with hard business skills, such as business management, basic profitability concepts, and record-keeping. Both studies, however, show that loans paired with business trainings as well as improved access to mobile savings accounts paired with business trainings had a positive impact on male-owned microenterprise profits or sales. Thus, a successful women's economic empowerment intervention needs more than only access to financial capital and hard business skills."

"The present "Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Development interventions on Women Entrepreneurs" issue brief is the result of an in-depth review of six meta-evaluations and twenty three rigorous impact satudies undertaken during the past 10 years in women's entrepreneurship development initiatives around the world. It provides a synthesis of impact findings and identifies interventions which seem to have worked more effectively.

The brief corroborates for example that combining finance and business training -although more costly - seems to be more effective in supporting women's business start-up than either finance or business training alone. Also, training packages that combine business and gender knowledge are more likely to lead to women's empowerment. While more evidence is still needed, the brief concludes with a series of recommendations for future interventions and impact evaluations including providing more than access to skills and finance, by also addressing gender-based barriers and women's strategic needs, in order to ensure the business success and consolidation of women entrepreneurs."

"We consider the role that gender-stereotyped behaviors play in investors' evaluations of men- and women-owned ventures. Contrary to research suggesting that investors exhibit bias against women, we find that being a woman entrepreneur does not diminish interest by investors. Rather, our findings reveal that investors are biased against the display of feminine-stereotyped behaviors by entrepreneurs, men and women alike. Our study finds that investor decisions are driven in part by observations of gender-stereotyped behaviors and the implicit associations with the entrepreneur's business competency, rather than the entrepreneur's sex."

"This report analyzes the entrepreneurial journey of women in Mexico. It was undertaken in order to identify opportunities for creating an enabling environment for women through increased access to finance, skill development and public resources; unleashing their potential to contribute towards economic growth.

The study draws on the experiences of 126 women entrepreneurs and data collected from them through focus groups and surveys. It also draws on the expertise of a group of actors referred to as the “ecosystem” for supporting WSGBs in Mexico. This “ecosystem” includes: public policy entities and academia, financial institutions, capacity development organizations and networks, and nongovernmental organizations and foundations, as well as the private sector. These actors are “mapped” in order to visualize which organizations in Mexico are supporting WSGBs, as well as those that take a collaborative approach to include more women in the sector."

"The authors conduct a randomized experiment among women in urban Sri Lanka to measure the impact of the most commonly used business training course in developing countries, the Start-and-Improve Your Business program. They work with two representative groups of women: a random sample of women operating subsistence enterprises and a random sample of women who are out of the labor force but interested in starting a business. They track the impacts of two treatments -- training only and training plus a cash grant -- over two years with four follow-up surveys and find that the short and medium-term impacts differ."

"The world's poorest people lack capital and skills and toil for others in occupations that others shun. Using a large-scale and long-term randomized control trial in Bangladesh this paper demonstrates that sizable transfers of assets and skills enable the poorest women to shift out of agricultural labor and into running small businesses. This shift, which persists and strengthens after assistance is withdrawn, leads to a 38% increase in earnings. Inculcating basic entrepreneurship, where severely disadvantaged women take on occupations which were the preserve of non-poor women, is shown to be a powerful means of transforming the economic lives of the poor."

"TechnoServe works in 29 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia to assist enterprising people to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. As part of its efforts, TechnoServe partnered with Citi Foundation to implement four pilot projects that aim to address unemployment among women and youth in Africa. This report analyzes the four projects, detailing the lessons learned from each."

"In this report we study the impacts of giving cash grants of approximately $150 and basic business skills training to the very poorest and most excluded women in a war-affected region, northern Uganda. The program was designed and implemented by an Italian non-governmental organization (NGO), AVSI Uganda, with decades of experience serving this population."