"This report outlines the need to provide capital to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. It shows the impact of this capital on economic development, and the role for International Finance Institutions (IFIs) in the provision of this capital. Finally, it outlines recommendations for additional interventions and further research."

"This paper tests whether demand shocks affect firm dynamics. Ferraz, Finan and Szerman (2015) examine whether firms that win government procurment contracts grow more compared to firms that compete for these contracts but do not win. They assemble a comprehensive data set combining matched employer-employee data for the universe of formal firms in Brazil with the universe of federal government procurement contracts over the period of 2004 to 2010. Exploiting a quasi-experimental design, they find that winning at least one contract in a given quarter increases firm growth by 2.2 percentage points over that quarter, with 93% of the new hires coming from either unemployment or the informal sector. These effects also persist well beyond the length of the contracts. Part of this persistence comes from firms participating and winning more future auctions, as well as penetrating other markets."

"Gender lens investing (GLI) - investing with the goal of making financial returns and a positive impact on women - is on the rise. Stories of new funds and promising investments are shared widely, signaling the growth of this trend. We wanted to know exactly how big the gender lens investing ecosystem is and how fast it is growing. So, in October of 2017 we researched and published Project Sage: a Landscape of Structured Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Private Debt Vehicles with a Gender Lens. Recently, we conducted a second landscape analysis, Project Sage 2.0, to assess the current state of the field and to understand how things had evolved over one year. This report presents the results of our survey and analysis of private equity, debt, and venture capital funds that operate with a gender lens. The landscape captures the field through July 2018, when our data collection for this report ended."

"A broad literature has found that the misallocation of entrepreneurial talent has strong effects on productivity. To investigate whether the government can improve entrepreneurial activity, we analyze a policy aimed at promoting innovative startups through the provision of funding and technical assistance to potential entrepreneurs in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We conduct a survey and use regression discontinuity methods to identify the effects of the policy. We find significant effects on enterprise creation and survival as well as on employment. Overall, we show that small-scale public policy can help entrepreneurs overcome a wide variety of barriers to firm entry and improve the allocation of their entrepreneurial talent."

"Produced by Vital Voices Global Partnership in cooperation with IFC and the MENA Businesswomen’s Network, this report surveyed 431 women business owners across 8 economies in the Middle East and North Africa to understand their needs, the critical obstacles they face in accessing finance, and identify real solutions to increase the economic contributions of women-owned SMEs."

"This document answers questions through a practical self-assessment tool built from the collective knowledge of practitioners who have been engaged in scaling social businesses. It is a simple checklist that enables practitioners to quickly assess their organization's readiness for scale and to clearly identify areas for improvement in four distinct areas: Social Impact, Financial Viability, Internal Capacity, and External Enablers.

The tool also offers a collection of best practices gathered from the experiences of social enterprises who are presently scaling inclusive business solutions in nutrition, water, health, agriculture, and energy. The best practices are illustrated by concrete lessons learned from these organizations along their scaling journeys."

"O Panorama do setor de Investimento de Impacto no Brasil é um desdobramento do estudo lançado pelas duas organizações sobre investimento de impacto na América Latina, lançado pela Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) e da Associação para o Capital Privado na América Latina (LAVCA), em outubro de 2018. Os resultados do estudo brasileiro ressaltam que o investimento de impacto é uma indústria em crescimento no país e tem se mantido resiliente apesar do cenário político e econômico. O Brasil foi um dos países que apresentou os maiores números em termos de atividade de investimento de impacto na região. O relatório apresenta dados de investimento de impacto com base em características como setor, tamanho e estágio de negócios, e também compara a atividade de investimento com a de 2014-2015, antes de concluir com recomendações para o desenvolvimento da indústria no futuro."

"This guide aims to help early-stage innovators develop business models and partnership approaches that align with the development of their product, and envision potential pathways for bringing products to scale. While many concepts and insights in this guide apply to all global health innovations, our focus is on medical devices and products, rather than drugs, commodities, or service-delivery models."

"This note provides a popular overview of why and how GIF forecasts and measures impact. GIF’s unique Practical Impact methodology is central to the way GIF pursues its mission. We hope this introduction to Practical Impact will help donors, investees, and the public to better understand how we work. We hope also that other development financiers and impact investors may be interested in learning how GIF has addressed the challenge of investing for impact in innovations."

"Most impact investors see their primary goal as finding and investing in enterprises that yield strong financial and social returns-a goal we share and support. But we worry this singular focus may miss the forest for the trees. In this discussion paper, we argue for a shift in focus-toward the goal of scaling entire industry sectors, in addition to individual firms."