"A lot has been written about the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development in the past years. However, do we have conclusive empirical evidence for justification of this relationship? Policymakers expect from entrepreneurship positive impact on country's wealth and employment. Nevertheless, several scholars have argued that the impact of entrepreneurship might be even negative, especially, when the institutions are not working well. This might be a case of developing countries.

We empirically tested the relationship between the established business ownership rate (obtained from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) and a set of country's economic indicators (Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income, and Human Development Index). Obtained estimates support a hypothesis assuming a negative influence of entrepreneurship on regional development of developing countries (represented by GDP and GNI). Nevertheless, we failed to prove any impact of entrepreneurship on HDI. These findings have crucial implications for both policymakers and researchers."

"Aimed at investors and other development practitioners, this toolkit highlights the potential of using finance to impact and empower adolescent girls and young women in emerging markets. The toolkit is based on the work of SPRING and four years of experience in running its accelerator for girls and young women impact ventures in East Africa and South Asia."

"A growing wave of co-location programmes promises to boost growth for entrepreneurs and young firms. Despite great public and policy interest we have little idea whether such programmes are effective. This paper categorises accelerators and incubators within a larger family of co-location interventions. We then develop a single framework to theorise workspace-level impacts. We summarise available evaluation evidence and sketch implications for regional economic policy. We find clear evidence programmes are effective overall. But we know little about how effects operate - or who benefits. Providers and policymakers should experiment further to establish optimal designs."

"Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is the buzz word that we hear in today's agriculture across the world. It deals with climate smart practices to be adopted in tune with the weather without foregoing sustainability and profitability. Various innovations and entrepreneurship pathways are described in the chapter with a main aim of promoting CSA especially among most vulnerable small holder farmers in South Asia."

"We are pleased to share with the impact community our review of 150 impact investing platforms, networks and organizations that promote, support or convene investors in the impact finance area. Prompted by our own experience as investors, technologists, and system designers, we were interested in better understanding prevailing business models and motivations for sharing (or hoarding!) data, innovations, and investors. Our analysis builds on ongoing work to design and develop an interoperable, global, modular, distributed, and democratic infrastructure for mobilizing data, innovations, and capital at the volume and velocity required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Our purpose, in addition to providing an overview of the platform landscape, is to identify opportunities for alignment of prospective partners, around the strategy, design and implementation for such global impact infrastructure; and explore scenarios for collective action."

"The purpose of this document is to provide an insider look at the application of the BalanceD-MERL approach in a program operating in a complex environment. The Women + Water Global Development Alliance is a five-year (2017-2022) collaboration among USAID, Gap, Inc., CARE, Water.org, the Institute for Sustainable Communities and the International Center for Research on Women. Together, these organizations are leveraging their complementary strengths to improve and sustain the health and well-being of women and communities touched by the apparel industry. The BalanceD-MERL consortium delivered a MERL strategy to the Alliance. In this document, the BalanceD-MERL consortium shares their experience of applying the approach and provides key takeaways from the application of the approach. The BalanceDMERL consortium also gives decision-makers, program implementers, and MERL practitioners action–items to undertake to enhance the effectiveness of this approach."

"The publication discusses the market potentials, constraints, and necessary policy instruments for an enabling environment for inclusive business. Included in the report are: a profile of inclusive business initiatives, the market size of the base of the pyramid, and an analysis of each inclusive business ecosystem in every Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economy. There is also a recommended a framework to guide future work on inclusive business under the APEC regional economic cooperation agenda."

"The study reviews the current state of impact investments in Singapore and Hong Kong, particularly those that have engaged with foundations. It further looks at the trends and challenges of the impact investment sector before presenting a list of recommendations."

"The following case study offers a micro-level analysis of a social impact company in East Africa and their approach to measuring social impact. In this policy paper, Public Policy Fellow Jamie Van Leeuwen and Michael Feinberg analyze the case study of Staffable, a social impact company in Kampala, Uganda and their approach to measuring the efficacy of social impact. They provide policy recommendations on how philanthropists, investors, and non-governmental organizations can standardize performance metrics to measure social impact investing, as well as recommend investments in workforce development in order to reduce dependency."

"The Impact Investment Landscape in Brazil is a follow-up to the study launched by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA) in October 2018. This national report is based on a sub-sample of the 67 survey respondents from the Latin America study, of which 29 are active in Brazil and 22 invested in the country during the period 2016-2017. Most of them identify themselves as impact investors or managers of private equity or venture capital funds. The report provides data on the profile of the active investors, investment activity for 2016-2017 and expectations for investment in Brazil in 2018-2019."