ANDE members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses (SGBs) based on the conviction that SGBs create jobs, stimulate long-term economic growth, and produce environmental and social benefits. Ultimately, we believe that SGBs can help lift countries out of poverty.
Registration and agenda session submissions are open for the ANDE 2023 Annual Conference in Accra, Ghana! The conference will be hosted at the Labadi Beach Hotel from September 12-14.
ANDE is pleased to announce two new research reports on green entrepreneurship in Kenya and India. The research, developed with support from the IKEA Foundation, showcases the state of green entrepreneurship in each country and explores key themes across eleven sectors, including sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, sustainable transportation, and more. The report includes deep dives into key sector business models, case studies of successful ventures, estimated market potential through 2030, and an overview of key challenges and opportunities for green entrepreneurship in each country.
Read the Kenya Report here and the India Report here.
Short on time? Read the executive summaries (available via the links above) or check out our blog posts on key findings from the research: Kenya blog post and India blog post.
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.
"After more than two years of living with the acute challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the small and growing business (SGB) sector is now facing a longer-term reality that affects not only business operations but also how these businesses measure and communicate their impact. The SGB sector is at a critical junction in the pandemic where organizations need to reflect on how hastily crafted impact measurement and management (IMM) solutions may or may not fit into their longer-term IMM strategy.
For these reasons, the purpose of this brief is to:
Highlight the unique IMM challenges faced by Sub-Saharan African SGBs due to COVID-19;
Guide entrepreneurial ecosystem builders in adapting their IMM systems within the context of the new COVID-19 reality; and
Provide tailored resources to enable entrepreneurial ecosystem builders to further adapt their IMM systems to best support entrepreneurs in the «new abnormal.»"
With the launch of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, "SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth" has become a rallying cry for practitioners aiming to boost entrepreneurship as a means of economic and social development. However, while the concept of decent work may seem straightforward, clearly defining a “quality job” has proven to be a complex endeavor. The report by ANDE first summarizes how job quality is defined and measured, then provides an overview of the current evidence on the quality of jobs within SMEs, and finally examines the effectiveness of interventions to improve job quality.
On 24 May 2023, the ANDE ESEA Team held a successful “Scale through SCALE” workshop with Sasin Sustainability & Entrepreneurship Center at Sasin School of Management. The workshop disseminated a set of evidence-based considerations emerged from the research of the Argidius Foundation that distinguishes the cost-effective and impactful Business Development Services (BDS) programs from the less effective ones.
In this blog post, we are proud to introduce the Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture (ISA) project of Swisscontact Cambodia. The ISA project is financed by the Happel Foundation, the Symphasis Foundation, and the Leopold Bachmann Foundation among other donors. As part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, it is co-financed by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
Given the importance of SGBs to economic growth and job creation, supporting these businesses must be a critical part of the global recovery. To support our members and the overall SGB sector during the ongoing crisis, ANDE is working to understand and meet our members’ evolving needs, providing relevant resources and a platform for sharing adaptation strategies.