Publication database

This report reflects on the position of social enterprise across 27 countries, across 5 continents and including both developed and developing, stable and fragile countries. It aims to bring evidence together to provide comparisons between social enterprises across the globe, to highlight commonalities and differences, patterns and challenges. This study also considers the policy and support ecosystems for social enterprise in many countries, draws conclusions and makes recommendations based on the evidence.

Based on an analysis of the CGAP’s data from national surveys of smallholder households and smallholder diaries, this paper outlines the profile and needs of smallholder families and their various subgroups. Firstly, the paper looks at the relationship between financial activities and the different livelihood strategies employed by smallholder families. Further, it highlights the characteristics and behaviors that are common to large groups of smallholders, discusses how the overall market can be segmented most effectively, and presents a nuanced picture of the different types of smallholder households. Finally, the paper discusses opportunities available for various stakeholders serving smallholder families.

This handbook provides investors, businesses and private
sector development practitioners with an overview of tools
and methods for effective and appropriately tailored data
collection for impact measurement and management. It
builds on the recognition that the methods of larger,
independent impact evaluations of, for example,
government-funded programmes rarely lend themselves
well to a private sector context. In reviewing select private
sector-relevant tools and methods, it draws out how such
tools can deliver impact insights while often feeding
valuable business intelligence back into companies.

An important part of understanding the growth prospects of an economy comes from understanding the constraints to business growth and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, the data in this area is scarce in East Africa.This project aims to collect systematic regular data directly from a large sample of entrepreneurs from small firms in two East African countries to fill this data gap. These data will form the first step in a broader research agenda on small firm growth.

This primer aims to equip international development agencies and partners to assess whether and how distributed ledger technology (DLT), such as blockchain, might apply to their work. This primer cannot do justice to the complexity of DLT and its technological underpinnings, philosophical origins, and diverse business models. Instead, it provides:

• a set of key questions to consider for assessing relevance of DLT to particular development challenges;
• a basic summary of the technical aspects of DLT; and
• an illustrative list of DLT applications being tested across a range of sectors.

Part 1 of this report discusses instrumental and infrastructural approaches to ID and argues for long-term investments in ID infrastructure. Institutions and individuals each have key roles in the ID ecosystem, and we will discuss the tensions inherent in trying to serve both. Part 2 of this report asks how the ID landscape is changing. Emerging technologies will expand the options for identifying and authenticating individuals and introduce new actors across the DID value chain. While some emerging trends may offer greater opportunity for inclusion, higher confidence in authentication, or better data security, new technologies and new actors may also change the roles of traditional ID-granting institutions and their relationships with ID-holding individuals. How we address these emerging trends in technology will determine whether ID is an instrument of empowerment and inclusion or surveillance, disempowerment, and exclusion.

Microinsurance is growing and expanding throughout Africa. Led by the ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility and the MicroInsurance Centre, Briefing Note #1 identified over fourteen million low-income people in Africa who were covered by microinsurance at the end of 2008. The outreach almost doubled over the last 4 years. Even with such growth, there are clearly significant gaps. Substantial parts of the continent remain almost barren of microinsurance. Health, agriculture and property covers, all significantly in need by the low-income market, are evident as a mere fraction of life insurance coverage. This study provides a detailed picture of microinsurance in Africa and discusses challenges in the years to come in order to facilitate broader, high-quality expansion.