Publication database

This roadmap is a step-by-step guide for off-grid clean energy companies to identify and adopt strategies to serve female customers more effectively. The roadmap was developed by the Power Africa Off-grid Project following a pilot with GDC member Simusolar to develop a market-focused gender strategy. By following this roadmap, your company can gain a deeper understanding of female farmers’ demands and challenges—distinct from those of men—in gaining access to productive use of energy (PUE) technology. Power Africa is grateful to Simusolar for its collaboration and willingness to share the lessons and tools in this roadmap.

The report starts by outlining the current state of impact measurement and management. It goes on to shed light on the BCtA’s member companies’ commitments to the SDGs, their adoption of the Inclusive Business model, their engagement with low-income populations in developing countries, and to highlight the main challenges faced by these organizations in measuring and managing impact. It also outlines how Inclusive Businesses can manage their impact on the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), leading to enhanced quality of life and increased living standards for their stakeholders.

Across the world, women play key roles as distributors and retailers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), however, the extent of their participation varies. This learning brief introduces how gender equality can be advanced within the distribution activities of the FMCG sector. It presents an emerging business case, the challenges, and recommendations to address these challenges. The brief is based on IFC projects in Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, and Sri Lanka; desk research; and interviews with market participants. The target audience comprises FMCG sales and distribution teams; FMCG sustainability teams; e-supply chain actors, including business-to business (B2B) distribution platforms; and investors seeking to accelerate gender equality.

The objective of a proposed Transformational AVC Guidelines is to enable small-scale producers to overcome barriers to development through more inclusive AVCs in the food, agriculture, and forestry sectors toward contributing to the attainment of the SDGs. The Transformational AVC Guidelines are voluntary in nature and designed to enhance and complement relevant ASEAN policies, approaches, and other guidelines. 

Drawing on pooled data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the years 2014-2020 and published reports from two other global research programs, we investigate the pandemic impacts on women entrepreneurs and business owners with particular attention to those in emerging economies. In addition, we explore differences between women entrepreneurs in low-income and middle-income countries compared to those in countries at higher levels of national income.

Increasingly, development funding is directed to programmes aiming to make market systems more favourable for smallholders and low-income consumers of food. Assessing whether a programme indeed contributed to development outcomes is challenging. Building on real-world experiences with theory-based evaluation in inclusive business programmes, this IDS Bulletin discusses approaches and methods for meaningful impact evaluation. 

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) launched the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund (AWEF) in 2019 with support from the Visa Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The overall goal of AWEF-funded projects is to address the gender financing gap for women-owned small and growing businesses (SGBs) in developing economies. The first round of grantmaking, AWEF Asia, funded eight entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India, as well as programs serving the region as a whole. This report summarizes the lessons learned from these grants.

The aim of this report is to document best practices by taking a micro-level deep dive into why women entrepreneurs applying for ‘missing middle’ funding (i.e., in the range of USD 30 000– USD 500 000) more often fail than succeed. This report focuses on the demand and supply issues related to women entrepreneurs access to finance in South Africa and Zambia. The study provides a baseline assessment of a cohort of women who participated in the Graça Machel Trust’s Women Creating Wealth (WCW), a Pan African entrepreneurship development programme whose aim is to grow businesses and transform behaviours, skills and build the confidence of women entrepreneurs.

Most impact investors report meeting or exceeding their impact performance metrics, but is this truly the case? Maoz (Michael) Brown, head of research at the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, collaborated with Wharton PhD candidate Lauren Kaufmann on a study that reveals it is common practice for impact investors to report metrics primarily to market their success, rather than to evaluate and understand where their impact may fall short.