From trainings and workshops to a robust library of evidence and guidance, convening spaces for practitioners, and regular funding opportunities, ANDE aims to equip the sector with the resources it needs to support SGBs.
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.
ANDE conducts and supports research to answer critical questions for practitioners and funders in the SGB sector. Our Global Accelerator Learning Initiative, Knowledge Hub, SGB Evidence Fund, flagship publications including our State of the Sector reports and ecosystem snapshots, and other research activities fill knowledge gaps for SGB support organizations.
ANDE partners with donors to provide several funding opportunities to drive greater resources to organizations supporting SGBs in the developing world and ensure member expertise is leveraged efficiently. The funding is meant to spur more creative and collaborative investments in SGBs and uncover how SGBs contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals.
ANDE’s groups, including Learning Labs and Action Labs, are neutral convening spaces for diverse practitioners to share best practices and new research, discuss hot topics, and learn from one another. They also offer a venue for joint research or action on key issues. Most are open only to ANDE members.
"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."
"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.»"
"In 2019, ANDE announced an exciting partnership with USAID and the Visa Foundation to launch the ANDE Gender Equality Initiative (AGEI), which aims to support women as leaders, employees, and consumers in the emerging market SGB sector. As a pilot project under AGEI, each of ANDE’s eight regional chapters hosted a 9-12 month Gender Equality Action Lab. ANDE’s Action Lab uses a participatory design process in which a group of regional stakeholders, with deep and diverse experience and expertise on an issue, gather to define problems and then create and test potential solutions together."
We are delighted to have you join us for our 2022 Metrics from the Ground Up Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Here is some information on planning your trip.
We thank all participants, panelists and partners for their interest and participation in the first-ever ANDE South Asia Convening. Here's your roundup of all the sessions and resources from the three days!
ANDE’s Career Center features job postings from ANDE members, the SGBs they support, and other stakeholders in the social sector.