ANDE Research Initiative - 1st Request for Proposals

Open Date: June 12, 2012
Proposals Due: July 30, 2012
Awards Announced: September 27, 2012

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is pleased to announce the ANDE Research Initiative, a new program that will support research on the impact of small and growing businesses (SGBs) on poverty. Through the generous support of the RockefellerFoundation, the Bernard van LeerFoundation, and the Multilateral Investment Fund at the Inter-American Development Bank, we will fund research that examines the following broad research questions:

What kinds of SGBs employ or engage poor and low income people, and will these SGBs help people out of poverty? Specifically:

• What are the financial and non-financial impacts (health, family welfare, spillover effects on the community) of SGB-provided jobs, compared to the alternative sources of employment available to the poor?
• What are the impacts of the essential products and services (such as energy, water, health care) provided by SGBs, compared to alternative sources available to the poor?

For more information on how to apply, click here.
Please download the full ANDE Research Initiative Request for Proposals here

As the Small and Growing Business (SGB) sector continues to grow, there is increasing interest from impact investors, foundations and other stakeholders in answering critical research questions on the effectiveness of supporting SGBs as a strategy for poverty alleviation in emerging markets. Recognizing the need to build this capacity, ANDE has launched a new research initiative with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Bernard van Leer Foundation and the Multilateral Investment Fund at the Inter-American Development Bank that aims to move this conversation forward by focusing on a key question:

“Does growth in SGBs lead to growth of prosperity for poor people in emerging market countries?”

While there are a number of public and private organizations dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship as a mechanism for poverty alleviation, there is limited evidence on the ultimate impact of these businesses on various dimensions of poverty. As illustrated in the figure below, evaluations of small business support programs focus on measuring firm level outputs and outcomes such as wages, sales, productivity and number of jobs created, but do not measure the broader impacts on poverty at the household level of employees and customers of these businesses.

ANDE aims to fill this gap in the literature by funding rigorous evaluations and the development of new datasets to study the longer term impacts of SGBs through a two-pronged approach that focuses on the following broad research questions:

What kinds of SGBs employ or engage poor and low income people, and will these SGBs help people out of poverty? Specifically:

• What are the financial and non-financial impacts (health, family welfare, spillover effects on the community) of SGB-provided jobs, compared to the alternative sources of employment available to the poor?
• What are the impacts of the essential products and services (such as energy, water, health care) provided by SGBs, compared to alternative sources available to the poor?

ANDE Literature Review

Click here to view the ANDE Literature Review.

ANDE Research Development Fund

ANDE is uniquely positioned to drive this research agenda, as the only global intermediary organization focused on SGB development. Through this initiative, we can act as a conduit between researchers who are seeking inputs and our members who are generating data and findings that need to be aggregated and analyzed. To learn more about the ANDE Research Fund, please download this brief overview.

If you are a Researcher or ANDE Member interested in this initiative, please contact Saurabh Lall.