Place Based Economic Development with Simon White

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Simon White

Simon White

Simon White is a specialist in place-based economic development, private sector and business development and business environment reform.

Photovoice: Street Life in Ivory Park

The recently released Participate report, Work With Us (see my previous post), contains a short case on an interesting photographic assignment that was conducted in Ivory Park, South Africa. Ivory Park is a large township in the City of Johannesburg. The landscape is densely settled, and the street is central

Why development cannot help the poor without their help

A new report from the Participate Initiative emphasises the importance of social networks in development and the need to listen to the perspectives of the most marginalised. The report highlights the complex relationship between social networks and formal institutions and the need for development organisations to recognise this before implementing

Entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial state

I spent the last half of 2012 living in the US during the Presidential Election. It was on the campaign trail in Virginia in July 2012, when President Obama famously declared that “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Naturally enough,

Extending social protection to informal workers

Across Africa, and in many other developing economies around the world, informal enterprises represent the majority of the business sector. While definitions vary, informality generally refers to micro and small enterprises that operate without full compliance with the legal and regulatory framework. They are typically unlicensed and unregistered. They also

A recent debate on regulatory reform

Getting the balance between too much regulation and too little is a challenging job. In my own work, I try to focus more on the quality of regulation and its ultimate effect, rather than simply the number. However, it is clear that there can be too many laws and regulations

Innovation in business registration

Simon White | This article considers improvements in business registration in South Africa.

Australia's rural entrepreneurs

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) launched a new report today: Perspectives on Regional Australia: Business Owners in Regions, 2011. Its findings reinforce the importance of the need for strong business base for rural and regional communities. My work in these regions has focused on the creation of local enterprise