Do business environment reforms encourage informal firms to formalise? This article examines the role of business environment reform in formalising the informal economy.
Measuring Donor-Supported Business Environment Reform Results The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) has just published guidance for donor and development agencies on how to measure the results of business environment reform support programmes. I prepared these guidelines along with members of the DCED’s Business Environment Working Group. The guidance can be downloaded from here.
The innovation imperative - building competitiveness beyond the resources boom The Australian Institute of Management and the University of Melbourne have released a report on firm-based innovation, which highlights the challenges to firms. While innovation can occur by change, firms do better by ensuring the systems are in place for innovation to flourish. This requires a whole-of-organisation approach with good
Lies, damned lies, and African statistics “Figures often beguile me,” wrote Mark Twain, “particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’” There is some dispute as to whether Disraeli
Afrobarometer: After a decade of growth in Africa, poverty continues Afrobarometer has just released a new policy brief: “After a Decade of Growth in Africa, Little Change in Poverty at the Grassroots”. In it, Boniface Dulani, Robert Mattes and Carolyn Logan present data collected across 34 African countries between October 2011 and June 2013, which demonstrates that “lived poverty” remains
Preferential option for the poor Simon White | Finding the balance between economic growth and achieving pro-poor development outcomes.
One-stop-shops for business and investment Simon White | An article on one-stop shops for business and investment promotion in Africa.