This article provides some of the foundational concepts on business environment reform and its role in private sector development. It answers the questions: What is the business environment? What is business environment reform? Much of the content is based on the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) key documents in this field, of which I…
Private Sector Development
This article introduces the concept of the private sector and private sector development. It answers the questions: What is the private sector? What is private sector development? This topic is important, not only for economic development and job creation, but also because it is increasingly used to deliver social services. Private sector development encompasses a…
Frugal innovations contribution to regional and economic development
I’ve been working on policy guidance to encourage frugal innovation (more on this later) and want to share my thoughts on the relevance of frugal innovation for regional and local economic development. Frugal innovation has been promoted as a business management practice that can be applied in resource-constrained conditions. However, it is also relevant for…
Policy preferences for small businesses
Many governments around the world assign policy preferences for small businesses. These policy preferences support business development and job creation. There are two rationales for this. First, micro and small enterprises deserve special attention because of their overall contribution to national development. As a total sector, micro and small enterprises are major contributors to employment in almost…
New video: business environment reform
I am pleased to be able to share this video I worked on for the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS_fgLT-Mh0 I have been working with the DCED for a number of years and, in particular, providing support to its Business Environment Working Group. The DCED has some great resources available on business environment…
SME Development Agencies
Over the last few months, I’ve provided advice to a number of government funded national SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) development agencies. Such agencies are very popular among governments, but less so among enterprise development specialist. While they can focus government efforts on supporting the small business sector, they can easily become expensive bureaucracies that…
Global economy drives SME growth and job creation
This article examines how the global economy drives SME growth and job creation. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in economic development and job creation. While the general features of this role are understood, there are many features of this that require more research. Of particular interest to countries and regions around the…
Formalising smallholder agriculture and agri-business: what the evidence says
I’m a little late posting this, but I think the findings of this study I conducted on the formalisation of smallholder agriculture and agri-business are quite relevant and interesting. I was commissioned by the DFID-funded Business Environment Reform Facility to review the evidence available on how business environment reform (BER) can support the formalisation of…
Entrepreneurial Places|Entrepreneurship|Innovation|Job Creation|Local Economic Development|Public Policy|Regional Development
The Value of the Micro-Business Sector
Small business is often touted as the engine of growth. But what of the smaller segment of this sector, the micro-business sector? A recent publication of the RSA caught my eye. Entitled ‘The Second Age of Small’ this report by Benedict Dellot (June 2015) considers the economic impact of micro businesses in the UK. There…
UK Government’s Better Regulation Manual and Red Tape Challenge
In July 2013 the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published the Better Regulation Framework Manual. This manual is intended for policy-makers, as well as economists, social researchers, lawyers and those specialising in better regulation. It contains guidance for those who are involved in developing or implementing policies that will regulate or deregulate business or civil society organisations. This…
Drucker: Innovation and entrepreneurship — advice for the "purposeful entrepreneur"
BOOK REVIEW: Peter F. Drucker (1985) Innovation and entrepreneurship; practice and principles, William Heinmann, London Peter Drucker was born in Vienna in 1909 and educated in Austria and England. He was a renowned business management advisor and a prolific writer. In 2009, four years after his death and 100 years since his birth, Drucker was celebrated…
ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development
This October, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) its annual Information Economy report, which focused on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in enabling private sector development: Information Economy Report 2011; ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD). The report shows that the potential of leveraging ICTs to develop…
Private Sector and Enterprise Development Fostering Growth in MENA
Private Sector and Enterprise Development; Fostering Growth in the Middle East and North Africa is a 2010 book published by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and written by Lois Stevenson, a Visiting Research Fellow at the IDRC in Cairo, Egypt. The book is concerned with the context for private sector development (PSD) including micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs1), the PSD…
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Flight Global Poverty
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (2011) Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Flight Global Poverty, Public Affairs, New York For more than fifteen years Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo have worked with the poor in dozens of countries spanning five continents, trying to understand the specific problems that come with poverty…