USAID's Women's Leadership in Small & Medium Enterprises (WLSME) initiative expanded the frontiers of this field to generate new learning about which interventions for women's entrepreneurship in SMEs work best in different developing country contexts. The resources on this site cover the external constraints, human capital constraints, information and network constraints, and risk challenges that businesswomen face.
Women’s Leadership in Small & Medium Enterprises (WLSME)
Oct 02, 2014
Disparities in initial resource endowments of men- and women-led firms, sector sorting into low productivity activities, social norms, and institutional arrangements, constrain the growth of women-led enterprises.
Sep 25, 2014
This project conducts critical research and learning activities to disseminate and share with the development community to examine how women leaders of small businesses can better engage in the cashew value chain.
Sep 15, 2014
A new report by Babson College on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative has found that training and education for women entrepreneurs positively affect emerging economies by increasing revenues and creating jobs.
Sep 05, 2014
Across a wide spectrum of society, there is growing recognition of the central role that women play in the world economy.
Aug 25, 2014
There are numerous projects and programs focusing on female entrepreneurship worldwide, yet there were no measures available to compare countries according to the same metrics. The Gender-Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) was created to fill this gap.
Jul 16, 2014
The SME Survey 2014, an annual study of factors behind the success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa, has found that a small business owned by a woman has a better chance of being profitable than one run by a man.
Jul 16, 2014
Women’s World Banking (WWB) finally closed its first private equity fund to invest in microfinance enterprises that support women.
Jul 16, 2014
Equity-based crowdfunding emerges as a promising opportunity to empower female entrepreneurship and to emancipate investment.
Jun 16, 2014
USAID press release: Entrepreneurship plays a significant role in driving economic growth and job creation.
Jun 16, 2014
According to an Asia Foundation study of the business environment in Bangladesh, male- operated small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) far outnumber those led by women SME entrepreneurs, and only 69 of the 3,800 firms in the sample have at least one female owner.
Jun 16, 2014
About 63 percent of women in the non-agricultural labor force are self-employed in the informal sector in Africa, more than twice the worldwide rate, according to World Bank data.
Jun 14, 2014
The Gender-GEDI Index provides key insights designed to help countries advance female entrepreneurship and ultimately bolster the global economy.
May 13, 2014
Development finance institutions – such as the International Finance Corporation and Britain's CDC – play a significant role in early stage SME financing while laying the foundation for other forms of investment.
Apr 29, 2014
Women entrepreneurs in Africa have historically had more limited business networks than men. With advances in technology reaching around the world, there is a growing opportunity to use technology to break this divide.
Apr 23, 2014
Research suggesting that certain entrepreneurial mindsets and skills can be learned has given rise to the field of entrepreneurship education and training (EET).
Mar 04, 2014
On March 5-10, 2014, USAID’s Women’s Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (WLSME) program is sponsoring the 8th National Garment Trade Fair “Fashion Industry 2014: Manufactures and Equipment” hosted by the Association of Light Industry Enterprises.
Feb 24, 2014
Investing in women and girls is one of the highest return opportunities available in the developing world, as a wide range of economic research shows.
Jan 21, 2014
This article was cross-posted from www.marcopolis.net . Interview with Meaza Ashenafi, Chairperson of Enat Bank. 1. What is your overview of the banking sector and what is your outlook for 2014 and onward? In Ethiopia, private banks started to flourish since 1994. Before 1994, there were no private...
Sep 01, 2013
WEAmericas connects women to economic growth and business opportunities and brings together the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to achieve mutually beneficial goals.
Sep 01, 2013
With a gender lens, investors evaluate their portfolios for the many ways that their investment choices are helping -- or not -- to right historical inequities and fuel positive change.