Speaking to a colleague the other day about the challenges of funding a small business, he suggested that we’re looking at it all wrong. The idea that options available for small business owners come down to choices between traditional financing, alternative financing, or venture capital is the wrong way to look at funding small business initiatives. “Even if the business relies exclusively on debt financing to fuel its capital needs, business owners should look at the financing options available to them as a ‘portfolio’ of investment options,” he suggested.

Recent research has given us much better data on the difference in access to formal financial services between men and women. With this evidence for the gender gap, what we really want to know is: what is it about being a woman or man that creates the gap? That is, are these gaps the result of factors such as women having less education, lower incomes, and being less likely to have formal employment? Or do they arise from legal factors such as property rights, inheritance rights, gender norms about autonomy, mobility, etc.? Or, perhaps women behave inherently differently and are more risk averse. Or does being a woman matter for another reason, even when all these factors are taken into account? If it does, then we might need to look further for other sources of discrimination in the market. These might include the behaviour of the financial institutions themselves.

As foreign aid budgets shrink, international aid agencies are being forced to become more efficient with less money. Increasingly, these donors recognize that fostering healthy private-sector growth is one of the most promising ways to help aid recipients become self-sustaining and ultimately self-financing. Aid to the private sector is especially important in countries affected by conflict and violence, where limited access to capital can inhibit much-needed growth, even more so than in more stable (if still poor) developing countries.

Many of us know post offices around the world as places to send mail, but we also have this impression that these are “old school” state-run institutions without much innovation. In a few countries, like France and Japan, people’s perceptions about the post office are quite different as postal networks have undertaken major transformations into something much more than places that deliver mail. This slow transformation of postal networks is taking place around the world as they are increasingly leveraging their branch networks and other assets to expand on their financial services role. In many countries, they are emerging as important gateways for financial inclusion of the world’s poor. This blog will share a few things you may not already know about postal networks.

This report evaluates the financial gap of different cultural and creative sectors (CCS) to support the impact assessment of the creative Europe programme. In addition to the barriers to accessing finance for SMEs in general, specific characteristics of CCS organizations reinforce the problem of access to finance.

I believe entrepreneurs are the foundation for innovation, economic growth, and job creation and have made it my personal mission to give back to the entrepreneurial community and to empower women around the world to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. My work as part of the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council and my role as Dell’s entrepreneur-in-residence have given me a platform to reach entrepreneurs on a global scale in ways that would not have been possible on my own.

Close to 70 billion people in India work for MSMEs, yet financial institutions meet only one-fourth of the financing needs of these businesses. IFC is providing a $150 million financing package to Yes Bank to help expand financial services for women-owned small businesses in low-income states. It is IFC’s first investment in South Asia focused on women. It is also the first IFC investment to receive funding through the Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP), a new syndications tool that became operational in November.

More African women are becoming active participants in business as entrepreneurs and leaders in the corporate world. Dr Susan Mboya-Kidero is one of Kenyas leading women in the corporate world. Mboya is president of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and Coca-Colas Group director for Womens Economic Empowerment for Eurasia and Africa. Before joining Coca-Cola, Mboya built her career at multinational manufacturer Proctor & Gamble where she worked for 13 years.

The Zimbabwean economy is currently struggling for recovery from more than a decade of decline. Different policies have been crafted to try and revive the economic quagmire the country is in. Some of the policies that have been crafted include the Growth with Equity (1980-1990), Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (1991-1995), Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation (1996-2000), Zimbabwe Economic Millennium Recovery Programme (2000-2002), National Economic Recovery Programme (NERP, 2003), Macroeconomic Policy Framework (2005-2006), the National Economic Development Priority Programme and Short-Term Economic Recovery Programme, Medium Term Plan (2011-2015), Recently, we have heard of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset).Sadly, though, not much has been said about the role of Small to Medium Enterprises in Zimbabwe.

Small and medium enterprises are globally regarded as the backbone of any economy. Obinna Chima writes that when given adequate support, SMEs can spur significant economic growth.