useful information and links

Africa Green Revolution

A website with a wealth of knowledge and links on agriculture in Africa.

Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund aims to stimulate private sector entrepreneurs in Africa to innovate and find profitable ways of improving access to markets and the way markets function for the poor, particularly in rural areas. It will do this by offering grants, matched by private sector contributions, to innovative business ideas which encourage greater participation of poor people in markets – as consumers, workers or entrepreneur.

Africa Recruit: Harnessing the Role of the Diaspora in the Agriculture sector: an Investment or Skills Option

E-Report of an Africa Recruit event in London, UK on 23/24th November 2006.

Ashoka - Innovators for the Public

This is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs.

Business in Development (BiD) Network

This is the on-line community for entrepreneurship and development in developing countries.

The Business of Enterprise Development

An IBLF publication on meeting the challenge of economic development through business and community partnerships.  A sourcebook that profiles examples of good practice from around the world.

CIDA Empowerment Fund (CEF)

CEF was established with the sole objective of building a high yielding investment portfolio, to secure a sustainable source of annuity funding for the delivery of education and empowerment of economically and socially disadvantaged black South Africans.

The Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP)

CAADP has been endorsed by the African Heads of State and Government as a framework for the restoration of agriculture
growth, food security, and rural development in Africa.

DFID Business Linkages Challenge Fund (BLCF)

The BLCF supports private sector partnerships that bring commercial benefits to the businesses that participate and help to reduce poverty in target developing countries.

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development

The Committee promotes enterprise development, particularly for small enterprises, in developing countries. It provides a forum, in which member agencies can exchange information about their programmes, and the lessons learned through those programmes.

Financial Deepening Challenge Fund (FDCF)

The FDCF funds and supports twenty-eight projects in Africa and Asia that help improve access to financial products and services by low-income customers.

Harvard, IBLF and IFC Report on Business Linkages: Lessons, Opportunities and Challenges

The report, supported by Business Action for Africa, addresses the challenges faced by large companies when linking with SMEs, and highlights opportunities to increase the scale and impact of linkage programmes (including through collective action). The report also includes a valuable set of company case studies.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) Small and Medium Enterprises Site

This site provides an overview of how IFC supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through investments and advisory work. Promoting the growth of SMEs in developing countries is an important part of the IFC's private sector development mission.

Kiva

Kiva lets individuals connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, individuals can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence.

The Oslo Declaration and the African Green Revolution

This declaration was made at the African Green Revolution Conference 2007 and identifies a scenario of potentially explosive growth in African agriculture.

Shell Foundation: Enterprise Solutions to Poverty

The report contains information about Shell Foundation pilots across the developing world, which illustrate the potential of pro-poor enterprise and growth. It also shows how the value-creating financial assets of companies such as Shell can be harnessed to provide greater social returns on investment.

UN Commission on the Private Sector and Development

The Commission focuses on how business can create domestic employment and wealth, free local entrepreneurial energies, and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

World Bank Africa Region - sub-Saharan Africa-Asia Business Directory

The Government of Japan has tasked the World Bank's Africa Region, Private Sector Department to facilitate the development of a business directory that covers African and Asian businesses operating in sub-Saharan Africa and across a variety of sectors with the aim of improving trade and investment between the two continents.

World Development Report 2008

The World Bank's annual report with the theme "Agriculture for Development."

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