Microenterprise Development Programs Research Articles

Promoting Micro-Enterprises through Micro-Enterprise Development Programs (MEDPs)

Abstract: Micro-Enterprise Development Program (MEDPs) focuses on intensive training and handholding on various aspects for SHGs members into entrepreneurs. The aim of the study is to highlight the features, aims and benefits of the MEDP and analyze the performance of MEDPS. For achieving the objectives, researchers use the secondary data. The secondary data collected by NABARD annual reports, research articles, reports and websites. The data collected from the year MEDPs launch 2006 to 2020. Descriptive statistics can be used for analysis. The study. Found that the MEDP was a successful program of NABARD that enhanced the skill of SHGs who were already taking financial assistance from banks under SHG BLP. Nearly five lakh members of SHGs were trained under MEDPs and thousands of members successfully started their micro-enterprises and ran it.

Examining the effectiveness of micro-enterprise development programs in Malaysia

Examining the effectiveness of micro-enterprise development programs in Malaysia

Exploring the Social Capital of the Urban Poor for Successful Microenterprise Development Programs in Ethiopia

Microenterprise development forms the major component in the promotion of broad-based economic growth and improvement of the well-being of the urban poor in Ethiopia. To this end, creating employment opportunities and formalising informal enterprises become priority areas. However, the performance of microenterprise development in embracing the informality has fallen short of expectations owing mainly to limitations on joint-liability groups. This study argues that given group lending remains the main approach in financing the poor, microenterprise development programs that involve informality need a better understanding of the social capital of informal entrepreneurs. Thus, applying the network approach to social capital, the study examined the configuration of personal networks of informal entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa. Multi-stage sampling procedures involving purposive and systematic random-walk techniques were employed to draw samples. Ego-network data were collected through Name Generator and Name Interpreter surveys. Data were analysed using Social Network Analysis procedures. The results of the study revealed that religion, ethnicity, sex and marital status are the main attributes underlying homophily among informal entrepreneurs. However, informal entrepreneurs exhibit heterophilous networks on education, occupation, income and age. Using socio-demographic attributes of homophily and heterogeneity (following stages of business development) is, thus, imperative in microenterprise development.

Creating a Model for Successful Microenterprise Development (MED) Programs

Creating a Model for Successful Microenterprise Development (MED) Programs

Micro-entrepreneurship programs and sexual health prevention among sex workers in Cambodia: is an integrative approach the way forward?

Improving livelihoods through entrepreneurship activities and program implementation are increasingly considered as key drivers for enhancing health of the participants and reducing their proneness to diseases. Combined programs of entrepreneurship and health education have yet to be widely applied to the practice of promoting sexual health. However, there has been the emergence of small projects focused on both financial and educational aspects of sex workers. The objective of these programs is to favor the empowerment of vulnerable groups through skills training in order to decrease sexual risk among them. Considering the well-known structural links between poverty and HIV/AIDS, combined micro-enterprise development and health educational programs have been implemented among sex workers in order to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS among these categories of women. This article aims to explore the potential of these combined programs of entrepreneurship and health education to create new models and strategies to improve sexual health among groups at greatest risk of infection such as the sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Microenterprise Development Program Encourages Entrepreneurship While Supporting Extension in Van Wert County, Ohio

Microenterprise development programs (MED's) have expanded in recent years as an economic development strategy in rural areas. The sluggish economy coupled with an acknowledgement that small businesses create many rural jobs are the main drivers behind this expansion. In the rural county of Van Wert, OH, the local Extension Community Economic Development office demonstrates how MED programs can also increase the relevancy of local services while generating funding to support Extension.

The Impacts of Gender Differences in Social Capital on Microenterprise Business Start-Up

The Microenterprise Development Programs (MDPs) in the United States provide low-income women with business training and loans for their business start-up. This study investigates whether gender differences in social capital influence business start-up in order to find implications to improve female micro-entrepreneurs’ business start-up. By analyzing the data from Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamic (2001–2004), this research finds that women are less likely to utilize bridging and linking social capital for their businesses and also are less likely to start up business compared to men. This study provides implications that U.S. MDPs need to develop gender-specific social capital interventions that support female participants’ business start-up.

The Impact of Gender and Social Networks on Microenterprise Business Performance

Why are some people more successful than others in starting new businesses? Are women more or less successful than men? This study investigates relationships among gender, social networks, and microenterprise business performance. It examines existing theories and research on gender differences in social networks and whether gender differences affect female micro-entrepreneurs’ business performance. The purpose of this study is to help U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs create strategies to enhance the ability of female micro-entrepreneurs to gain economic benefits from their social networks. The paper identifies key gaps in theory, proposes an alternative research framework, and suggests directions for future research and policy and program development.

MISSION DRIFT OR STRATEGIC SHIFT? GROUP FORMATION STRATEGIES WITHIN MEPs

AbstractMission drift is a common criticism of microenterprise programs (MEPs) that target those likely to succeed rather than those most in need. This note examines approaches to group formation within international NGOs operating MEPs in Vietnam. A deliberate strategy of involving both poor and non‐poor households in MEPs emerges through effectuation, learning from past challenges. This approach represents a shift in focus away from the extremely poor but presents a potential pathway for effective and sustainable poverty alleviation, if undertaken as part of an integrated program. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evaluations of Women-Centered U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs

This article reviews research on women-centered U.S. microenterprise development programs (MDPs) by applying the concepts of conversion factors and capability of Amartya Sen’s capability approach. The article indicates how women-centered U.S. MDPs are appropriate in terms of reflecting women’s unique conversion factors in their programs, such as financial, human, social capital, and other structural gender discriminations, and how effective they are in assisting women to improve their capabilities. It concludes that women-centered U.S. MDPs do not sufficiently address women’s social environmental conversion factors in their programs, such as gender role and power relations.

MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SUCCESS: A PATH ANALYSIS OF FACTORS THAT LEAD TO AND MEDIATE CLIENT SUCCESS

Through a path regression analysis of data from the Vermont Micro Business Development Program, this study examines the relationships between client characteristics, program activities, interim outcomes, and impacts, to understand factors that lead to and mediate client success in microenterprise development programs and as entrepreneurs. Statistics demonstrated excellent model fit to the data. The interim outcome of improved personal well-being was related to more sources of capital, course completion, being partnered and younger. Starting a business was related to having more financial resources and mediated by improved well-being. Clients who experienced an increase in income had previous business experience and an increase in assets. Increased income was mediated by improved well-being and business start. Reduction in public assistance was related to course completion, more sources of capital, not being in poverty, and increased assets. Increased assets were related to more education, not being in poverty, and more sources of capital. Being older, more sources of capital, a larger family, and improved well-being led to job creation. Overall, access to more financial resources enabled clients to meet personal and business goals and work toward self-sufficiency. The results suggest implications for public policy regarding business training and loan financing.

Searching for Social Capital in U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs

Searching for Social Capital in U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs

Bootstrap dreams: U.S. microenterprise development in an era of welfare reform

Declines in real wages, increases in the number of poor families, and cutbacks to welfare and other safety-net programs have stimulated the popularity of microenterprise development programs (MDPs). These programs typically offer training and loans to individuals seeking to operate very small businesses. MDPs are often presented as a path to the self-sufficiency that comes with entrepreneurship and as an example of the success of market-based alternatives to government programs. In Bootstrap Dreams, Nancy C. Jurik analyzes the origins and maturation of these programs in the United States. Based on a national sample of fifty programs and an eight-year case study of one in particular, this is a rare book about microenterprise development. Jurik understands the positive social mission of MDPs, but she is not blind to the problems that they encounter. Jurik's clear perception of potential difficulties and her keen ability to place the microenterprise movement in the larger context of welfare reform and globalization make Bootstrap Dreams a valuable book.

Microenterprise Development Programs in the United States and in the Developing World

Sparked by examples from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Indonesia, and other developing countries, hundreds of microenterprise programs have been started in the United States. Will these US efforts be successful? This paper reviews the evidence and concludes that microenterprise development is much more difficult in the United States than in the developing world. The paper suggests some ways to address the challenges of US microenterprise development.

Micro-Enterprise Training (MET) Program

ABSTRACT In this paper, I present a case study of a Micro-Enterprise Training program (MET) that was designed especially for people trying to leave welfare, and to do so by starting their own very small businesses earning at least $7 per hour. Before presenting the case study, I briefly review the literature on welfare reform, wage employment, and micro-enterprise development. Then I discuss the MET program-an innovative response to welfare reform-in its details, capturing the “voices” of the major stakeholders. Finally, I share the barriers and the successes faced by the program as well as the lessons learned, that allow identification of best practices at individual micro-entrepreneur and program levels for running successful micro-enterprise programs. I intend for this paper to teach social work practitioners and students more about micro-enterprise development as a strategy for economic advancement, and encourage more social work involvement in micro-enterprise development programs.

From Survivor to Entrepreneur: Gendered Dimensions of Microenterprise Development in Peru

The author examines the gendered experience of economic restructuring within the microenterprise sector of Peru and the ways in which this is related to the creation and reproduction of ideologies and identities of gender within Peruvian society and the international development community. She suggests that the prevailing conceptualization of poor urban women as ‘survivors/victims’ within national society, social science discourse, and development praxis reveals a gender bias that is operationalized in the widespread exclusion of women from mainstream programs of microenterprise development. In arguing for a reconceptualization of poor urban women as ‘survivors/producers’ and/or ‘survivors/entrepreneurs’ in a way that highlights the empowering dimension of this identity, the diverse productive and reproductive activities that constitute women's daily experiences are seen as a self-directed act of resistance to the disenfranchising impact of structural adjustment. From an analysis of the impact of five microenterprise development programs on the lives of participating women, it is concluded that gender-focused programs of microenterprise assistance open a new space for poor urban women to create and negotiate alternative, more empowering identities.

WOMEN AND THE FALSE PROMISE OF MICROENTERPRISE

Since the 1980s, microenterprise development programs have proliferated in the United States, where they are widely praised as strategies for economic development and poverty alleviation, especially for low-income women and welfare mothers. Based on research in a highly respected urban center for women, this article argues that microenterprise development is more detrimental and problematic than it is purported to be. Two reasons are isolated. First, gender constraints mean women tend to choose small-scale, undercapitalized, and barely profitable “pink-collar” businesses, largely home-based operations based on work women are already doing as part of their gender-specific role. Second, microenterprise training programs reinforce this business segregation by discounting the sociocultural conditions women bring with them to business and instead emphasizing the personal growth of individuals. The result is that women are encouraged to maintain their economic vulnerability and social peripheralization rather than become part of the mainstream business world.

Comprehensive impact assessment systems for NGO microenterprise development programs

This paper reviews the monitoring and evaluation systems of four nongovernment organizations (NGOs) providing business development services to microenterprises in developing countries. It compares their approaches to data collection and analysis, uses, and types of impact indicators. While the diversity of microenterprise programs makes it difficult to specify a standard set of indicators, the paper provides examples of the questions that can be addressed and suggests ways in which such systems could be improved.