Recognizing that policymakers in developing
countries need support in
promoting entrepreneurship, UNCTAD developed
the Entrepreneurship Policy
Framework (EPF) in 2012, with the support
of experts from more than 100 countries.
The framework outlines key policy areas that have a direct impact on entrepreneurial activity.
These are
- Formulating a national entrepreneurship
strategy
- Optimizing the regulatory environment
- Enhancing entrepreneurship education and skills development
- Facilitating technology exchange and innovation
- Improving access to finance
- Promoting awareness and networking
National entrepreneurship strategies need
to be tailored to each country’s
specific conditions and the most appropriate
policy packages depend on the
existing level of entrepreneurship and the
structural characteristics of a country.
For each area, the framework identifies policy objectives and options in the form of recommended actions.
It proposes checklists, case studies and good
practices, and contains a set of indicators
to measure progress. It also includes
a user guide, a step-by-step approach to initiate
entrepreneurship policy based
on the country's overall development objectives, particularly with regards to sustainable development.
Following the launch in 2012, several countries,
including Brazil, Cameroun,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, The Gambia, Ghana,
Nigeria, Panama,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe implemented the framework,
with some variation across countries.
In most cases, national governments initiated
a consultation
on entrepreneurship through national forums,
regional seminars, benchmarking
exercises and review mechanisms engaging stakeholders.
This participatory dialogue between public
and private sector stakeholders
provided a solid base to build trust and define
common goals. In addition,
UNCTAD has collaborated with policy makers through the network of established Empretec centres
- the UNCTAD entrepreneurship programme facilitating the dialogue between public and private sector.
Based on this experience, I will illustrate
the UNCTAD’s methodology and point to good
practices and policy models: National Entrepreneurship Strategies
need to be tailored to each country’s specific conditions.
It is therefore important to clarify how entrepreneurship
is
expected to contribute to overall national
development objectives and where
policies should intervene to achieve those
objectives.
Which policy package is
the most appropriate depends on the existing
level of entrepreneurship in a
given country and its structural characteristics.
The way entrepreneurship
policies are implemented is as important for success as the right choice of instruments.
If your Government aims to promote entrepreneurship,
the first step is to
designate a lead institution.
This can be a working group, ministry or an
agency
in the government or outside that would be
assigned responsibility for all phases
necessary to develop a national entrepreneurship
development strategy, from
defining the overall objectives to implementation
and monitoring.
The coordination mechanism can be initiated by
establishing a public-private
working group or an advisory council. In order to develop a national
entrepreneurship strategy, UNCTAD recommends
to follow these steps: · First, a mapping
study should be conducted to gather preliminary
information to assess the current business
environment and the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
After the study's completion, a first national
workshop can take place
providing stakeholders with a diagnostic tool:
the UNCTAD’s Entrepreneurship Scorecard.
The objective is to identify the gaps and
shortcomings of policies and programmes, and consider ways in which these can be addressed.
· During the workshop, focus groups could
be formed to represent the
business community, composed of entrepreneurs,
start-ups, private
sector institutions, non-governmental organizations,
universities and
various government departments.
These groups are gathered regularly
over a period of two or three months to participate
in the drafting of the national
strategy and action plan.
· All stakeholders gathered in a second workshop
will then provide comments, suggestions and
feedback to the draft strategy and action
plan in order to validate it.
· The key constituencies and focus groups
commit to strategy’s implementation and
define how to mobilize the initial necessary
resources.
Regular performance assessment exercises and
feedback sessions are scheduled, thereby encouraging
greater accountability to stakeholders.
The focus groups usually stay on board to
facilitate resource mobilization and monitoring.
The UNCTAD’s methodology contains a checklist
to assist stakeholders in
the process of developing and monitoring the
national entrepreneurship
strategy during a stakeholders’ workshop.
To assess existing measures related to formulating
a national entrepreneurship
strategy and how to improve them, respondents
gathered in the stakeholders’
workshop need to answer 13 questions and you can look at the UNCTAD’s website and the tutorial video
to look at the questionnaire. Based on this survey, a scorecard will serve as a tool for policy
makers, advisors, entrepreneurs and other
stakeholders to learn about your
country's implementation policy model in entrepreneurship. This involves
evaluating the current business environment
in which entrepreneurs start up,
operate and grow their businesses, looking
at the overall business climate and
identifying your country specific challenges.
Ecuador provides an example of a stakeholders’
mobilization to initiate the
agenda, define the process and engage stakeholders in the development of the entrepreneurship strategy.
The Alliance for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
(AEI), a public-private
alliance partially funded by Ecuadorian entrepreneurs
convened key
stakeholders and facilitated the policy development
process. As a first step, a
mapping of all stakeholders in the ecosystem
was carried out and the country's
entrepreneurship strategy was carefully laid
out after consultation with stakeholders.
Over 250 stakeholders from around 84 organizations
participated in this process.
The results of the EPF scorecard showed the
main gaps in the
lack of clear objectives and monitoring process.
As you can see Ecuador’s Strategy establishes
clear goals and targets. It embeds
innovation and it is divided in seven areas
of intervention because it includes
“access to markets” as another important
area for the country that wishes to
address the internationalization of small
firms as a priority. To address
constraints and trigger implementation, AEI
introduced a sound monitoring process.
In addition, to create a demonstration effect
each focus group
identified a first pilot action that can produce
results in the short term,
facilitating feedbacks and learning by doing.
Objectives to address the gaps
identified and policy initiatives to be undertaken
were clearly prioritized
through a bottom-up approach, but the leadership
of AEI remained crucial in
all aspects related to the coordination, pilot
implementation, monitoring
and evaluation of new initiatives.
Another important contribution by UNCTAD is the interactive debate on entrepreneurship policies
The UNCTAD database includes selected policies and programmes mainly from developing countries,
I invite you to look at our website www.unctad.org/epf.
By looking at the database we aimed at inspiring policy options that can be adopted and adapted to specific
circumstances and goals of developing countries,
keeping in mind the need for
holistic policy design and implementation.
Another important global resource is the Atlas
of Policies developed by the
Global Entrepreneurship Network that provides
an opportunity for all
stakeholders to contribute cases, examples,
comments and suggestions.
As an example of countries that have adopted
national strategies, have a look
at the policy models provided in the UNCTAD
database of Ecuador, Gambia,
Barbados, Tanzania and Singapore.
Singapore is the only country that has a Minister
of Entrepreneurship. Spring is
the leading agency for policy implementation. It provides comprehensive
assistance programmes to help entrepreneurs
to seize growth opportunities.
Together with industry association and partners,
Spring also
aims at developing competitive industry clusters and building a vibrant
and innovative eco-system of resilient enterprises.
