Global Community of Practice for Certified Trainers
High quality leadership is a key factor determining the probability of success for an incubator. infoDev therefore seeks to increase the capacity of business incubation managers – and their stakeholders – through one-on-one technical assistance, regional and topical peer-to-peer networks, the bi-annual Global Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and its web-based networking and knowledge-sharing tool www.idisc.net.
To date, infoDev has certified 65 trainers from around the world through “Train-the-Trainer” workshops in Cape Town, South Africa (February 2011), Helsinki, Finland (May 2011), Ooty, India (November 2011) and Istanbul, Turkey (February 2012). Trainers are experienced business incubation managers that are certified to deliver all or parts of the training curriculum, depending on expertise and interest. Click here for a list of global training events calendar and get to know certified trainers through this online community.
infoDev's 12-module training curriculum was designed in direct response to repeated requests from infoDev’s innovation and entrepreneurship community for an in-depth business incubation training program relevant to the developing country context. Learn more
infoDev Business Incubation Training Program - Overview of Modules (2012)
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Working Groups in 2008 - 2011
Please note that infoDev's grant period for these working groups has now closed. Final reports on activities are available for each working group below. You may still continue to join these working groups to gain access to their resources and connect with like-minded business incubators and related organizations.
Global Community of Practice on Agribusiness
infoDev's Global Community of Practice (CoP) on Agribusiness was formally launched in cooperation with ICRISAT at a kick-off meeting during October 26-28, 2010, in Hyderabad, India and culminated in a Declaration of Cooperation around four key action areas.
According to the World Bank, the potential of agricultural growth to reduce poverty is four times greater than the potential of growth from other sectors. The overall focus of infoDev’s Agribusiness Program, in cooperation with the Government of Finland, is to enable innovative agribusiness entrepreneurs in the food industry that 1) provide inputs to primary producers in the form of goods and services and 2) add value to primary products (such as agro-processors) and
play a catalytic role in terms of enhancing efficiency, quality and market access across the value chain. Learn more
Following a Request for Proposals in 2008, infoDev provided grants for building three global thematic work groups as part of infoDev’s Global Incubation Network. These work groups were set up to learn more about how to effectively serve women and youth through business incubation and about models for spurring high growth enterprises in ICT-enabled sectors in the poorer developing countries.
Women focused business incubation
Women entrepreneurs in traditionally male dominated societies face multiple challenges, including gender-based barriers to business resources, and they often battle their own confidence as viable entrepreneurs. There is increasing evidence that business incubators and the supporting business environment they create lends itself very well to the empowerment of women entrepreneurs. For instance, business incubators create a community of peers and provide mentoring and shared infrastructure and services. The working group on women business incubation developed a database of information about women incubation issues, outlining the challenges and opportunities for women business incubation, and presenting lessons learned, tools, good practices and models for effective women focused business incubation. Learn more
Read about the general outcomes of the youth working group in an article (March 2010) on "Incubating young entrepreneurs – opportunity or challenge?"
Many of the poorest developing countries have very young populations with high unemployment rates even for secondary and tertiary level graduates. Entrepreneurial talent can be identified among the youth, and business incubation is one mechanism through which entrepreneurial youth can receive the necessary support to start a business. That being said, youth focused business incubation presents significant challenges due to the inexperience of the entrepreneurs, and his/her lack of resources to start and manage a business. The working group on youth focused business incubation will clearly outline the challenges and opportunities for youth focused business incubation, and present lessons incubation. Learn more
The ICT and ICT- related sectors present large economic opportunities for many developing countries However, use of business incubation to start and enable the growth of high growth ICT enterprises is not without challenges. Access to appropriate financing at both the incubation and post-incubation stage is often challenged due to the knowledge-intensive nature of these businesses and thus limited tangible assets. In the high-growth work group it is particularly interesting to better understand how to handle the investment needs of such enterprises pre- and post-graduation from the business incubator. The working group on high-growth ICT enterprise business incubation should serve as a forum for exchange of innovative ideas, lessons and good practices on either business incubators as financial service providers, and/or as intermediaries creating innovative partnerships with angel investor networks, SME funds. Learn more