Access to opportunity is rarely equal.
An inclusive economy cannot take shape while access to skills, jobs, entrepreneurship and decision-making continues to favour those who hold resources, connections, and influence. We work with funders and partners to widen pathways into economic participation, support underrepresented people and enterprises, and help institutions change the practices that determine who can contribute and benefit.
130+ Impact Hubs in 70+ countries
20+ Network programmes support entrepreneurs with disabilities
53% enterprises supported are women-led
130+ Impact Hubs in 70+ countries
20+ Network programmes support entrepreneurs with disabilities
53% enterprises supported are women-led
Participation
does not happen
on equal terms.
The opportunities people can access are determined by factors beyond individual effort, including where they live, their identity, and the resources available to them. Many face barriers to gaining skills, securing jobs, or contributing to decisions that affect their lives.
Entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities may also be further excluded from the finance, networks, markets and support needed to build viable businesses. As a result, economic growth continues to benefit some more than others, while valuable ideas and perspectives are left out.
Progress towards an inclusive economy requires widening opportunities for underrepresented people and enterprises, so more can participate in and benefit from the economies they already contribute to.
Inclusive economy building
happens at different levels.
Across our Network, programmes respond to different forms of exclusion faced by people building their futures and entrepreneurs building businesses. Both require change at more than one level. Skills alone do not lead to work when routes into employment remain inaccessible. Businesses cannot realise their potential when finance, markets and support systems remain closed to them.
PATHWAYS FOR PEOPLE & COMMUNITIES
Skills and confidence for the next step
We provide support in developing skills, building confidence and seeing new possibilities for their future. Programmes respond to their circumstances and context, rather than expecting everyone to follow the same route.
Routes into decent work and secure livelihoods
We support people moving towards employment or a more secure livelihood. This can include connecting them with employers, providing practical experience or helping them navigate services that are often fragmented or difficult to access.
Institutional practice and public policy
We create opportunities for people affected by exclusion to influence the programmes and decisions that affect their lives. Their experiences inform improved workplace practices, service provision and public policy.
PATHWAYS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Tailored business support
We help entrepreneurs develop the capabilities needed to make their businesses viable. Support reflects their current stage, ambitions and business model rather than a single definition of growth.
Access to markets and capital
We connect entrepreneurs to buyers, mentors, partners and capital. Access to opportunity often depends less on ability than on who an entrepreneur can reach and which networks are open to them.
More inclusive conditions for entrepreneurship
We bring entrepreneurs’ experience and programme learnings into procurement, investment and policy. We also work with institutions to strengthen inclusive practices and reduce the structural barriers facing underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Inclusive economy building in practice
65
multi-stakeholder
participatory lab
Providing young migrant and refugee women with vocational training and employment support
MOMENTUM
Young migrant and refugee women can face language barriers and stereotypes, while limited knowledge of available services can make it harder to find training or work. MOMENTUM brought local stakeholders together across five European countries to create more coordinated pathways into work tailored to participants’ circumstances.
Partners: European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF)
84%
improved at least
two business skills
Expanding access to entrepreneurship for women and entrepreneurs with disabilities
BEAM
Entrepreneurs with disabilities face financial exclusion, inaccessible business support and discrimination when starting or growing a business. BEAM responds with tailored capacity-building and personalised mentorship, with funding and accessibility support built around participants’ needs across Dhaka, Kathmandu and Shanghai.
Partners: MetLife Foundation
54.5%
went on to pursue
STEM degrees, courses
or technical programmes
Opening pathways into technology entrepreneurship for young girls and women
Technovation Girls
Girls and young women face unequal access to technology education, mentorship, professional networks and pathways into STEM leadership. Technovation Girls equips participants to think critically and develop practical solutions to challenges affecting their communities, gaining experience in coding, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship and pitching with support from mentors and volunteers.
Partners: Technovation
21
pilot programmes
reaching 133+
entrepreneurs
Making business support more inclusive for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities
Better Incubation
People from underrepresented communities often face barriers to self-employment and are poorly served by conventional incubation programmes. Better Incubation helped business support organisations adapt their services around entrepreneurs’ different circumstances and needs. Through Communities of Practice and local pilots, organisations tested more inclusive approaches and developed policy recommendations with the wider sector.
Partners: The European Business and Innovation Centre Network, European Venture Philanthropy Association
Different context, one approach.
Understand the local barrier
We analyse barriers by group and place. The challenges facing a woman entrepreneur in Jakarta may differ from those affecting a young person with a disability seeking work in Lusaka. On the ground insights help identify what prevents participation and what needs to change.
Design with local partners
Our 130+ locally governed Impact Hubs in 70+ countries work within the communities they serve. This deep local presence helps us design accessible pathways that reflect their circumstances and ambitions, rather than where a standard programme assumes they should be.
Work with institutions
We work with employers, investors and public institutions to apply lived experience and programme learnings to workplace practices, service provision, procurement and policy. This helps identify what works beyond a single programme, making economic opportunities more accessible to people and enterprises.
Build more accessible pathways to economic participation and entrepreneurship
Impact Hub’s place-based approach connects entrepreneurs and communities with the institutions shaping economic opportunity. It creates space for collaboration and turns local learning into approaches that can inform wider change. We’re now looking for funders, governments and multilaterals who want to:
- Fund locally rooted DEI programmes for people and enterprises facing exclusion
- Design enterprise pathways and capability support fitted to specific groups and places
- Connect entrepreneurs to buyers, mentors, partners and capital at scale
- Embed DEI into procurement, investment or public policy alongside the entrepreneurs affected by it
Connect with one of our local teams across 130+ cities.
One conversation is all it takes.
Designing a programme, strengthening an existing one, or looking for a partner with trusted local reach? Get in touch!