A number of organizations either based in or working in the Latin American and Caribbean region are to receive grants from the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) as part of an initiative to stimulate small businesses in emerging markets.

The so-called Arigidius-ANDE Finance Challenge (AAFC), sponsored by both the Argidius Foundation and ANDE, has awarded grants of €200,000 (US$260,000) to five pilot projects, four of which operate in either Central America or the Caribbean: the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University has developed a ‘Demand-Dividend Investment Vehicle’ to improve the attractiveness of investment in small entrepreneurial firms, which it is pioneering in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras; George Mason University has created a ‘bridge’ solution to mobilize bank funding for graduates of microfinance as well as a social venture fund to stimulate equity investment from impact investors in Honduras; working in Guatemala, Prosperitas Capital Partners, Banco G&T Continental and the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank have devised a ‘matchmaking’ mechanism to mitigate redundancies and leverage know-how from one country to another; SCOPEInsight has developed a means of pre-screening the creditworthiness of agricultural producer organizations typically viewed as too risky for loans in Central America generally. The pilot that demonstrates the potential to achieve the greatest impact through both replication and scale will receive a further €1 million in spring 2014.

For more information
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ande