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The Season, and the Day, of the Entrepreneur
By Susan Akerley, Beyster Institute Staff
While springtime in Washington, DC is synonymous with the bloom of the cherry blossoms and the beginning of the throngs of tourists to the city, it also means annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. While the international donor community, along with its implementers, has always recognized the importance of entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth, this spring has also included what seems to be a widening awareness of the impact and the multiplier effect that the entrepreneur has on a nation’s economy.
Recent forums, workshops, and discussions have included topics such as the new trends and directions of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the promising policy reforms affecting Egypt’s private sector and economy since the present government assumed power in 2004, and the effect of non-traditional microfinance vehicles such as Kiva.org. Having attended several of these events, I’ve noticed a common theme: the importance of the entrepreneur in today’s global marketplace.
While this concept is nothing new to those who have studied entrepreneurship, those who educate and train others in the principles of creating and growing successful businesses, or those who are entrepreneurs themselves, it is one that is being vocalized more and more within the international development community.
Director of US Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore speaks of developing “entrepreneur funds” in countries which possess an environment ripe for this type of venture. Prominent Egyptian businessmen speak of the young entrepreneurs that are responsible for driving most of the growth explosion happening now within Egypt’s private sector. Matt Flannery, founder of the widely successful micro-lending site Kiva.org, speaks of ditching job security for a larger reward – the opportunity to positively affect the lives of millions of people. Not driven by simple generosity alone, the project was driven by his desire to create something spawned from the combination of he and his wife’s visions of their dream life.
There are other trends signaling the emergence of the entrepreneur in international development and international trade. These include the rising importance of diasporas from countries like Ethiopia and Sudan returning home to start new businesses, invest in existing but stagnant businesses, or even form non-profit organizations (now being called social enterprises) which serve the needs of their communities in areas like education, health, and women’s issues.
So why is the emergence of the entrepreneur so important to rebuilding, developing, or transforming economies, and why is everybody suddenly catching on? An entrepreneur invigorates communities and economies. An entrepreneur in our midst usually signals innovation, but at the very least means a new idea. An entrepreneur assumes risk that others are not willing to, is the first to successfully jump the hurdles others couldn’t, and in time a successful entrepreneur ultimately creates new jobs.
Take the equation one step further: the resulting employment and job security created by these entrepreneurs breeds hope and positivity where they may not have existed before, increases standards of living and resulting buyer power, and, frankly, detracts from unproductive activities which often spark the destructive and divisive actions we are seeing today in some developing countries.
So can entrepreneurship really be the catalyst for all of the above and more? Yes. That is why countries like Russia, where the Beyster Institute manages the U.S. Russia Center for Entrepreneurship, have declared May 26, 2008 as the “Day of the Entrepreneur,” a national holiday. That is why events like the Global Youth Enterprise Conference, focused on equipping youth with the necessary skills and opportunities to start their own businesses, and the first-ever Global Entrepreneurship Week, which will occur later this year, are building momentum in Washington, DC and around the world.
And just as springtime is equivalent to growth and renewal, the international development community seems to mirror that message with its own take on reinvigoration. This consists of injecting new ideas and new people into traditional methods of disbursing foreign assistance, forming non-traditional partnerships between the public and private sectors, and recognizing entrepreneurship and all it represents as maybe not as the driver, but certainly the co-pilot, of successful international development.
©2008 The Beyster Institute and its authors and their entities. All rights reserved.
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