First-person narrative by Andreas Widmer describing his path from business and consulting into philanthropy. He recounts disillusionment with conventional top-down aid (citing 50 years and $2.3 trillion in aid with little country-level escape from poverty), and co-founding the Seven Fund with Michael Fairbanks to promote enterprise-based solutions. The document argues SMEs (already present in emerging markets) are engines of wealth creation—citing OECD SME employment shares and a 2007 study claiming 1 SME investment creates 12 jobs/economic impacts locally—and summarizes the Pioneers of Prosperity program which identifies and connects high-potential entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
Questions this document answers
$2.3 trillion
$1 trillion to Africa (equivalent given as $5,000 per African living today)
OECD: 95% of firms are SMEs and account for 70% of jobs; in the EU as much as 99% of jobs are SME jobs.
1.4% of world Foreign Direct Investment in 2001.
One investment in an SME in an emerging market creates 12 (units) in the local economy; 41% of that impact occurs outside the SME (consumers, producers, local communities, local government).