This guide describes the steps involved in opening a computer refurbishment centre in Africa and managing it into productivity. It is intended to distill best practices and provide information on proven methods that could be replicated in refurbishment centres across the continent.

Entrepreneurship provides an important avenue for expanding the economies of developing countries. Although capital is needed to kick-start entrepreneurial endeavours, an understanding of the marketplace, application of sound business practices, and effective technology use can help entrepreneurs put investments to good use. The Enterprise Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Digital Divide Initiative (GDDI) set out to foster socio-economic development by exploiting WEF’s global network and the power of information and communications technology (ICT) to help entrepreneurs in developing countries build sustainable businesses. It created the Enterprise Channelling Organisation (ECHO) in 2001 as a vehicle for delivering development aid at ground level that would offer support to entrepreneurs through donations of human and other resources instead of money.

This report serves as a companion to the bridges.org report “Supporting entrepreneurship in developing countries: Survey of the field and inventory of initiatives”. This companion report is offered as a first step toward common evaluation criteria that entrepreneurship support initiatives could use to gauge the effectiveness of their activities. A report card presents a format for an organisation to offer its views on what works best for supporting entrepreneurship, and why.

Small enterprises are often the backbone of the private sector in the developing world, creating jobs and providing a tax base for local government. This report looks at 16 initiatives that support entrepreneurship and what they provide. Although the list covers a wide range, it emphasises international initiatives that work at a community level because that approach is growing in prominence and proving to be effective in development aid.

The bridges.org/IICD Case Study Series on ICT -Enabled Development sets out to illustrate how ICT contributes to development in Africa. The aim of this series is to help ground level initiatives imagine the possibilities of what can happen if they use ICT successfully to overcome development obstacles, and to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the digital divide.