Coordinators

Policy Experimentation & Evaluation Platform (PEEP), Portugal

Project Coordinator

Organizational Description:

The Policy Experimentation & Evaluation Platform (PEEP – Educar para Empreender) is a Non-Governmental Organization for Development that supports evidence-based policymaking in education reform and economic development. Since its inception in 2010, PEEP has developed significant project management capabilities through its involvement and leadership in EU-funded projects, such as the coordination of the 3-year Youth Start Entrepreneurial Challenges project with a total budget of EUR 2.6 million and the involvement of partners in six different countries.

In the last 2 years, PEEP developed the “Developing Africa’s Financial Services: the importance of high-impact entrepreneurship” project, which was published in a book by Emerald and launched globally at the World Bank as well as in five different African. PEEP has also done other work such as a technical assistance project with the United Nations (UNIDO) in evaluating Angola’s Entrepreneurship Curricula in Secondary Schools and provided capacity building and training to the Ministry of Education. The organization has also worked extensively on women entrepreneurship through the EEA Grants funded, eXchange – Activating Female Entrepreneurship project, which promoted entrepreneurship in immigrant women.

Key person:

The project team of the Policy Experimentation & Evaluation Platform (PEEP) led by Prof. Dana T. Redford who is also the organizations Founder and President. He has successfully coordinated large transnational projects in both Europe and Africa in addition to working as an expert for the US Department of Commerce, the European Commission, the OECD, the UN and various African governments.

College of Business & Economics, School of Accounting, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Project Coordinator

Organizational Description:

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a leading, research-focused university in South Africa. The College of Business and Economics has significant expertise related to savings groups in the Research Unit in the School of Accounting. Specific focus on business development in Africa investigates the connection between business development, women’s empowerment, entrepreneurship and funding of SMMEs on the African continent.

Key person:

The project team of the University of Johannesburg, led by Prof. Grietjie Verhoef, as the President of the International Economic History Association, has led African scholars in various international conferences in exploring African entrepreneurship, business development and empowerment initiatives of family businesses. She has published extensively on banking and financial development in Africa, as well as on voluntary savings organizations. Her working the Research Unit at the School of Accounting engages with the strengthening of empowerment, especially of women, in the SMME enterprise environment.