Inclusive entrepreneurship policies are intended to give everybody the opportunity to start up in business or self-employment regardless of their social background and to improve labour market outcomes for people who are under-represented or disadvantaged in entrepreneurship and self-employment. This may occur directly, through increasing the number and quality of businesses and self-employment start-up activities, or indirectly, by providing an improved pathway to employment for people who do not eventually start-up or remain in business or self-employment. They work by targeting specific populations such as youth, seniors, women, the disabled, ex-offenders, ethnic minorities, and the unemployed with tailored interventions or improved accessibility to mainstream actions in areas such as access to start-up financing; training, mentoring and consultancy; entrepreneurship education and awareness raising; network building; or improvements to social security and business regulation systems.
This report sets out the case for evaluating inclusive entrepreneurship policies, and explains how this can be done.