Center of Evidence-based Entrepreneurship Development (CEED)

Welcome to the CEED newsletter, covering the latest news on the Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP) and Personal Initiative (PI) Training!

This newsletter informs you on a quarterly basis about current events, projects, and the implementation of both our training programs STEP and PI. On top of sharing news from our side, we would like to encourage you to contribute to this newsletter so that we can establish it as a medium for mutual updates. Because just like us, you’re gaining valuable experiences with the training programs. In fact, you run great projects that always amaze us and that the whole community should know about!

Therefore, please don’t hesitate to reach out and send us updates on what you are doing, as well as news to share to our CEED E-Mail.

Topics of this Newsletter

• Malawi and Mozambique: Implementation of PI Training
• Uganda and Kenya: Impressions from a Master PI Trainer
• Germany: First Train-the-Trainer Workshop
• Bangladesh: PI Training for Rohingya refugees
• STEP: Research results and presentation at the BCERC

Malawi and Mozambique: Implementation of PI training

As a result of another productive collaboration between move Entrepreneurship Training Institute gGmbH and GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit/German Agency for International Cooperation), we are pleased to inform you that the Personal Initiative Training (PI) was once again effectively implemented.

Between February and April 2023, a PI Train-the-Trainer workshop (TTT) was held in Lilongwe, Malawi, and two more in the Mozambican provinces of Sofala and Nampula. The three TTTs resulted in thirteen facilitators in Malawi and twenty-one trainers in the two provinces of Mozambique, who are now certified to spread the PI knowledge in different rural and agricultural areas of their respective countries. During the TTTs, the participants demonstrated to identify with the PI approach. From the first days of the training, they brought inspiring examples of how to apply personal initiative in local contexts in Malawi and Mozambique. These knowledge exchanges were very rich and engaging for the participants and the trainers. On a continuous basis, since the implementation of the Personal Initiative Training in Malawi and Mozambique, we have received many positive comments and many interesting suggestions from the trainees. It helps us not only to further improve the Personal Initiative Trainings, but also to maintain an elevated level of enthusiasm in what we do.

We look forward to continuing to hear success stories, both from businesses and from the experiences of the PI trainers in Malawi and Mozambique.

Uganda and Kenya: Impressions from a Master PI Trainer

Shona Passfield (PI Trainer since 2018): 'My recent trip to East Africa was motivated by twin objectives. First, an idea to increase exposure to Action Principles in Uganda by launching a radio show for everyone engaged in business. This will be designed as ‘light touch’ business training packaged in an enjoyable and accessible format and featuring case studies with tips that can easily be copied. An additional opportunity will be to recruit customers for training sessions they would pay for. We are working with MUKONO FM a small radio station funded by the Diocese of Mukono. Currently the design and implementation are progressing with the valuable assistance of Isaac Katono, a senior STEP Trainer based at Uganda Christian University.
The second objective straddled Uganda and Kenya and explored augmenting PI training with a holistic dimension. Specifically in partnership with the Church, reaching young people with a Christian belief to develop their worldview of business and enhance personal fulfilment by benefitting the community through entrepreneurial talents. Put another way, Ubuntu: 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. Even with this project being a work in progress, any feedback on both projects are most welcome.'

Shona founded a successful Corporate Partnerships Consultancy based in London which she ran for 20 years, she has also been involved founding a number of other start-up businesses as well as performing board governance roles for a technology business and two Christian NGO’s. Shona has been a regular visitor to East Africa for many years and is actively engaged in a number of projects with a particular interest in helping young people start their own businesses. She is a Master PI Trainer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Germany: First Train-the-Trainer Workshop

In the last two weeks of June the first Train-the-Trainer workshop in Germany took place. Within four days, nine new STEP trainers coming from different institutions of Startup Port, an association of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Hamburg metropolitan region (Startup Port), were trained.
The workshop was conducted at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), also a partner university of the entrepreneurship ecosystem Startup Port. All STEP training materials were translated into German for the first time. Thus, STEP has taken a step forward in terms of its context-specificity.
As a partner university of Startup Port, the workshops could be carried out by Leuphana University within the EXiST project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). Through the training of the new trainers, STEP is anchored within the metropolitan region of Hamburg and forms an essential pillar in the area of sensitization within the developed framework of the Founder's Journey.

By the end of the EXiST project next year, additional Train-the-Trainer workshops will be held to further implement STEP within the Startup Port and beyond the project period.

Bangladesh: PI Training for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The first PI Training implementation in Bangladesh brought us (Doorways gGmbH) to Cox’s Bazar where in its surroundings more than 1 million Rohingya have found refuge, some for more than 30 years by now. In a joint pilot project with J-PAL, MIT, Y-RISE, University of Cologne, University of Wageningen, and University of Warwick and the local implementation partner RTM, we evaluate the effectiveness of the PI Training and an Effectuation Training that was designed for this project in cooperation with Saras Sarasvathy. In order for both training programs to be carried out at Kutupalong Refugee Camp, 12 local trainers successfully completed a Train-the-Trainer workshop and will remain in direct contact with us throughout the implementation of the pilot training.

On the Asian continent, we are currently also planning the implementation of a shortened version of the STEP Training in the Philippines and in cooperation with IMG Partners (funded by JICA) as well as a PI Training for farmers in India in cooperation with the local NGO Hands-in-Hands (funded by South Asia Gender Innovation Lab of The World Bank (SAR GIL)).

STEP: The impact on employment, income, and business performance

We participated in this year’s Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC) from June 7^th – 10^th in Knoxville, Tennessee and had the chance to present our paper on the overall impact of STEP on employment, income, and business performance. In this paper, we analyzed data from 18 projects in 7 countries with a sample size of 6,257 (training group: 3,486; control group: 2,771) that was collected between 2009 and 2021. To test our hypotheses, we conducted discontinuous growth curve modeling.

Our results indicate that STEP has significant short- and long-term effects on business ownership and total income (combined income from business and wage employment), as well as significant long-term effects wage employment. Interestingly, our results concerning business performance revealed that some positive effects only manifest in the long term. They show that STEP participants require time to grow their businesses and catch up with the entrepreneurs of the control group to achieve the same level of business performance. However, this delayed onset of effects can still contribute to economic wealth creation. Our results further suggest that STEP puts the participants on a proactive career path that results in various combinations of employment and self-employment.

For more detailed information please contact Janina Peschmann.

Further Announcements

• We are happy to announce our collaboration platform for STEP, PI and its coordinators to be launched in the near future. Stay alert for any upcoming information.
• Train-the-Trainer workshops in South Africa are taking place again, initiating another round of STEP trainings.
• For further information on the Center of Evidence Based Entrepreneurship Development, past succes stories and the most important publications, please visit the Website of CEED.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your feedback and thoughts to ceed@leuphana.de.

For more information follow us on social media,
for STEP: Website, Facebook, Instagram,
for PI: Website.