Project Years: 2025—
TechnoServe ESO Academy
This global initiative strengthens the capacity of local enterprise support organizations to expand their reach, accelerating growth and job creation for the entrepreneurial people they serve.
The Opportunity
Strong entrepreneurship ecosystems are fundamental to driving business growth and sustainable job creation in low- and middle-income countries. Local Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs)—including incubators, accelerators, private consulting firms, technical and vocational education and training institutions (TVETs), universities, financial institutions, and government agencies—play a critical role in these systems by delivering essential business development services to micro, small, and growing businesses (MSGBs).
As the international development sector increasingly prioritizes localization, many local ESOs nevertheless face significant capacity constraints across technical, institutional, and financial domains that limit their ability to deliver on this economic potential:
Many ESOs rely on one-size-fits-all approaches that don’t meet the needs of entrepreneurs and deliver training and advisory that fail to effectively build entrepreneurial capacity.
Weak internal processes leave ESOs struggling to manage their operations efficiently or adequately track and demonstrate their impact to attract clients, partners and donors.
A reliance on restricted funding streams compromises their operational sustainability.
Strengthening these local organizations presents a highly strategic opportunity to scale economic impact; better-equipped ESOs can effectively expand their reach, accelerating growth and job creation for the entrepreneurial people they serve.
The Strategy
The TechnoServe ESO Academy functions as a comprehensive, one-stop shop that translates extensive enterprise development expertise into accessible tools to identify and address the specific capacity needs of ESOs. Utilizing digital and in-person training modules available in four languages, the ESO Academy delivers a structured learning journey tailored precisely to the starting point and strategic objectives of each participating organization. It is built upon a decade of proven success during which TechnoServe supported more than 270 local ESOs across 9 countries. It also incorporates the latest research and approaches–like SCALE–from across the ecosystem.
The core methodology has four pillars:
Uses a diagnostic tool to assess more than 50 key practices across eight capacity areas spanning technical, institutional, and financial domains, resulting in a prioritized organizational action plan.
Delivers a customized e-learning journey to close priority gaps featuring real-world examples, women and youth economic empowerment recommendations, ready-to-use tools and practical assignments. Training modules are paired with 1:1 advisory and peer-learning opportunities to support best practice adoption.
Provides hands-on support as ESOs implement a full business acceleration or incubation cycle using TechnoServe’s proven methodologies.
Gives ESOs access to TechnoServe’s Impact Intelligence Platform to amplify impact through better use of data. ESO partners are provided training and support in using the platform which is eventually handed over to enable sustainability.
Results
The ESO Academy aims to achieve the following outcomes:
- Organizations Strengthened: 200+ local ESOs will be empowered globally over the period of 4-5 years.
- Enterprises Benefited: Roughly 20,000 micro, small, and growing businesses will receive enhanced support through these ESOs
- Revenue Generation: Supported businesses are projected to achieve a collective revenue increase of $44.5 million.
To achieve these results, the ESO Academy will develop new initiatives with partners across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. To learn more, contact esoacademy@tns.org