Promoting Entrepreneurship: UNCTAD’s Policy Approach to Support Sustainable Business Growth

Recognizing the role of entrepreneurship as a catalyst for development and a means to address sustainable development challenges, the presentation will illustrate UNCTAD’s approach to promoting entrepreneurship from a policy perspective. It draws lessons from the implementation of UNCTAD’s Entrepreneurship Policy Framework (EPF) and will explain the need for holistic entrepreneurship policies according to the six priority areas identified by the EPF. The presentation will focus on how policymakers can create an enabling entrepreneurial environment which also takes into account inclusive and sustainable business models, thereby expanding opportunities for all and addressing the needs of socially disadvantaged groups. For aspiring entrepreneurs from such groups, who tend to have lower levels of entrepreneurship skills and greater difficulty in navigating the business and regulatory environment, governments need to tailor policy measures to help them manage and grow their businesses. In this way, entrepreneurship policies can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations General Assembly’s sustainable development goals adopted in 2015.