Informal entrepreneurs usually need a combination of support—not a single loan or training course—to grow sustainably. The right mix depends on what is holding a particular business back: its operating environment, access to suitable finance and services, business skills, customers, or protection from shocks. Support works best when it fits local conditions and helps the people running the enterprise build both a viable business and greater security.
What does sustainable growth mean for an informal business?
Growth is more than a rise in sales. A business is on firmer ground when it can serve customers reliably, manage costs and risks, and provide a more secure livelihood for the people who work in it. That means considering working conditions and access to social protection alongside revenue or expansion.
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Informal entrepreneurs are not one uniform group. A market trader, a home-based producer, and a small service provider may face very different barriers. Country, sector, business stage, gender, age, displacement, and access to infrastructure can all affect which support is useful. A package that works in one setting should not be assumed to work everywhere.
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The International Labour Organization (ILO) describes entrepreneurship as shaped by interrelated factors: the business and policy environment, finance and business-development services, human capital, entrepreneurial culture, and access to functioning markets. In practice, this points to a coordinated set of supports rather than a universal solution.
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A workable business environment and basic services
Public services, infrastructure, and regulation affect whether an enterprise can operate productively. Regulatory barriers or missing services can limit a business even when its owner has strong skills and motivation. Support may therefore need to address the local rules and services around an enterprise, not only its internal management. The ILO’s informal-enterprise work describes interventions at policy, intermediary, and enterprise levels, with country examples in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Solomon Islands.
Finance that fits the business
Access to capital matters, but the existence of a loan does not make it suitable. Informal enterprises may find that services offered by established financial providers do not match their needs. Compare the full cost, repayment schedule, collateral or guarantee requirements, flexibility, and risks before choosing a product. Advice should help an entrepreneur decide whether financing fits the business’s cash flow and plans; the ILO material does not support a universal recommendation to borrow.
Business and financial skills
Useful capacity-building can include entrepreneurship, financial literacy, marketing, business development, and digital technology. The best training addresses a real operating need—for example, understanding cash flow or reaching customers—and connects to the enterprise’s sector and local market. Training alone cannot remove structural barriers such as poor infrastructure, unsuitable regulation, or a lack of customers.
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Markets and business-development services
Business advice, relevant marketing support, and links to customers or supply chains may help an enterprise reach a functioning market. The service needs to be accessible and appropriate to the sector; a generic program is not automatically useful. Market access and business-development services can also complement skills or finance, rather than being treated as substitutes for them.
Resilience, social protection, and decent work
Downturns can threaten both a business and the livelihoods of the people behind it. The ILO notes that inadequate risk-management tools and government support can leave informal enterprises vulnerable, while loss of income can expose workers to poverty, hunger, or disease when social protection, health insurance, and pensions are absent. A sustainable-growth plan should consider how workers’ security and working conditions can improve, not just how the enterprise can sell more.
Collective organization where it fits
For some entrepreneurs, social-and-solidarity-economy organizations can help pool resources, share risks, strengthen representation, or improve access to markets, finance, procurement, and social security. This can be a useful route where collective action suits the group and setting; it is not a requirement for every business.
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How should an entrepreneur compare local support options?
When more than one program, service, or financial product is available, compare them against the business’s actual constraint. There is no global ranking or universal scoring system in the cited material, but these questions can make a local choice clearer:
- Fit: Does the support address the main constraint for this enterprise and sector?
- Cost and access: What will participation or financing cost, and what documents, collateral, travel, or other requirements apply?
- Timing and delivery: Can the entrepreneur take part without disrupting the business, and are the service location, schedule, and format workable?
- Practical effect: Is the likely benefit better capability, customer or supply-chain access, financial fit, or resilience?
- Coordination: Does the support connect to complementary services when needed, rather than leaving a key barrier untouched?
- Worker security: Could the approach improve or undermine the security and working conditions of the people doing the work?
For example, a business seeking more capital may first need customers or a more reliable way to manage its finances. A training course may build skills but still leave an infrastructure or regulatory obstacle in place. The useful question is not whether a support type sounds promising in general, but whether it addresses the binding constraint in this particular situation.
What does the evidence say about broader economic-inclusion programs?
The World Bank’s State of Economic Inclusion Report 2024: Pathways to Scale, as summarized in a World Bank release dated 20 November 2024, estimated that economic-inclusion programs reached about 10% of roughly 700 million people living in extreme poverty—just over 70 million people across 88 countries. These programs can combine cash transfers, skills training, business capital, coaching, and market access. The estimate concerns people reached by economic-inclusion programs; it is not a measure of all informal entrepreneurs or proof that one package works for every business.
The same World Bank release reported results from specific programs: in Zambia, consumption increased 19%, business profits rose 45%, and costs were recovered within 12 months; in Niger, consumption increased 15% and business revenue doubled for women. Those figures describe the named program examples, not expected effects for other places or populations.
World Bank Global Director for Social Protection Iffath Sharif said there is “strong evidence” of significant impacts from economic-inclusion programs on food security, consumption, and income. The release also attributes to Sharif the view that such programs, when implemented through government systems, can be highly cost-effective and yield high returns on investment. That statement is about programs implemented through those systems; it should not be read as a guarantee for every intervention design.
How can support account for different entrepreneurs?
The ILO’s inclusive-ecosystem approach puts groups such as women, young people, and refugees at the forefront of analysis. The practical test is whether people can access the goods and services they need to succeed and move toward decent work. In a specific community, that means checking whether eligibility rules, delivery arrangements, costs, infrastructure, and market connections work for the intended participants.
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The ILO project page describes work in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Solomon Islands and gives a project duration ending 31 May 2026. That date has passed, so it should not be taken as evidence that the project is still active. Its examples illustrate work across different levels; they do not establish a single support package for every country or group.
What can a practical first step look like?
- Identify the constraint. Work out whether the immediate obstacle is operating conditions, cash flow or suitable finance, business capability, customers, or exposure to shocks.
- Look for locally accessible help. Check relevant business-development services, financial-literacy support, market links, and public or community services available in the enterprise’s area and sector.
- Check the trade-offs. Compare cost, eligibility, timing, delivery, repayment terms where applicable, and whether the option connects to other support the business needs.
- Include workers’ security in the plan. Consider how the business can become more resilient and how the people doing the work can gain greater security and move toward decent work.
This is a way to assess options, not a substitute for local legal or financial advice. The ILO and World Bank material discussed here is a cross-sector synthesis and does not provide country-specific recommendations or a direct head-to-head ranking of training, finance, market access, regulation, and social protection.
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