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Good practice Imported

Personal Initiative Training — Lomé's Psychology-Based Alternative to Standard Business Training

Togo · Lomé · See the Togo profile · See the Lomé profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 42% 71/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A Science-published RCT in Lomé assigned 1,500 microfinance clients to psychology-based 'personal initiative' training, traditional business training, or no training; initiative training raised two-year profits by 30% versus an insignificant 11% for traditional training.

30%
Profit increase, personal initiative training (2-year follow-up)
11% (not statistically significant)
Profit increase, traditional training (2-year follow-up)
~1 year
Programme payback period
$91
Monthly profit gain, 7-year follow-up
1,500
Participants randomised
Personal Initiative Training — Lomé's Psychology-Based Alternative to Standard Business Training

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
FUCEC-Togo
Period
2013–2021
Keywords
microfinance, entrepreneurship and business-skills training, applied psychology

Context

Decades of conventional 'how to write a business plan' training for small entrepreneurs in developing countries had shown weak and inconsistent effects on firm performance, prompting researchers to test a fundamentally different, psychology-based curriculum.

Objectives

Test whether a psychology-based 'personal initiative' curriculum teaching proactive, self-starting entrepreneurial behaviours could outperform traditional business-plan training.

Activities

Researchers partnered with Togolese microfinance institution FUCEC-Togo and several local training organisations (including WAGES, CECA, APROMA, DOSI and AFCET) to randomly assign about 1,500 microenterprise owners in and around Lomé to one of three groups: a 'personal initiative' course, a traditional business-training curriculum, or a no-training control.

Results

Over a two-year follow-up, personal initiative training raised firm profits by roughly 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% increase for traditional training, and the intervention was estimated to pay for itself within about a year. A later seven-year follow-up study found average monthly profit gains of about $91 persisted long after the training ended.

Conclusions

The seven-year follow-up found a stark gender gap: long-run impacts kept growing for male entrepreneurs as they accumulated capital and confidence, but largely faded for women, whose capital build-up was much more limited — an honest reminder that even well-evidenced training does not benefit all participants equally.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Delivered as group classroom training through an existing microfinance client network; estimated to pay for itself within about a year.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Training delivered circa 2013; two-year follow-up, then a seven-year follow-up study extending evidence through 2021.
Staffing & skills
FUCEC-Togo (microfinance institution), local training organisations: WAGES, CECA, APROMA, DOSI, AFCET, academic researchers

Conditions for success

  • Delivered as low-cost group classroom sessions through an existing microfinance institution's client network
  • Curriculum focused on proactive, self-starting psychological behaviours rather than generic business-plan content

Common failure modes

  • Long-run gains faded for women entrepreneurs, whose capital accumulation was much more limited than men's, over the seven-year follow-up

Where it fits

Governance type
microfinance institution and local training NGOs delivering, with academic/World Bank researchers evaluating
Scale
regional (Lomé and surrounding area)
Income level
low-income

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