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Good practice Imported

PRIDE–ILO Loans, Grants and Training Trial for Ugandan Microentrepreneurs

Uganda · Jinja · See the Uganda profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 88% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A randomised trial gave 1,550 Ugandan microentrepreneurs loans, cash grants, ILO training, or combinations, across four semi-urban districts. Men who got loans plus training saw profits rise 54% within six months; women receiving any combination saw no profit gain at all.

1,550 microentrepreneurs
Trial participants (2012–2013)
54 %
Profit increase for men receiving loans + training (6 months after programme end)
PRIDE–ILO Loans, Grants and Training Trial for Ugandan Microentrepreneurs

Details

Maturity
Discontinued
Promoter
PRIDE Microfinance & International Labour Organization (ILO)
Period
2012–2013
Keywords
microenterprise, microfinance, entrepreneurship training, gender

Context

PRIDE Microfinance, which distributes loans and cash grants, and the ILO, which delivers "Start and Improve Your Business" training, worked with researchers to test what actually grows small businesses among Ugandan microentrepreneurs across four semi-urban districts.

Objectives

Test whether loans, cash grants, entrepreneurship training, or combinations of these grow small businesses, and whether effects differ between men and women.

Activities

Researchers randomly assigned 1,550 microenterprise owners across four semi-urban districts in Uganda (2012–2013) to loans, grants, training, or combinations of these.

Results

Men who received loans together with training saw profits increase by 54% six months after the programme ended, with the effect growing slightly by nine months. Grants alone, with or without training, produced no measurable profit gain for men. For women, none of the treatments — loans, grants, training, or any combination — produced a significant profit increase.

Conclusions

Follow-up work attributes the gender gap partly to intra-household bargaining: women report more pressure to divert business capital to immediate household needs, while men's repayment obligations on loans push them toward productive investment. The result is a caution against assuming standardised microenterprise support works equally for men and women.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Randomised trial conducted 2012–2013, with profit effects measured at six and nine months after the programme ended; no reported continuation or institutionalisation afterward.
Staffing & skills
Delivery combined a domestic microfinance institution (PRIDE Microfinance), which distributed loans and cash grants, with an international agency (ILO), which delivered the "Start and Improve Your Business" training

Conditions for success

  • combining loans with training, rather than grants alone, was associated with profit gains for men

Common failure modes

  • no combination of loans, grants or training produced a significant profit increase for women
  • intra-household bargaining pressures reportedly divert women's business capital to household needs
  • grants alone, with or without training, produced no measurable profit gain for men

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Data sources

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