In October 2024, the Legatum Center for Development Entrepreneurship at MIT conducted a two-day workshop titled "Hedging Currency Risk: Innovative Lending Strategies for SMEs in Africa." The workshop brought together a diverse group of entrepreneurs, investors, economists, and thought leaders to tac...

This paper employs the MIT framework for innovation-driven entrepreneurship to assess the development of Deep Tech and innovation ecosystems in Central Asia, focusing on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has seen rapid socioeconomic growth due to oil and gas revenues, but diversification has been at the top of economic growth agendas for over a decade now. GCC countries are increasingly encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation as a pathway to achieving diversity...

The story of Africa has long been one of resilience, innovation, and adaptability: from the architectural marvels of the ancient Egyptian pyramids to the invention of mathematics in the Kingdom of Mali, the Continent has been characterized by significant achievements and contributions to global hist...

This paper lays out a new framework for understanding the different ways in which entrepreneurs unlock value in broken or dysfunctional markets. Based on the study of how successful business and social entrepreneurs are transforming markets for growth and impact in both emerging and developed econom...

The Kallas are a mission-driven family. Dr. Hassan El Kalla founded CIRA in the early 90s with the mission of transforming Egypt bottom-up, student by student. He believes that Egypt’s greatest resource is its people and that quality, accessible education has the power to create generations of probl...

This technical brief is a supplement to the white paper, The Women-Waste-Climate Nexus: Unlocking the potential of women entrepreneurs to combat the global waste crisis and Accelerate the Race to Net Zero (Khaled, 2023). Using the paper as a point of departure, it provides a brief analysis of the wo...

The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was founded in 2007 with its vision and mission centered on the belief that entrepreneurs and their innovation-driven solutions are key to advancing global prosperity.

Embracing deeptech innovation – innovation grounded in advances at the frontier of science and technology – in Africa has the potential to drive sustainable economic growth, improve living standards, and bring stability and resilience. As the wellspring of new solutions, deeptech has the power to a...

Despite Vietnam’s transition to an emerging economy, the healthcare sector has not witnessed the same progress seen in other sectors. Vietnam is a country of innovators and entrepreneurs, and this should be leveraged to address the country’s healthcare challenges.