This report, developed under the YouthPower Action task order of the YouthPower: Implementation Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, summarizes the evidence for effective youth entrepreneurship training and support interventions. The findings are based on an analysis of rigorously evaluated Entrepreneurship Education and Training (EET) programs that assessed results according to four main outcome categories: entrepreneurial status, firm performance, entrepreneurial capabilities, and entrepreneurial mindsets. The report frames the discussion by defining entrepreneurship and the different typologies relevant to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programming. It is intended to help USAID staff and implementing partners understand the outcomes that can reasonably be expected from entrepreneurship programs and apply this understanding to the design and implementation of future ones.

The analysis is focused on evidence from entrepreneurship education and training programs for several reasons. First, young people are more likely to be in education or most easily reached by education and training institutions. Second, young people are typically better connected to the education and training system than to other types of business-supporting institutions (business development service providers, for example). Finally, high-quality research on youth entrepreneurship programming is limited, and the vast majority of youth-focused programs that have been rigorously evaluated are centrally focused on education and/or training.

Read the full Evidence Report here.