WHO ARE WE ?
OUR IMPACT STRATEGY
OUR IMPACT STRATEGY IS BASED FIRST AND FOREMOST ON THE POTENTIAL OF INDIVIDUALS
Our strategy aims to remove the barriers that prevent people who are typically under-represented — particularly women, young people and rural or peri-urban populations — from gaining full access to economic opportunities. It is not simply a matter of enabling these people to escape poverty, but of creating the conditions for shared and sustainable prosperity.
We focus on entrepreneurs’ ability to:
- Secure their livelihoods and ensure the well-being of their households
- Cope with economic and climate shocks and plan for the future
- Generate positive externalities by creating a ripple effect through their activities: strengthening local economies, creating a cascade of jobs, rebalancing supply chains and improving the social, societal and environmental well-being of communities.
Drawing on 28 years of experience in the field, we observe:
- That economic initiative is already widespread and can become a driving force for improving living conditions: millions of people engage in entrepreneurial activities every day to meet their needs.
- That without access to the right skills, finance and markets, these initiatives remain fragile and struggle to become genuine drivers of development.
Based on these observations, we have chosen to support micro-entrepreneurs operating in the informal economy.
At the same time, we are working to improve their economic environment — by strengthening local organisations, structuring supply chains and collaborating with public and private sector stakeholders — in order to create conditions more conducive to their success.
Because shared prosperity cannot be imposed; it is built gradually: starting with individuals, within communities, and within more inclusive and resilient economic systems.
WHO ARE OUR PROGRAMMES FOR?
An entrepreneur supported by PULSE is someone who starts a business to make a living, build stability and shape their future — often in contexts where economic opportunities are either limited or undermined by a lack of protection and access to markets.
In many African economies, entrepreneurship is the norm rather than the exception: 70% of the working population is self-employed, and up to 85% of women in rural areas. This means that, in reality, a large proportion of the population is already engaged in entrepreneurial activity, often without defining themselves as such.
A small-scale farmer, a market vendor, a craftsperson or a service provider:
all these activities are based on entrepreneurial principles — producing, selling, managing, adapting — even if they are far removed from traditional notions of entrepreneurship.
We prioritise support for:
- micro-entrepreneurs operating in the informal economy
- farmers engaged in production or processing activities
people running small businesses in retail, services, crafts or agriculture - people running small businesses in retail, services, crafts or agriculture
- people living in rural or peri-urban areas, far from traditional support systems
For many, entrepreneurship is not a choice but a necessity. Lacking access to formal employment, these activities are the main means of generating an income and providing for their households.
With tailored support, these entrepreneurs can strengthen their skills, secure their businesses and develop more stable and sustainable sources of income — for themselves, but also for their families and communities.
Focus on women
We prioritise support for women entrepreneurs, who very often face specific obstacles: limited access to finance, productive resources, networks and economic decision-making.
Supporting a female entrepreneur means going far beyond her business: it means boosting household income, promoting children’s education, reducing other gender-based inequalities, and contributing to the economic and social stability of communities.
Focus on young people
We also support young people for whom entrepreneurship is often the main route to economic integration.
Faced with a saturated labour market, they start businesses with limited resources, little guidance and little access to support schemes.
Our role is to help them structure their initiatives, develop their skills and transform a subsistence activity into a genuine opportunity for development.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
PULSE’s theory of change is based on the premise that the economic and climate resilience of those who form the lifeblood of the African economy can only be sustainably strengthened through simultaneous action on individual capacities, collective structures and the institutional environment.
Thus, if entrepreneurs—particularly women and young people in rural areas—benefit from structured support, solid technical and behavioural skills, and access to tailored financial solutions, then their incomes, food security, and ability to cope with personal and climate-related shocks improve significantly.
This individual transformation is amplified when:
- the structures surrounding them — SAEs, training centres, cooperatives and economic groups — are strengthened organisationally, financially and commercially, enabling them to secure market outlets, rebalance supply chains, pool risks and deploy inclusive community finance mechanisms,
- these initiatives are embedded in a supportive environment; we work with economic and institutional decision-makers to support transitions within regions, by promoting innovations led by entrepreneurs and the organisations supporting them, and by aiming to scale up proven solutions.
OUR IMPACT
Our activity figures – Outputs
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+5000
people supported each year through technical and behavioural training and access to financial services
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+500
civil society organisations supported through assistance with organisational, educational, financial and commercial structuring
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+50
savings and credit groups created each year
Our results – Outcomes
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83%
of respondents are leading a project with a social impact on their ecosystem (this figure rises to 74% among female project leaders who responded)
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58%
of respondents are leading a project with an environmental impact on their ecosystem (this figure rises to 62% among female project leaders who responded).
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64%
of respondents are running a project with an economic impact within their ecosystem (this figure rises to 52% among female project leaders who responded)
More specifically
In Senegal and South Africa, 492 people have improved their entrepreneurial skills thanks to the support provided through the REACH project.
In the Balkans, 25 projects led by alumni supported by the RISE ecosystem are generating income through their activities.
In Tunisia, 100% of entrepreneurship support organisations stated that the personalised mentoring sessions delivered as part of the SAMIM project had strengthened their strategic expertise, particularly in communication and business development.
In Senegal, 126 jobs have been created through our AGreenLab programme.
In Madagascar, over 50% of members of the Collectifs d’Actions Rurales et Intégrées (mostly women) say they are able to meet their food needs throughout the lean season thanks to their savings, thanks to the project supporting the resilience of vanilla-producing communities.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Evaluer pour continuellement apprendre, et adapter nos approches
Evaluating to continuously learn and adapt our approaches
At the heart of our approach, monitoring and evaluation fuels our ability to experiment, adjust our interventions and anticipate the needs of the entrepreneurs and organisations we support.
In 2025, we continued our reflection on impact measurement and the strengthening of monitoring and evaluation practices. We supported our incubators and partner organisations in monitoring their activities through training, the sharing of tools and methodological advice. The use of collaborative tools such as Notion and Airtable has facilitated real-time monitoring and the sharing of information within our teams and with our partners. We have also recruited a Monitoring and Evaluation Manager to develop a shared impact strategy and foster a culture of learning. This step marks a strong commitment to consolidating our culture of evaluation and learning across the organisation.
Our projects are systematically evaluated by specialist external teams, ensuring an objective and independent view of our results. The data collected has also enabled us to continuously refine our training programmes, boosting beneficiary participation and satisfaction.
In 2026, we are preparing to roll out a Monitoring and Evaluation toolkit, designed to standardise the monitoring and measurement of our programmes’ impact whilst promoting the sharing of best practices. We also plan to introduce participatory systems for beneficiaries, developing collaborative approaches to gather their feedback and enhance our understanding of the impact of our interventions. These initiatives are part of our commitment to continuing to innovate and improve the effectiveness of our support, in order to generate a lasting impact across all the countries where we operate.
SCALING-UP OBJECTIVE
Scaling-up is achieved when entrepreneurs who support African economies can access high-quality economic services independently and sustainably through strengthened local organisations, when these services are integrated into local ecosystems, and when the empowerment models developed by PULSE are adopted, adapted and sustainably funded. Success is measured both by the creation of decent jobs, the sustainable improvement in beneficiaries’ incomes and resilience, and by the ability of ecosystems to function without direct dependence on PULSE.
Change is achieved when women and men who earn their livelihoods from entrepreneurial activities, whether formal or informal, have sustainable access to the skills, finance and opportunities needed to live with dignity from their work.
Entrepreneurs have local access to support services, tailored financial solutions and structured markets, without relying on external intervention.
In this situation, PULSE is no longer an indispensable operator: its role becomes that of a facilitator of knowledge transfer, capitalisation and innovation, whilst the solutions, skills and models it has helped to develop are sustained, funded and adapted in the long term by local stakeholders.