The Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL) programme pursues a research agenda that aims to better understand what determines the strength of market forces driving efficiency in low-income countries (LICs). Existing research suggests that the private sector in LICs faces a multitude of constraints that act upon each other. What is needed is research that allows us to understand how these constraints interact.
The objective of PEDL is to fund cutting-edge, policy-oriented research that could be published in leading academic journals and be relevant to the policy dialogue in LICs. It will promote research related to private enterprises of all sizes and invites applications in any aspect of private sector development, with a particular emphasis on PEDL’s three priority research areas:
- Innovation, Organisations and Markets
- Climate and Environment
- Finance and Entrepreneurship
We are particularly interested in proposals related to the work of British International Investment (BII), the UK's development finance institution. These will address the impact of development finance. We are particularly interested in the intersection between development finance on the one have and climate and gender on the other, and on projects that trace the impact of private sector investments through backward and forward linkages. A complete list of BII investments is available here.
PEDL also encourages proposals that address three cross-cutting issues:
- Fragile and conflict affected states
- Gender
- Scaling up Research into Policy
More information on PEDL's research and cross-cutting themes can be found in our Research Strategy.
ERGs are designed to allow researchers to:
- Explore new approaches to the study of firms in LICs; and
- To develop new (or build on) existing sources of data on firms in LICs.
ERGs are grants of between £10,000 and £40,000. These grants will fund research assistance, data collection and new surveys in LICs, and (if necessary) teaching buyouts for the principal investigator. Please note that cost effectiveness and value for money are important evaluation criteria.
