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Entrepreneurial skills

Togo

Learning to act when obstacles arise

Randomized experiment · 1,500 microentrepreneurs

Personal Initiative Training

What the evidence shows

The 2025 article reports average monthly profits US$91 higher after seven years for personal initiative training relative to the control group. The persistence of gains differs greatly between men and women. [1][2]

Three groups of 500 entrepreneurs compared personal initiative training, conventional business training and a control group. Personal initiative emphasizes proactive behavior, planning and responses to difficulties. [1][2]

  1. Train initiative and planning

  2. Apply the practices in the business

  3. Track profits and differences between groups

Costs and delivery

The full cost associated with the seven-year follow-up was not extracted. Average profit gains alone cannot establish a fiscal return or cost per job. [1][2]

Limits of the comparison

Profit is not additional employment. Attrition and the capital constraints faced by women limit any reading of the average as a universal benefit.

OpenGov3's interpretation

What it can teach Brazil

Which support changes management skills, and which groups still face barriers?

What to monitor when adapting it

  • Profit over the follow-up period, compared with the other groups
  • Persistence of results by gender and capital constraints
  • Loss to follow-up and differences between those who remained and those who left
  • Full cost of training and follow-up per participant

These are criteria for analysis, not commitments already made or estimated outcomes for Brazil. A well-documented practice is not, by itself, causal proof of an entire country's success.

Sources consulted

Consulted on 10/29/2026. Each result retains its observed period; institutional descriptions and impact evaluations have different scopes.

  1. Campos et al. — Long-Term and Lasting Impacts of Personal Initiative Training (2025) (opens in a new tab)

    2025 article: seven-year follow-up, profits and differences by gender.

  2. World Bank — Togo, Impact Evaluation of Entrepreneurial Training (2013–2021) (opens in a new tab)

    Microdata catalogue and experimental documentation; not the follow-up article.