Self-Employment, Microenterprise, and the Poorest

Publication Date: Jun 1999
Published by: Microfinance.com
Document Type: Paper

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Micro enterprises aim at economic development and self employment

This paper discusses the contribution of micro enterprise programs in promoting self employment.

The paper informs about the performance of micro enterprise programs that aim at empowerment of individuals and economic development, in the United States (US). The paper draws this information from two US-based self employment programs:

• The Unemployment Insurance Self-Employment Demonstration (UISED) that focuses on economic development of unemployed.
• The Self Employment Investment Demonstration (SEID) that centers on individual empowerment for people.

• Entrepreneurs whose main source of income came from micro enterprises had very low wages;
• Individuals who pursued self employment faced greater financial risks;
• The self employed poor needed strong support network from family and friends;
• People had to take up wage jobs along with self employment to meet their needs.