up the distribution of cash grants to female entrepreneurs without simultaneously addressing the gender-specific constraints that they face means the program is unlikely to impact firms’ performance.

When assessing the status of the evidence for each constraint and intervention, it is important to consider the following:

- When an experiment demonstrates that an intervention is effective in promoting the growth of women-owned businesses, it actually confirms two hypotheses: (i) that the constraint that was targeted is indeed binding; and (ii) that the intervention is effective in addressing the constraint.

- However, when an intervention has no detectable impact on the performance of women-owned businesses, it can be for one of these three reasons: (i) the constraint that was targeted is not binding, so addressing this constraint has no impact on business outcomes; (ii) the constraint is binding but the intervention that was tested is not an effective way of addressing it (either due to design or implementation issues); and (iii) the constraint that was targeted is important, the intervention that was tested is an effective way of addressing this constraint _but_ female entrepreneurs face additional joint binding constraints. When that is the case, an intervention that relaxes only one of these constraints will not affect business outcomes. In order to design a successful intervention, it is thus important to identify all the binding constraints that women face and to design solutions that address all of them simultaneously.

Future research needs to take these issues into account in order to design effective interventions that address all of the binding constraints that female entrepreneurs face. This requires impact evaluations that compare different interventions addressing similar constraints - as a means of identifying methods of delivery that can work – as well as evaluations of combined complementary interventions that address multiple constraints simultaneously.

Furthermore, researchers should use an array of methods including qualitative and inferential research to learn about constraints women face while operating their businesses. Conducting this research exante can maximize the cost-effectiveness of research funds by ensuring that only the best designed solutions are actually tested. Impact evaluations are important both for testing if specific barriers – eg: time use – are binding for business development, and for identifying specific solutions that can address these constraints. But in combination with developing new evidence on what works, it is critical to understand more about specific challenges women face and their relation with strategic choices. This will facilitate developing innovations that can be tested through rigorous impact evaluations. Our discussion above indicates that the differences between men and women’s exposure to the constraints are not well documented. Therefore, it is important to include in the research agenda assessments of whether these differences are prevalent in Africa. This can be done through econometric analysis of large labor market and firm-level surveys - with a focus on informal enterprises - as well as qualitative studies in initial stages of developing an impact evaluation.

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