Rethinking microentrepreneurship and business development programs: vulnerability and ambition in low-income urban Caribbean households

Current development thinking and practice emphasize the potential of microentrepreneurship for poverty reduction. To effectuate this potential, many business development programs (BDPs), particularly focusing on microfinance and training, were implemented. This article questions the relevance of BDPs for microentrepreneurs through a comparative study on home-based economic activities (HBEAs) in two Caribbean cities. It shows that BDPs are relevant to only a minority of entrepreneurs. This can be explained by variations in household vulnerability and entrepreneurial ambition. The article therefore argues that analyzing microentrepreneurship’s relevance for poverty reduction requires an understanding of microenterprises in the broader context of household livelihood characteristics.