Small and growing businesses in the agriculture sector and/or those run by women face a financing gap that needs to be filled, says the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. ANDE is part of the famed Aspen Institute think tank.

Only 6 percent of funds that target impact investments focus on start-up stage businesses, according to the Impact Report 2012.

“Small and growing businesses have the potential to make large scale, sustainable change in their communities, but they face significant challenges. SGBs often contend with a lack of three key elements -- human capital, financial capital and market access -- that constrain their growth,” the report says.

SGBs, as ANDE calls them, are often too large to be considered for microfinancing, and too small for traditional private equity. Hence, the funding gap. Yet, it is these businesses -- with between five to 250 employees and exhibit significant growth potential  -- that promise the most environmental and social benefit; they lift more people out of poverty and stimulate long-tern economic growth.

As the leaders of the most powerful economies in the world meet in Northern Ireland to chat about global change without much of a tactical agenda, perhaps they could talk about global development of this kind and via these means. The United Nations doesn’t seem to have much of a voice in the world these days. And the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are busying themselves with scrutinizing the budgets of the United States and European countries. Meanwhile, as recent reports say, the developing world’s credit markets are beginning to unravel on the heels of heightened concerns in the global bond markets.

As one  Wall Street investment banker told me, “All our deals have been put on hold.” Not that he was complaining. It’s summertime after all and he was looking forward to a break.

Entrepreneurs in the developing world never seem to get one.

Read the full ANDE report here.