Client: Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) / Palladium
Implementing Partner Studied: Balloon Ventures
Service: Impact Research & Case Study Development
Geography: Uganda
Duration: 2024

The Context

The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a €134 million programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, designed to create decent work for 230,000 young women and men across Africa and the Middle East. In Uganda, CFYE partners with Balloon Ventures — an enterprise support organisation that provides investment and business development support to Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) in second-tier towns and rural areas typically overlooked by mainstream finance.

These SGBs sit in the “missing middle”: too large for microfinance, too small for traditional banks, and outside the scope of venture capital. Understanding how Balloon Ventures’ support translates into real jobs for youth was critical for CFYE’s learning and accountability agenda.

The Assignment

CFYE commissioned Cause Communications Ltd. to conduct qualitative impact research and develop a series of case studies exploring how Balloon Ventures’ capital and business development support was driving youth employment creation among the SGBs it supports.

Key research questions included:

• How many jobs, and what quality of jobs, were being created or improved for youth, particularly young women?
• How had Balloon Ventures’ support changed business practices, capacity, and performance in the SGBs?
• What pathways exist for intermediaries like Balloon Ventures to drive decent job creation at scale?

What We Did

Cause Communications designed and implemented a structured qualitative research process, including:

• Developing a research methodology and interview guides approved by CFYE
• Conducting in-depth interviews with Balloon Ventures senior management to understand selection criteria, delivery model, and job creation outcomes
• Conducting interviews with SGB owners and senior management across 4–5 selected businesses
• Administering surveys with employees and indirect beneficiaries to capture job quality from workers’ perspectives
• Facilitating a remote sense-making session with CFYE and Balloon Ventures to validate findings
• Producing well-structured, designed case studies and a synthesis insights paper with recommendations

Deliverables

• Research methodology and interview frameworks
• Short report on Balloon Ventures’ delivery model and job creation approach
• 4–5 documented SGB case studies in a professionally edited format
• Synthesis insights paper with cross-cutting analysis and recommendations for scaling impact

Impact

This assignment strengthened CFYE’s and Balloon Ventures’ evidence base for demonstrating how enterprise support intermediaries can drive youth employment in underserved markets, and contributed to Cause Communications Ltd.’s growing expertise in impact research, knowledge products, and development communication.