As governments around the world continue to grapple with uncertain economic prospects and important social challenges, they are looking to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs as an important source of economic growth and social cohesion. Appropriate access to finance is a critical prerequisite to enable these businesses to invest, grow and create jobs, and the issue has been climbing steadily up the policy agenda in recent years. But effective policy responses for SME finance require coherent and meaningful evidence.