Paper
Fostering Small Business Growth: Micro Enterprise Development Initiative Final Report (Armenia)
Evaluating the impact of a USAID project aimed at creating new business in Armenia
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60 pages
This paper discusses microenterprise development initiative (MEDI), a USAID project to support small business growth and development in Armenia.The paper describes the approaches of MEDI to:
- Increasing availability of, and access to, small business finance;
- Improving the legal and regulatory environment for small businesses;
- Increasing access to markets for small business products and services.
The paper presents individual stories illustrating the projects impact on small businesses, which include:
- Supporting a health drink producer to earn enough, resulting in the producer offering discounts to orphanages;
- Saving an Armenian microlender from bankruptcy by providing inputs related to planning and reporting;
- Helping a cafe owner to enter successfully into bulk food market.
The paper mentions the lessons learnt after implementing the project and highlights the following:
- Partnering with Armenian organizations and their employees resulted in amplification of assistance provided by the project;
- Addressing all major small business needs together and tackling obstacles led to holistic growth;
- Maintaining clarity on mission led to the team staying on course of improving the environment for small business;
- Incorporating impact measurement into implementation resulted in best work of MEDI.
The paper discusses the following four specific areas leading to stunted small business growth:
- Growing deficit of human capital;
- Inadequate access to finance;
- Continuing corruption;
- Low rate of economic activity.
The paper concludes by presenting recommendations for addressing concerns stunting business growth:
- Institutionalizing small business advocacy;
- Increasing economic activity by engaging buyers.
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