TAM/BAS and rural development

TAM/BAS assists development in rural regions by working with small businesses to secure their viability and expansion potential

Rural areas in TAM/BAS countries of operation are often over-dependent on low-productivity agriculture and low value-added processing industries. There are often large income disparities between regions and capital cities, and between rural and urban areas. Unemployment (or underemployment) levels are often higher in the countryside.

Approximately half of the 10,000+ TAM/BAS projects undertaken to date have assisted enterprises located outside capital cities and in rural regions.

Both TAM and BAS programmes have contributed to economic diversification in a range of sectors. Projects in food and beverages and textiles / apparel manufacturing industries represent a significant share, as do metals, machinery and equipment, furniture and wood processing and electrical equipment.

TAM and BAS projects in rural regions are also complemented by initiatives such as the Women in Business Programme, aimed at promoting entrepreneurship amongst women, often in underdeveloped, remote areas.

TAM/BAS operations

TAM

Community projects are an innovative way in which TAM assists the most remote regions of the Early Transition Countries (ETCs).

Supported by experienced rural development specialists, these projects provide solutions by identifying the constraints and opportunities of a community’s production and marketing. Projects contribute to poverty reduction, supporting small farmers to move from subsistence farming, creating new local businesses, enhancing existing companies and trade and, as a result, increasing local incomes.

Community-based projects facilitate transition in remote regions and stimulate further investment opportunities such as micro-financing. Community projects are currently ongoing in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic and are funded by Luxembourg.

BAS

BAS facilitates rural development in two main ways.

• BAS provides enterprises in rural areas with access to business advisory services. By using the flexible grant – a key feature of BAS projects determined by the Grant Guideline Matrix - higher incentives are given to smaller enterprises located in less developed or rural areas and with no previous experience with advisory services. In Uzbekistan, for example, more than 70 per cent of BAS projects are located outside the capital Tashkent.
  
• In areas where there is a lack of qualified local consultants outside of capital cities, BAS introduces specialists from neighboring countries. BAS holds a database of local consultants that is accessible to all BAS offices in a particular region. BAS also organises training events in rural areas to target individuals with appropriate backgrounds, who have the potential to operate as freelance consulting business advisors. These activities address the need for a sustainable consultancy market in under-served regions.

Case study

TAM Community Projects in Kyrgyz Republic – Funded by Luxembourg Technical Co-operation Funds

TAM carried out community projects in Vorukh, Tajikistan and Pokrovka, Kyrgyz Republic.

In both projects, we helped improve production and processing of fruits, vegetables, milk and meat. The objectives were to add value to local resources and products, create alternative operational cultures and contribute to the education of local people.

The projects have introduced natural, low-cost methods to control harmful insects by using pesticides and fertilisers resulting from natural products; taught the communities how to cut, renovate and tend fruit trees and shrubs; introduced new vegetables with higher nutritional values; developed new products based on local fruits (syrup, paste and fruit jam) as well as introduced production of sausage and two new kinds of cheese in the inhabitants’ own homes.

New products have also brought new opportunities in terms of marketing and profit, with encouraging results: both communities saw their incomes increase as a result of TAM involvement, through increased sales of their improved products, particularly apples, dried apricots, new cheeses and beans.

Thanks to the TAM projects, the Pokrovka and Vorukh Communities now have become catalyst forces for co-ordinate production between farmers, manufacturers and consumers.