Small Business Support Programme (2011 to 2015)

The Small Business Support (SBS) study was a strategic level evaluation of the implementation of the Small Business Support Strategic Plan 2011-2015. The evaluation assessed whether SBS strategic planning was aligned with the EBRD’s evolving SMEs strategic agenda and the needs of SMEs in the Countries of Operation; if the programme delivered demonstrable and sustainable results; and if SBS governance and management design effectively supported expectations of donors and the EBRD.

Selected findings

• Small Business Support planning is driven strongly by donor priorities, reflecting its funding dependency. Despite growing use of the Shareholder Special Fund for SBS projects and staff, there seems to be little change in processes to reflect EBRD institutional priorities in addition to those of donors.
• Small Business Support and overall EBRD strategic planning and prioritisation at the country level over the period under evaluation were essentially independent, though no conflicts in priorities were observed.
• The greatest achievements of the SBS Programme in the period under evaluation have been at client level in terms of contributions to growth and competitiveness.
• While improving clients’ access to finance was not a primary objective of SBS, its importance grew as SBS moved toward closer integration with EBRD banking.
• Project-level monitoring, evaluation and learning focused mainly on advisory services supplied and generally produced dense, highly detailed reports fragmented by funding source. There was a lack of qualitative treatment of contributions at the market level, contextual analysis, risk analysis and mitigation measures, which limited the ability of SBS to ascertain results at market and sector level. While there was evidence of achievement in developing local business advisory markets, goals were rarely specified and market analysis was often superficial.