CEI Business Advisory Service (BAS) Programme in Croatia and Macedonia - Programme Evaluation

TC Project

 

Summary Description: This project was part of a complete study of five countries funded jointly with EU funding. The projects aimed to measure the effectiveness of the BAS Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia. The following criteria was laid out for this purpose:
  • facilitate practical business advice to SMEs in order to assist their growth and development and their competitiveness, and
  • assist to develop the capabilities of local business consultants.
  More specifically, the project sought to:
  • examine BAS Programme’s documentation, operating procedures, and all Project Completion reports and month Project Summary reports to become familiar with the Programme’s objectives, operating approach, and characteristics of projects
  • within each country to assess the balance of type of projects (e.g. size, sector, location, type of assistance), together with the spread of assignments across the range of local consultants
  • carry out an in-depth study of 30 completed projects balanced in terms of country (six form each), the type of business advice, industry, and the size of the enterprise.
  The team undertaking the project was requested to make 30 enterprise visits and determine general outcomes and feedback to their BAS advice. Additionally, the team was requested to meet 15 local business consultants who had participated in BAS projects, as part of the assessment of the BAS objective of developing the local business consultancy sector. Finally the team was asked to also report on other aid programmes.   Main Achievements All these tasks were carried out successfully and the resulting report served as a tool for demonstrating to future funding donors the effectiveness and commitment of the BAS Programme. The Study proved that the BAS Programme was indeed successful in assisting SMEs to become more competent and profitable in a market economy environment.   TAM/BAS Programme The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) TurnAround Management (TAM) and Business Advisory Services (BAS) Programmes are complementary programmes to help private enterprises to adapt to the demands of a market economy. They work directly with individual micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), providing specific advice through a multi-level approach. BAS support is largely concentrated on micro and small-sized enterprises (with between 10 and 250 staff) in order to finalise short-term projects with exactly defined objectives while developing a sustainable infrastructure for business advisory services in the countries of operation. TAM has been designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (with between 200 and 1,500 staff) and is aimed at reorganising management structures, through advice from senior managers with extensive experience in market economies.   BAS Programme The core aim of the BAS Programme is to improve the performance of companies by involving local business advisers. Its main objectives are pursued using local consultants and are mainly geared towards providing specific and clear practical business advice to enterprises in order to prepare them for the transition to a market-driven economy. In that respect, BAS interventions have positive impacts both for the companies themselves and for local consultants, while companies benefit from expertise that helps them enhance their businesses and increase profitability. BAS also fosters the development of professional capabilities of local consultants.   Areas of BAS assistance include, among others, restructuring businesses, improving products, reducing operating costs, advising on local and export markets, and helping to develop business planning skills at management level. In providing such assistance, companies are expected to improve their competitiveness, marketing and financial management, quality management system and strategic business planning.   BAS interventions are designed to serve as a facilitator for the use of private sector consultants by MSMEs to obtain a diverse array of services and reach specific goals. BAS operates on both the demand and on the supply side: it stresses the benefits for firms of using external consultants and it directly increases the supply and quality of local advisory services.   The BAS Programme is implemented through the activity of BAS teams of local nationals in each country of operation. The BAS operations are managed by the TurnAround Management Group (TMG) at the EBRD. Each local BAS office generally has two professional staff (a National Programme Director and a Project Officer) and an assistant to the National Programme Director.   At present BAS operates in 19 countries in south-eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the south Caucasus through 31 BAS offices, and currently there are 752 active BAS projects across all these countries. BAS has carried out 440 projects in the Western Balkans, using over €6 million in donor funds.
Countries of operation
REGIONAL
TC Sector
SME Support
Commitment stage name
Closed
Euro committed
9,748

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