Small and Medium Enterprises and Business Development Services: Are We Missing Something?
Facet - Supporting Small Enterprises
Any analysis of how to promote micro or small enterprise (SME) development leads to a conclusion that Business Development Services (BDS) can be as relevant as Financial Services. This is undoubtedly obvious and true at enterprise level, but it is also justified for macro economic reasons.
Still, most policy makers and opinion leaders advocate provision of financial services only, and many practitioners in SME development programmes follow this line of thinking, often in spite of their appreciation of the effectiveness of BDS. Why do we talk so much about microenterprises, microcredit and microfinance? Why have we left BDS aside? To understand this mismatch between policy and practice we need to take account of the historical context and ask ourselves: are we missing something? Have we overlooked the SMEs?
This publication by Klaas Molenaar from Facet BV discusses the importance of Business Development Services and the so-called 'Missing Middle'.
Download the publication by clicking on the link below.
