The 'core business' of development agencies is not just about managing funds. It is also about understanding how those funds can be spent in the most cost-effective ways - and about advising and informing partners. Indeed, the reputation of an agency depends largely on the quality of the advice that it is able to give. Meanwhile, many trends are increasing the need for knowledge, including for example decentralisation of donor decision-making, and the application of more systemic approaches.
For the last three years SDC/E+I has supported two main lines of activities in this field:
- The BDS - Reader
The ILO Training Centre in Turin has for some years been offering an Annual Seminar on service market development, with an associated Annual Reader giving an overview of the work of all agencies in this field; SDC has provided valuable support to the preparation of that Reader in the last three years. The document has proved very popular, with translations available in French and Spanish, and now even in Arabic.
The BDS reader rose much interest within the donor community and is distributed largely beyond the participants to the BDS seminar.
- The Inter agency Web-Sites for BDS/Value chains and for Business Environment
There is great demand for on-going information about experiences in this field, similar to that generated by CGAP on micro-finance (www.cgap.org), and the only inter-agency sites for the business environment or business services (BDS) can be found at www.bdsknowledge.org and www.businessenvironment.org respectively. The former site was launched with SDC support, to provide a home for the many peer-reviewed papers on BDS generated by the Committee of Donor Agencies for Small Enterprise Development ("the Donor Committee", at www.sedonors.org).
The data-base has now been expanded to include the work of 100 agencies working in 85 countries; it is being updated on a regular basis, with many agencies volunteering additional information. Considering its great interest for the donor community, these different Web-Sites are now funded by the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED).
Therefore the present credit proposal aims only at funding the BDS reader. Considering the good experiences made during the last three years it is proposed to open a credit for three years, for an amount of CHF 70,000/year. The consultant will be contracted however on a yearly basis, based every time on the quality of the product and on its relevance to the international community.
To be noted that as it was already the case with the Web-Sites, the BDS-Reader give a certain visibility to SDC on the international scene as an important actor for supporting knowledge management in the field of Private Sector Development. This effort is recognised and appreciated.
