Building Businesses with Small Producers: Successful Business Development Services in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

This book presents a comparative analysis of seven case studies that challenge some of the current beliefs about good practice in the provision of business development services (BDS) to small and micro enterprises. It also highlights issues around the assessment of impact, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness of such services.Three services were given particular attention in the case studies: marketing, access to technology, and business and management skills acquisition. The case study projects were drawn from Bolivia, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Each of the projects introduced small producers to new production and marketing systems and successfully promoted private sector participation. The analysis of these experiences looks at the feasibility of market-based BDS provision and the role of nongovernmental organizations in building BDS markets.