Fostering Small Business Growth: Micro Enterprise Development Initiative Final Report (Armenia)

This paper discusses microenterprise development initiative (MEDI), a USAID project to support small business growth and development in Armenia.The paper describes the approaches of MEDI to:

• Increasing availability of, and access to, small business finance;
• Improving the legal and regulatory environment for small businesses;
• Increasing access to markets for small business products and services.

The paper presents individual stories illustrating the projects impact on small businesses, which include:

• Supporting a health drink producer to earn enough, resulting in the producer offering discounts to orphanages;
• Saving an Armenian microlender from bankruptcy by providing inputs related to planning and reporting;
• Helping a cafe owner to enter successfully into bulk food market.

The paper mentions the lessons learnt after implementing the project and highlights the following:

• Partnering with Armenian organizations and their employees resulted in amplification of assistance provided by the project;
• Addressing all major small business needs together and tackling obstacles led to holistic growth;
• Maintaining clarity on mission led to the team staying on course of improving the environment for small business;
• Incorporating impact measurement into implementation resulted in best work of MEDI.

The paper discusses the following four specific areas leading to stunted small business growth:

• Growing deficit of human capital;
• Inadequate access to finance;
• Continuing corruption;
• Low rate of economic activity.

The paper concludes by presenting recommendations for addressing concerns stunting business growth:

• Institutionalizing small business advocacy;
• Increasing economic activity by engaging buyers.