External Real-time Evaluation of Rural Small and Medium Enterprise Development Project

The overall objective of the project is to undertake an external real-time evaluation of the Rural Small and Medium Enterprise Development Project (RSMEDP). The purpose of doing so is to inform the Swiss Cooperation Office (SCO) about the main achievements, challenges, and lessons learned in the course of the project’s implementation by analyzing its impact on stakeholders, as well as its sustainability and overall effectiveness.

The evaluation focuses on two target groups of beneficiaries: direct and indirect.

Direct beneficiaries are market players who provide business advisory services to rural SMEs (i.e., national agencies, business associations, and consultancies) to enhance their capacities to increase the effectiveness of their services and thus facilitate greater access to finance for SMEs.

End beneficiaries are SME owners or individual entrepreneurs residing in rural Georgia. For them, enhanced access to finance provided by the project allows for the upscaling and diversification of their business operations, ultimately stimulating job creation. At the same time, by improving their financial management skills, the project helps to boost and maintain these SMEs’ profitability.

More specifically, the RSMEDP aims to:

• Increase access of rural SMEs to bank and state finance by increasing their awareness of financial services, as well as developing and piloting advisory packages for investment planning and loan applications;
• Elevate rural SMEs’ financial literacy and management capacities by promoting suitable management strategies; and
• Build the capacities of national agencies, business associations, and consultancies in line with rural SMEs’ needs, as well as establish communication mechanisms among key market players to bring about the further development of rural SMEs.

As part of the evaluation methodology, a contribution analysis will assess the extent to which the RSMEDP has contributed to the observed outcomes among the target groups. This analysis will systematically explore the causal links between project activities and outcomes, while bearing in mind factors (external or otherwise) that may have influenced the results.

In particular, PMCG’s real-time performance-based evaluation will involve the following activities:

• Desk review;
• Key informant interviews;
• Online survey;
• Focus group discussions; and
• Semi-structured interviews.

Once the evaluation has been completed, a final report will be published, incorporating research findings, evidence-based conclusions, lessons, and recommendations, and presented to the SCO.