Functional Analysis and Development of Roadmap for State Support Programmes

The main objectives of the project are to conduct comprehensive analysis of state support programs in Georgia and to provide evidence-based recommendations for the modernization of these programs.

More specifically, the project envisages conducting functional analysis of state support programs delivered by certain state agencies – Enterprise Georgia (EG), Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), and the Agriculture and Rural Development Agency (ARDA) – and produce a five-year roadmap for the implementation of recommendations and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the evaluation of these programs. Based on the project results, the Georgian government will be able to better address MSME needs and to effectively support MSMEs in overcoming existing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

PMCG, as a local sub-contractor of Abt Britain Limited under the Technical Assistance Facility Eastern Partnership (TAF EP) – a part of Good Governance Fund (GGF) program’s implementation mechanism, funded by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) – will undertake various activities within the following three phases:

Phase 1: Assessment of current capacity and performance of existing state-funding programs

• Conduct desk review and analyses of legal and normative acts regulating the institutional setting and operations of private sector support agencies, including EG, GITA and the ARDA, as well as respective governmental decrees and amendments on the adoption and regulation of state support programs, as well as reports and studies of international organizations, local and international think-tanks, and NGOs;
• Identify and analyze gender and social gaps in the regulatory framework, monitoring and evaluation systems, and organizational processes, and gather information on the promotion of entrepreneurship among women and other vulnerable groups via state support programs;
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and collect corresponding data and information, as well as opinions on existing gaps and perspectives on state support programs (this will include interviews and in-depth discussions with stakeholders of state support programs’ delivery agencies, including economic policy-makers, management, and officials of the agencies, business associations, and other relevant stakeholders);
• Conduct intensive consultations with representatives of donor organizations to identify assistance areas, cross-cutting activities, and funding initiatives for MSMEs’ development; and
• Based on the collected information, produce a diagnostic report highlighting the current state of affairs regarding state support programs, institutional arrangements for their implementation, as well as achieved results and existing challenges including, but not limited to, gaps in the regulatory framework, monitoring and evaluation systems, organizational processes, and HRM systems.

Phase 2: Evaluation of state support programs and development of recommendations for the future operations of these programs based on international good practices 

• Elaborate and agree with steering committee (SC) on case-study selection criteria of countries with experience in elaborating, adopting, and implementing private-sector support programs, taking into consideration the adaptability of their experience to Georgia’s context, the existence of a pool of governmental agencies similar to Georgia, and a good track record in successful management of budgetary and EU finances with respect to private sector development;
• Conduct a review and analysis of relevant research, reports, and studies in the course of identifying international best practices for private sector support state support programs based on the agreed criteria;
• Develop case-studies with an emphasis on the evolution of state support programs in selected countries, modifications made at different stages of development, institutional arrangements for implementation and service delivery to the private sector, promotion of women’s entrepreneurship, methodologies for selecting priority areas and delivery mechanisms, coordination experience between different agencies, and evaluation practice for state support programs;
• Develop unified evaluation criteria for all state support programs, based on the findings of first-stage research and case-studies on best international practices;
• Develop information/data collection tools, including both quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments for broader groups of stakeholders and direct beneficiaries of state support programs;
• Conduct an evaluation of state support programs according to selected unified evaluation criteria with the developed data collection tools; and
• Produce a report on the evaluation of state funding programs and issue recommendations for the future operation of the state-funded programs based on international good practices. The evaluation report will include findings on challenges that MSMEs are facing in relation to the current programs as well as their priorities, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the private sector as well as GESI considerations, and recommendations for re-designed and/or new state support programs to mitigate COVID-19-related challenges and gender inequality effects on the private sector, as well as to increase inclusion for vulnerable social groups.

Phase 3: Preparation of a five-year roadmap for the implementation of recommendations

• Develop a detailed five-year roadmap for the implementation of recommendations for the future operation of the state-funded programs based on international good practices;
• Identify and specify actions at policy and agency levels, and define roles and responsibilities of institutions (public, nongovernmental or international/donor)  involved in the process of implementing the roadmap;
• Develop a resourcing plan for the implementation of the roadmap and reflect all resources available from national authorities as well as international donors;
• Develop KPIs to evaluate the effectiveness of state support programs for each agency;
• Develop an institutional mechanism to oversee the process of monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of state support programs; and
• Based on the comments and recommendations received on the presentations, finalize the roadmap for implementing recommendations and respective KPIs to evaluate the effectiveness of state support programs.