AID cooperative agreement no. 645-0232-A-00-0013-00 with Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere for the small enterprise advisory services program

The project will have two main activities: training/TA and materials development. The targeted organizations are the Ministry of Agriculture"s Department of Home Economics, which provides training and advice to women"s groups in income-generating activities; Asikhutulisane Credit and Savings Cooperative, which provides credit to small entrepreneurs; and Business Management Extension Programme (BMEP), which provides both business skills training and credit to small businesses and income-generating activities. CARE will provide the three organizations training and TA in financial and business management. Financial management efforts will focus on, inter alia, revolving fund management and loan collection, helping clientele in remote areas to establish locally managed savings schemes, and helping clients prepare loan proposals to commercial finance institutions. CARE will also continue efforts to secure repayment of A.I.D. funds sub-granted to the Sibakho Chamber of Commerce under a previous CARE project. Business management training will be provided by CARE to the three organizations and then passed on by them to their clients in a manner which is tailored, so far as possible, to individual clients" levels of interest, experience, and education. Most CARE training will be informal, but seminars, workshops, and courses will be included; one specific activity will be to train BMEP staff in U.S. government procurement regulations so that BMEP can eventually manage its own procurement functions. CARE will also create a Materials Development Unit to assist the targeted organizations in producing resource materials covering small business management and technology for their clients. The Unit will produce and distribute at least 5 publications, develop training exercises, conduct workshops with the organizations on the effective use of the materials, and, where appropriate, develop accompanying videos.