Evaluation report : ASEAN - US small and medium business improvement project

Final evaluation covers the period 1984-6/87 and is based on interviews with SMB participants by a Philippine businesswoman-psychologist; examination of NGO operations by two A.I.D. officers; and appraisal by an Indonesian scholar of NGO research into SMB constraints. Under the project, 4 NGO's - Technonet Asia, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), and the U.S.-ASEAN Center for Technology Exchange (CTE) - assisted SMB's in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. In general, SMB's were helped to improve their use of technology and/or their general management practices; AIM's case method proved exceptionally useful in the latter area. Technonet's and CTE's greatest successes came from hands-on assistance to SMB's and one-on-one exposure to experts (as opposed to formal training). Employment effects of the project were positive, although macro-economic studies are needed to measure SMB contributions to national employment targets in each country. Although CTE has obtained U.S. private sector cooperation in bringing otherwise unavailable technology into the ASEAN region, cost bars greater use of private U.S. technology in the region, which, given A.I.D.'s limited funds for the ASEAN program, cannot compete with other industrial countries in this regard. ASEAN countries' interest in SMB development increased during the project. Even Singapore, which was initially only interested in labor-saving technology, now emphasizes national SMB development over its previous stress on hosting large, multi-national firms. The NGO's had some problems. Technonet increased its dependence on A.I.D. funding, and costs forced both it and CTE to limit their use of U.S. experts. ISEAS encountered delays in editing its SMB research for publication. AIM decided it is not suited to instruct SMB's directly and will concentrate on training trainers of SMB's. Some NGO's did not submit the required annual reports; although no operational problems resulted, A.I.D. was not fully aware of how their programs were progressing until the evaluation. Continuing modest A.I.D./ASEAN asistance to SMB's is recommended. Lessons learned are: (1) there are benefits from greater NGO (vs. governmental) implementation; (2) policy recommendations may be more effective if made at the regional rather than national level; (3) the case method has great promise for teaching SMB's general management principles; and (4) a design team member on an evaluation team can usefully compare original design intent with actual outcome. (Author abstract, modified)