Institutional development services for enterprise development organizations : matching grant FAO-A-00-98-00049-00 between small enterprise education and promotion (SEEP) network and USAID/PVC

SEEP has met MG sustainability targets. In diversifying its grant income, doubling its fee income, and adding contract work as an income source, SEEP has strengthened its financial position and improved cost recovery. The process of lateral learning in the SEEP Network is working well and is facilitated by the MG. As a network driven by member needs and desires, the approach to planning by the SEEP staff and board was flexible, setting achievement targets only at the higher level of objectives and results. The detailed implementation plan and its companion business plan contained the framework guided SEEP throughout the grant. Individual members contribute and make program decisions within this framework. SEEP's goal of lateral learning would be diminished if a highly structure and rigid planning system were in place. There is a high level of participation in, and contributions to, SEEP activities by members, whose needs are being met by SEEP programs and activities in important ways. The learning agenda is member driven and responsive to member needs. SEEP activities and structure as supported under the MG are effective in improving the understanding and application of microenterprise development (MED) best practices to member operations. The design of SEEP products and evaluation survey data show that SEEP activities are building some member capacity to transfer and apply best practices to field partners. Through the research, tools, and guides that are in wide use in MED institutions and programs, SEEP is having a major impact on standards, monitoring, and evaluation in the general fields of microfinance and business development services (BDS). The working groups (WGs) are effective mechanisms for defining MED priorities as well as for researching and disseminating MED principles, standards, and practices in areas of high priority to practitioners. Since the WG outputs are the work of member volunteers, they are practical and field oriented, quickly disseminated among SEEP members, and benefit from inputs from multiple MED organizations. EEP's activities in network development services (NDS) over the last 3 years have reached 18 organizations around the world. SEEP's approaches have worked well as SEEP has linked with several organizations to leverage their resources. There appears to be a high level of satisfaction with SEEP training, TA, and other support to networks and members. The experiences and lessons learned by SEEP as a network are useful for MED networks and their members in developing countries. SEEP is also particularly good in planning/strategy development and technical training to build network capacity because of its long experience with its own members doing the same. That SEEP can tap its member staffs to deliver NDS assistance makes the experiences more relevant and less costly. In sum, SEEP has fully achieved the objectives set out in the MG for both the IDS and the NDS programs. The impact of these on the development of MED best practices and their applications around the world is difficult to quantify, but its magnitude is substantial. Bottom-up planning matched with shared vision and objectives are keys to SEEP's success. It is unrealistic to expect SEEP to achieve a high level of financial sustainability. SEEP is not just a service organization, but a PVO in its own right with a development mission comparable to its members. Like the latter, SEEP will be donor-dependent, but it also has the opportunity for substantial cost-recovery from fees, sales, and other income. Overall, this is a high impact, highly effective grant that reaches field organizations with useful tools and practices at a low cost to USAID, which is getting excellent "bang for its buck".