Project Appraisal mission on Private Sector Development, Ethiopia, GIZ

Project Description

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has allocated EUR 25 million for a 3-5-year project focusing on Private Sector Development (PSD). Ricardo was the technical lead of a GIZ 10 person digital mission to assess the possible project options. The project appraisal was a challenge, given the EUR 1 billion PSD project pipeline (DFID, EC, USAID, etc.) The mission included 50 meetings with GIZ, various ministries, Prime Minister´s Office, implementation agencies (investment, MSMEs, etc.), Business Associations, donors, IFIs, etc.

The result is a project focusing on four elements:

• Business Environment & MSMEs: with a focus on streamlining the business environment, supporting the new MSME Strategy implementation and MSME Institution strengthening / building;
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship: start: with a focus on improving the Innovation Regulatory Framework, interventions to strengthen the innovation ecosystem and supporting the Entrepreneurship Strategy Implementation;
• Business Development Services: with a focus on supporting demand-driven BDS (Consulting) provision, contributing to the Covid-19 Recovery Phase and contributing to Innovation Fund;
• Business Management Organisations (BMOs): with a focus on the proclamation on Chambers and Associations, strengthening entrepreneurs´ representation and building institutional capacities via BDS / vouchers / grants.

The broad project concept was developed by Ricardo with contributions by the mission team, discussed with beneficiary ministries and presented to the GIZ country office team. The detailed project was further developed by GIZ following the conceptual input by Ricardo.

Services Provided

• Project appraisal / design
• Private Sector Development expertise
• Report writing