“Market-Based Business Development Services (BDS) Program Design” is a five-day training workshop that presents state-of-the art methodologies for designing business development programs for micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs). Materials for this workshop were developed by Action for Enterprise (AFE), a US based enterprise development organization that specializes in business service programs. Throughout the workshop, participants were exposed to a wide range of facilitation activities designed to promote business services for MSMEs such as market access, input supply, technology/product development, management training, policy reform, and access to finance. Examples were used from business development programs and practitioners worldwide. The training targets those who wish to improve their BDS facilitation skills and design programs that respect the basic principles of the market-based BDS paradigm.

March 28 – April 2004

NSCE Self-Funding Activity

The “SME Investment Opportunities and job creation at the Canal Zone” project is an initiative implemented for the Small Enterprise Development Organization Small Enterprises Development Organization (SEDO) and funded by The Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA. The objective of the project is to provide technical assistance to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SME) to:

Encourage entrepreneurship development and assist development of MSME sector in the Canal Zone; Reinforce SEDO capacity building to support SME growth.

NSCE was commissioned to carry out an investment opportunities assessment and to identify the most promising industrial fields and assess their financial and technical needs. In order to identify industrial fields with promising investment opportunities for SMEs, analyze their needs, and target effective financial and assistance services.

Sept. 02 – Sept. 03

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

COUNSELING /CONSULTING FOR SMES IN THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

In cooperation with DEG, a German Development Bank owned by the German State, NSCE has provided consultancy services for DEG Business Start-up Program, which is funded by the German Government and is part of the official German development cooperation scheme.

The DEG - Business Start-up Program promotes business start-ups and expansions for small and medium sized enterprises of the private sector in the Palestinian Territories.

The aim of the “Consulting and Counseling for SMEs” is to assess the damage of the current political situation on the businesses promoted by the program through business diagnostic field visits and consulting services for different enterprises that have been promoted by the program and subsequently to ensure as much as possible the sustainability of the businesses and the program’s loan portfolio.

August 2001