Engines of Growth: SMEs

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

Small and medium enterprises or “SMEs” represent a large share of developing countries’ private sectors. The support and promotion of their development is, therefore, an intuitive reaction of international development actors. Yet, many challenges arise when establishing the target, type, and level of intervention. Targets can be unclear due to country-specific definitions, often lacking statistics and data due to the heterogeneity and informal character of SMEs. Interventions can be financial or technical and their focus can vary widely, from poverty reduction to economic growth. They can address SME-internal, sector-specific or countrywide issues. Furthermore, the most appropriate actor to lead the intervention may be the national government, the subnational administration, business associations, NGOs, international donors and organizations, or the private sector. Recently, a new dynamic that integrates business-management approaches related to organization, process, or service models into human-development efforts has gained momentum. Many of these new ideas are tested and promoted by small enterprises. Thus, the course will look at private sector and SME development as an objective, the private sector as an actor for development, and business management as a toolbox for innovative development ideas.