BDS market development guide.pdf - PACA

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34 Box 8: Key Considerations in Assessing the Role of Business Membership Organizations in BDS Business membership organizations (BMOs) are a fixture on the business and BDS scene in most countries. Although in Europe some BMOs have a public law status that makes business membership compulsory, more commonly they are voluntary organizations formed to serve their members’ interests. What’s Unique About BMOs? BMOs are the only collective organizations owned by and for business and representing business. Although local traditions vary greatly, from a donor perspective BMOs can offer an extensive presence and outreach to businesses, a good understanding of business needs, a means of tapping into business talents, and good connections with state decision-makers. Donor Experience Drawn by the apparent potential of BMOs to provide demand-oriented services to their members, considerable resources have been focused on BMOs over recent years. Overall, this experience has not been especially positive. It is clear now that businesses join BMOs for a variety of reasons—social, political, and personal; that relations between BMOs and members are often not strictly business-like or transactional; that capacity varies hugely; and that often BMOs don’t wish to expand their core roles beyond that which they know and own. Core Roles? In general, BMOs’ comparative advantage is around the roles of advocacy (first priority), information, and networking. Roles beyond these core areas—such as developing new ideas, enhancing skills, and assuming delegated government functions—are dependent on capacity and market considerations, but there is nothing in BMOs that makes them inherently suited for these. 23 Box 9: Key Considerations in Assessing the Role of Not-for-Profit Organizations in BDS Not-for-profit organizations include a wide range of voluntary, semi-state, and other organizations (including BMOs). Our focus here is on two of these; higher educational organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Both have a wider public purpose (beyond profit) similar to government but, it is argued, without the bureaucracy and other disadvantages of governments. The core roles of higher educational organizations are concerned with teaching students and undertaking research—that is, with developing and disseminating knowledge for society as a whole. In many countries, educational organizations like business schools are active as providers of BDS—especially training—to business. This role is valid only if they can develop the right skills and culture to develop and deliver on a commercial basis to the private sector—that is, to extend their core knowledge role to include training to business. However, in many instances, traditional academic culture has been shown to be even more distant from business than government and to be completely unsuited to BDS provision. Less controversially, it is clearly within the natural role of higher educational organizations to undertake basic research, which ultimately should feed into new and better BDS. NGOs, although highly diverse, are commonly seen to posses an advantage because of their driven and informal culture, their commitment to reach disadvantaged groups and their flexibility (in part, stemming from their lack of accountability). Although difficult to prove, NGOs may be able to reach difficult (peripheral, socially excluded, etc.) groups better than others. However, although some NGOs have developed a business-like culture that allows them to work in a market-oriented manner, others bring with them less-helpful welfare-oriented attitudes that hinder BDS market development. In the longer-term, as direct providers of BDS there is probably a limited role for NGOs. More likely, their longer-term role will draw on their core strengths of closeness to and understanding of disadvantaged groups and of innovation and flexibility to enable them to test and develop new ideas. In the short term, they can—if they have suitable capacity—act as BDS market development facilitators. 23 A 1999 survey of BMOs in Nepal showed that more than three-quarters of members saw BMOs’ most important function as advocacy, information provision, or networking. Microenterprise Best Practices Development Alternatives, Inc.
35 Figure 12: Functions of the State Minimal Functions Intermediate Functions Activist Functions Addressing Externalities: Basic education Environmental protection Addressing Market Failure Providing Pure Public Goods: Defense Law and order Property rights Macroeconomic management Public health Regulating Monopoly: Utility regulation Antitrust policy Coordinating Private Activity: Fostering markets Cluster initiatives Overcoming Imperfect Information: Insurance (health, life, pensions) Financial regulation Consumer protection Improving Equity Protecting the Poor: Antipoverty programs Disaster relief Providing Social Insurance: Redistributive pensions Family allowances Unemployment insurance Redistribution: Asset redistribution Source: World Development Report 1997. Donor agencies are not included here; their role is perceived to be facilitative and short term without a valid longer-term rationale. It may be that foreign-funded donor agencies will continue to be active in low-income countries, but to build them into one’s picture of sustainability as long-term players is to run the risk of cementing countries into debilitating dependence. Similarly, we don’t here include SMEs—they are clearly important but are on the demandside of the market. The focus here is on supply-side functions. Who Will Undertake the Function (who does)? Who Will Pay for This to Happen (who pays)?—Linking Actors with Functions In developing a transparent picture of sustainability for the future, 24 the core task for each main function is to develop—in as much detail as possible—a clear view of: • Who will undertake this function? (who does?); and • Who will pay for this to happen? (who pays?). 24 The period of time to be considered will clearly vary from one situation to another, but the end of a project period is the obvious time horizon to consider. Chapter Three—Where Do We Want to Go?— Developing a Clear Picture of Sustainability
Page 1 and 2: BDS Market Development: A Guide for
Page 3: Alan Gibson is a co-founder of The
Page 6 and 7: ii CHAPTER FOUR HOW DO WE GET THERE
Page 8 and 9: iv Table 1 Implications of Differen
Page 10 and 11: vi How to Use This Guide: A Quick R
Page 12 and 13: 2 • To address poverty, governmen
Page 14 and 15: 4 • Potentially, a range of provi
Page 16 and 17: 6 Figure 2: Flows of Services in th
Page 18 and 19: 8 • Efficiency—The cost bases o
Page 20 and 21: 10 • Advocacy: for the business c
Page 23 and 24: 13 CHAPTER TWO WHERE WE ARE NOW—A
Page 25 and 26: 15 The flow diagram of an effective
Page 27 and 28: 17 KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE
Page 29 and 30: 19 Figure 7: Quadrant of Supply-sid
Page 31 and 32: 21 • Consumers—such as female-o
Page 33 and 34: 23 WHERE SHOULD INTERVENTIONS FOCUS
Page 35 and 36: 25 Figure 10: Matching Market Analy
Page 37 and 38: 27 CHAPTER THREE WHERE DO WE WANT T
Page 39 and 40: 29 Markets are institutions. Develo
Page 41 and 42: 31 What Needs to Be Done?—Key Sup
Page 43: 33 Box 7: Key Considerations in Ass
Page 47 and 48: 37 Table 2: Sustainability Framewor
Page 49 and 50: 39 CHAPTER FOUR HOW DO WE GET THERE
Page 51 and 52: 41 Figure 13: Where to Intervene to
Page 53 and 54: 43 • Consistent Policies and Appr
Page 55 and 56: 45 • Have been developed to be pe
Page 57 and 58: 47 Avoiding overloading may involve
Page 59 and 60: 49 C For new product development, a
Page 61 and 62: 51 • Precisely, what are they goi
Page 63 and 64: 53 Existing MARKET (sub-sector, ent
Page 65 and 66: 55 To Reach Female-Owned Businesses
Page 67 and 68: 57 C Informal, and C Individuals. T
Page 69 and 70: 59 The drawbacks of tender-based se
Page 71 and 72: 61 CHAPTER FIVE HOW DO WE ASSESS OU
Page 73 and 74: 63 • How well?—the quality dime
Page 75 and 76: 65 day income * This highlights key
Page 77 and 78: 67 Beyond SMEs—Unchanged Indicato
Page 79 and 80: 69 Figure 16: Measurement Methods i
Page 81 and 82: 71 • Donors may be interested in
Page 83 and 84: 73 and poverty reduction? Or is the
Page 86 and 87: A-3 KEY REFERENCES Anderson, Gavin,
Page 88 and 89: A-5 Hitchins, R and Gibson, A; "The

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