SDC-SED
Small Enterprise
Development

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Mandated by

Mandate

• Goal
• Target group
• Website
• SDC's Employment and Income Division

Goals of the SED mandate

• Validating experience gained in small enterprise development with/of specific interest for Swiss actors
• Developing and maintaining the exchange of information within the Swiss SED-Community
• Integrating and disseminating new practices and tools in SED (products)
• Organizing the exchange of experiences
• Collecting and disseminating information about SED (documentation)

The mandate has been operating since mid 1995.

Target group

Our target group is the Swiss SED-Community, namely:

• the practitioners in the field of SED within the Swiss Development Cooperation
• private organizations specialized in conducting SED-programs
• consultants working in this field

Website

We are making every effort to create a user-friendly website which offers quick access to relevant and periodically updated information. After an initial phase, this website was evaluated and some improvements have been made. To keep the website attractive, your comments on its content and presentation as well as suggestions for improvement are more than welcome. What you think matters! Please do not hesitate to contact us under sed@intercooperation.ch.

Employment and Income Division

The Employment and Income Division has entrusted Intercooperation with the Small Enterprise Development Backstopping Mandate to extend the working capacities as well as to strengthen the learning and disseminating potential of the division. Before October 2000 the E + I Division was known as the Industry, Vocational and Urban Development Division.

The SED mandate is a member of the E + I -Net, a working group which aims at the exchange of information and learning in the field of SED. It is practitioners and SDC program responsibles as well as major executing agencies of SED, Vocational Education and Urban Development programs and mandates who participate actively in the E + I -Net. The E + I -Net participants gather every first Wednesday of each month. The agenda is set by the Division's secretariat.

The Employment and Income Division is a member of the Committee of Donor Agencies for Small Enterprise Development, which represents the major bilateral and multilateral donor organizations in this area of interest. It is committed to promoting small enterprises in developing countries by means of:

• exchanging relevant information
• sharing experiences and lessons learned
• coordinate efforts and establish common guidelines in this field

SED or CIP?

In its current sector policy, SDC uses the term 'Crafts and Industry Promotion' (CIP). This policy was designed at the beginning of the 1990s. In the meantime, the term 'Small Enterprise Development (SED)' has been widely accepted. The term has never been explicitely defined. The Committee considers this term to include formal and informal non-agricultural enterprises ranging from micro to medium size.
Consequently, we use SED on this website. However, some products are still called CIP-Tool, CIP-Issue Papers etc.