Abstract

Little empirical evidence exists on the effectiveness of business training and support. In particular, the extent to which such a support program might raise revenues and augment survival rates of new enterprises is unclear. The impact evaluation of the pilot phase of the Enterprise Support Project will measure the effectiveness of training, technical assistance and personal coaching provided to small businesses and revenue generating activities (AGRs) throughout Morocco in order to inform the decision of whether to scale-up the program after its pilot phase. The evaluation will provide critical information to program implementers, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Agence du partenariat pour le progrès (APP) in addition to the government of Morocco regarding the effectiveness of the project and ways in which it might be improved.

The objective is to measure the specific contribution of the training and support program on key business outcomes. In particular, the principle research questions the evaluation is designed to address are:

• Did the Enterprise Support Project contribute to an increase in revenues and profits of the participating businesses/AGRs?
• Did the project improve survival rates of businesses/AGRs?
• Did the program affect employment?
• Were the benefits generated by the project greater than project costs?