NGOs, business and the challenges of 'scaling up': Supporting small and medium enterprises in low-income countries

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Practical Action and Oxfam held a workshop in July 2007 to explore the roles of NGOs and business in providing support to small and medium sized enterprises in low-income countries. The workshop focussed on two main sectors: agriculture and alternative energy.

The workshop opened with plenary presentations in the morning. Speakers from NGOs and businesses met to talk about the issue of scaling up market development initiatives involving small and medium sized enterprises in low-income countries. In the afternoon there were parallel working group sessions, focusing specifically on the agriculture and alternative energy sectors. The meeting concluded with a plenary session drawing together insights from the working group sessions.

This workshop was the second in a series of seminars exploring the role of NGOs in markets. The introductory workshop in this series was convened on 26th March 2006, and was entitled: 'NGOs as Market Actors: Roles and responsibilities in supporting small producers in low-income countries'.

Workshop presentations are available for download here

The report from this workshop is available to download here