Outline of the Project

Project Title

The Project for the Capacity Strengthening Of Support Personnel for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Focusing On the Improvement of Enterprise Administration, Quality and Productivity.

Theme

Private Sector Development

Date of Signing of Record of Discussions

9 April 2015

Site of Project Execution

At the national level

Cooperation Period

Dec. 20, 2016 to Dec. 19, 2019

Organization Counterpart

The National Commission of Micro and Small Enterprises (CONAMYPE)

Background

In the Republic of El Salvador, Micro, Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) occupy more than 99% of enterprises in term of number and generate 65.5% of employment in the country. Furthermore, number of workers in the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) account for 57.9% out of a total employment. However, many of MSEs are facing low competitiveness due to their low quality of products and productivity. It is, therefore, crucial to strengthen their competitiveness through improvement of productivity and quality of products in parallel with capacity development of governmental organizations to provide effective and efficient supports and assistances to MSEs. Additionally, increasing the profit of MSEs is also significant issues from the viewpoint of poverty alleviation.

The Government of El Salvador, within its 5 year development plan 2010-2014, prioritizes support for developing MSMEs sector as one of important areas of development strategies. In line with this policy attention, the government has been delivering efforts to assist in MSEs through National Commission of Micro and Small Enterprises, CONAMYPE. CONAMYPE has implemented the several activities to support for owners of MSEs to strengthen the management on boosting the outputs of their products in recent years. Furthermore, the CONAMYPE has established 14 Development Center of Micro and Small Enterprises, CDMYPE, across the country, which applies the concept of public-private-academic sectors collaboration in order to support MSEs, and has 9 regional offices for Local Economic Development, decentralized service points MSEs across the country.

Japanese Government through JICA implemented the regional technical cooperation project "Project for Capacity Building of Facilitators on Improving Productivity and Quality for Small and Medium Enterprises in Central America and Caribbean Regions" from July 2009 to March 2013. The project aimed at strengthening organizational and managerial capacity of SMEs, and transferring instruction methods of quality and productivity improvement with the counterpart in Costa Rica, namely, Training center of facilitators training and technical persons for industrial development in Central America, Centro de Formación de Formadores y de Personal Técnico para el Desarrollo Industrial de Centro America, CEFOF.

As for El Salvador, technical transfer on improvement method of productivity based on Japanese experience was conducted along with capacity development of CONAMYPE staffs in the project. In order to disseminate the project's outputs nationwide and ensure its sustainability in El Salvador, a proposal of a new project to develop facilitators training program for them to implement effective support for MSEs was submitted to Japan.

General objective

Services on improvement of quality, productivity and management of MSEs are provided continuously in El Salvador.

Objective of the project

A plan on nationwide framework for developing and utilising trained Senior Facilitators (trainers for Facilitators who provide services on improvement of quality, productivity and management of MSEs) is produced.

Expected results

1. Training programme for developing Senior Facilitator, which includes training curriculum, training schedule, and training materials, is prepared.
2. Senior Facilitators, who can conduct trainings for developing new Facilitators, are developed.

Activities to develop

1.1	The JICA experts set up criteria for selecting candidates for Senior Facilitator training and select Senior Facilitator candidates based on the criteria made in consultation with CONAMYPE.
1.2	The JICA experts set up criteria for selecting companies where advisory service will be provided as OJT in consultation with CONAMYPE.
1.3	The JICA experts develop training curriculum for Senior Facilitator training on improvement of quality and productivity in consultation with CONAMYPE.
1.4	The JICA experts develop training materials for Senior Facilitator training.
1.5	The JICA experts develop capability assessment criteria of trained participants in the Senior Facilitator training.
1.6	COMAMYPE formulates a training program, which leads to an action plan for utilising developed Senior Facilitators in consultation with JICA experts (preparation of future training programme for developing new facilitator, implementing structure of training programme, budgetary plan for training programme, and framework of collaboration among organizations concerned).
2.1	The JICA experts implement Senior Facilitator training.

Investments

Japanese Side:
Input by JICA

Dispatch of Experts, Training and Equipment.

Salvadoran Side:
Input by CONAMYPE:

Allocation of the counterparty, office space and operating expenses for the execution of the project.

Pictures

Presentation of the Project to Participating Entrepreneurs and Businesswomen

CONAMYPE staff, participating in Training at the UTN in Costa Rica.

CONAMYPE staff, participating in Training at the UTN in Costa Rica.