Operational Review: Balkans Business Enabling Environment Pilot Trust Fund

The Business Enabling Environment Trust Fund was created by the World Bank and Global Affairs Canada to provide an avenue to operationalize funds from several donors and was managed by the Small and Medium Enterprise Department of the World Bank. The purpose of the Fund was to identify business environment constraints for SME development to support overall economic development in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and the FYR of Macedonia, and to undertake pilot projects to address those constraints. The Fund focused on business associations and capacity building; local economic development through public-private partnerships; laws and regulations; and diagnostic and analytical work. The mid-term Operational Review and Evaluation was undertaken to evaluate the Fund at both the program and project management levels to assess performance and results to date and to recommend actions to be taken to improve performance going forward. To do so, Cowater assessed and evaluated the program and projects from the perspectives of results achieved and evaluated issues of additionality, replicability, efficiency and relevance of specific projects.