WHAT'S THE ISSUE? Monitoring and evaluation are necessary to establish whether SME and entrepreneurship policies are being successful in meeting their objectives and to identify how they can be improved.  Evaluation needs to be robust and systematic, making use of control groups and allowing comparison across programmes. The last decade has seen tremendous improvements in the data and methodologies available for evaluation. However, the practice of evaluation has yet to catch up and robust and systematic evaluation is still too rare. The OECD has been stressing the importance of building a culture of evaluation across governments for a few decades. It has notably reaffirmed this priority at its SME and entrepreneurship ministerial meetings in Mexico City 2019, Istanbul 2004 and Bologna 2000. The OECD  also provides policy  support in this area.    WHAT CAN THE OECD OFFER? The OECD 2007 Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes sets out the principles of evaluation and provides international examples of good practice SME and entrepreneurship policy evaluations. Based on the Framework, the OECD undertakes assessments of monitoring and evaluation arrangements for SME and entrepreneurship policies in different countries and produces guidance manuals on monitoring and evaluation.  The OECD is currently updating its 2007 Framework.

EVENTS

The International Council for Small Business (ICSB) and the OECD held a Conference on the Future of Entrepreneurship: Policy and Practice on April 8-9 2019. The event included a high level session on the evaluation of entrepreneurship policies including representatives from the OECD, European Union, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Labour Office (ILO) and researchers from ICSB. Read more

 

Publications

SME Policy Effectiveness in Jordan: User Guide on Effective Monitoring and Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes

This report was prepared for JEDCO, the SME and entrepreneurship agency in Jordan. It sets out how to establish indicators for monitoring and evaluation, how to create a management information system for monitoring and evaluation, and how to assess policy impact. Read more...

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Monitoring and Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Programmes, OECD SME Ministerial Conference Mexico City, Policy Note

This policy note was prepared for the 2018 OECD Ministerial Conference on Strengthening SMEs and Entrepreneurship for Productivity and Inclusive Growth.  It examines the state of practice internationally in SME and entrepreneurship policy evaluation and the key challenges for improvement. Download the PDF...

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OECD Framework for the Evaluation of SME and Entrepreneurship Policies and Programmes

This report identifies the importance of establishing programme objectives at the outset and collecting the appropriate data to evaluate success. It offers the Six Steps to Heaven tool to identify if an evaluation is accounting for what would otherwise happen without the programme existence. It offers many models of programme evaluation to follow. Download the PDF...

Contact

For further information, please contact Jonathan Potter, OECD Senior Economist.