Overview
The overall goal of the Finance for Enterprise Development and Employment Creation Project (FEDEC) was to stimulate pro-poor growth to increase employment opportunities and reduce poverty. FEDEC was designed to directly target rural microenterprises and value chains. The project has built the capacity of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), the government apex funding agency for non-governmental organizations, and partner organizations to efficiently support microenterprise development. The project successfully combined access to finance, technology transfer, value chain structuring and new market development.
A large number of rural microenterprise entrepreneurs â?? the primary target group â?? significantly raised their income and assets as a result of microenterprise loans. However, the change was not as significant for the second target group: the poorest rural people, often landless, and/or members of female-headed households. They were expected to benefit from the growth of microenterprises through employment creation. However, most microenterprises accessing loans did not belong to the most labour-intensive sectors, and the increased demand for labour was largely absorbed by unpaid family labour.