Big Small Business project (Projekat velika mala privreda)

BIG SMALL BUSINESS PROJECT ANNUAL PROGRAM STATEMENT TPI APS 2022-01

The Big Small Business project (Projekat velika mala privreda) is a five-year activity funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented in partnership with ACDI/VOCA, J.E. Austin Associates, CEVES, and the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation. The Big Small Business project (the Project), aims at empowering Serbian market actors to lead localized initiatives that spur small and medium enterprise (SME) growth through integration in high-value markets. Working through a wide range of Serbian market actors at the local level, the Project will catalyze new behaviors, relationships, and the improved performance of SMEs and their support systems.

To achieve its goals, the Project will employ a facilitative market system approach that puts Serbian actors in the lead and enables regionally tailored implementation in the focus sectors of Agriculture & Food and Equipment and Machines – with intersectional opportunities in Digitalization, Green Economy, and Creative Industry applications. The Project will foster local entrepreneurial "ecosystems" of sector-specialized firms by supporting business support providers (BSPs), financial institutions, and other service providers to increase SMEs’ productivity and profitability. At the same time, the Project will work on improving SMEs’ marketing and exports through business services, strengthening supply chain relationships, sectoral (horizontal) cooperation, and enhancing the quality and traceability of their products. In addition, the Project will strive to diversify the financial products and services available to SMEs, improve SME utilization of financial services, and leverage the considerable public, private, and other resources available for investment. Finally, the Project will invest in inclusive outcomes by expanding opportunities for female and youth, and other marginalized groups through actors in workforce development, the private sector, and the education system.

The Project will utilize the Transformational Partnership and Innovation (TPI) Fund expected to leverage locally available resources by issuing grants to address gaps in the Serbian market system with opportunities to engage system actors in efforts that support experimentation and learning.

The objective of this Annual Program Statement TPI APS 2022-01 S is to solicit applications from eligible organizations, business service providers, financial service providers, associations, research and educational institutions, market system leaders, and other market actors, that present creative and innovative technical approaches and methodologies, for supporting the Project’s objectives and results.

The Annual Program Statement is open for receiving applications from October 27, 2022, to April 27, 2023.

1. APS

2. Application

3. Certifications