Evidence for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprise: Conference and Matchmaking Event
On Tuesday November 3, 2015, IPA Peru, J-PAL LAC, the Ministry of Production, the National Society of Industries and COPEME, co-organized the Conference and Workshop Collaboration "Evidence for the development of small and medium company " in Lima, Peru, in the framework of the Small and Medium Enterprise Program of IPA.
The event convened representatives of the public and private sector, civil society and researchers, with the aim of spreading the existing rigorous evidence on effective interventions for SMEs and identifying opportunities for collaboration to generate new research in this area. To this end, international researchers presented evidence product of rigorous impact evaluations on the effectiveness of programs and services to SMEs in the world. Researchers also worked with local actors to generate new studies on what interventions work and which do not in the Peruvian context.
The event was devided in three panels on topics considered essential for the growth of SMEs. Under the first panel, researcher Stanislao Maldonado (Universidad del Rosario) presented evidence product of studies in the area of access to finance for SMEs. In the second panel, the researcher Jeanne Lafortune (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), presented studies focusing on the development of human capital and management skills in SMEs. Finally, in the third panel, researchers Daniel Xu (Duke University) and Matthew Bird (Pacific University) presented on interventions to facilitate access to markets by SMEs. The evidence presented by these leading researchers was discussed by implementers of services or interventions in each panel's thematic area.
During the afternoon, researchers and implementers participated in a matchmaking workshop. In this workshop, researchers presented their areas of interest in terms of academic research, while implementers presented the services or programs aimed at SMEs that they are implementing. Based on this, both groups worked together to define common interests and opportunities for collaboration, in order to strengthen ties to design and test innovative solutions to the problems of SMEs in Peru. This will generate evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions, in order to feed existing programs and inform future ones.
The event was organized by J-PAL LAC and IPA Perú and the SME Program at IPA, as part of its mission to promote decision-making informed by evidence in public policy.
Acceso a Servicios Financieros - S. Maldonado
Human Capital and Capabilities - J. Lafortune
Barriers for Market Access - D. Xu
Evidence for Market Access - M. Bird