The evaluation results of Action Through Enterprise’s (ATE) small business development programme (BizATE) are out and beautifully capture how lives in Lawra are being changed for the better. In January 2016, ATE conducted its first formal evaluation of the BizATE programme in Lawra District, in the Upper West Region of Ghana. It was funded by the Commercial Education Trust (CET) and led by ATE’s Chair of Trustees (Charles Gardner), alongside an independent evaluator (Dr Nick Maurice), and was supported by a fantastic team of local, Lawra-based ATE staff and consultants. The purpose was to review and analyse the BizATE programme’s effectiveness, identify how to improve it and to develop a plan to ensure that it will impact more people more effectively.
The two-week evaluation process itself was an intensive, extremely valuable opportunity for learning and reflection which included collaborative planning meetings, formal surveys of ATE-supported small business owners and consultants, a two-day Evaluating Success and peer-learning workshop, and evaluation team debriefing sessions. The major conclusions of the evaluation are very encouraging and informative in developing ATE’s plans for the future. Since December 2012, ATE has supported 49 small business owners; 37 were able to take part in the full evaluation process and a further 6 small business owners were selected from Dowine village to join the programme from March 2016.
The programme evaluation found that since working with ATE the average income of small business owners has increased from GH¢ 52 to GH¢ 163 per month (£9.60 to £30.20), making a significant and sustainable difference to their lives. In the words of one of ATE’s small business owners: “Before life was not easy, I had to hide from people I owed money to, do all sorts of dirty jobs, I had to beg. I had responsibilities as a mother I could not fulfil for my children. Now my life is successful, I settled debts…now I am self-reliant and able to provide for the family and solve my own problems”. (anonymous ATE-supported small business owner) Based on the evaluation report’s findings and recommendations, improvements to the BizATE programme, such as the applications process, are already being trialled and put in place. In addition, feasibility studies have been carried out to explore the practicalities of some great new project ideas generated by local people to deepen the BizATE programme’s impact in the area, such as support for dry-season farmers and an apprenticeship scheme. In line with the report’s findings and ATE’s vision for the future, ATE is committed to rolling the BizATE programme out to more rural villages and sub-districts within Lawra, creating new hubs of improved enterprise and economic growth. To find out more, you can download the full BizATE Evaluation Report. ATE BizATE Evaluation – FINAL (External)