Salvaging Women’s Businesses under Pandemic: Business Development Services as a Critical Tool

Book ID: ISED-363

Book Type: Soft Copy

Description

Business Development Services (BDS) providers play a very important role of support to the development of MSMEs by pro-viding a range of business advice, information, and assistance to the sector, as well as stimulating sustainable MSME develop-ment by improving the general business environment. BDS are effectively a range of services designed to assist enterprises andentrepreneurs to operate efficiently and grow their businesses with the aim of contributing to economic growth, employmentgeneration and poverty alleviation. The definition of Business Development Services, put forward by the Institute of Small En-terprises and Development(ISED), is more broad based. ISED proposes an alternative workable definition for business develop-ment services as follows: In the context of this study, business development services are defined as those services(both operational and strategic) and products offered, both directly and indirectly, for meeting the needs of individual businesses and the business community, at various stages of their business needs, and for other actors in shaping policies and strategies. In a relative sense, considering their objective constraints, women need an integrated package of real services for ensuring the sustainability of the existing enterprises, and to attract new entrants. It is important that in the gender based public programs