development aid and consulting
publications
Public awareness, dissemination and knowledge transfer are important elements of all our projects. During years of work a lot of publications, manuals, newsletters, brochures, websites have been prepared in many countries and in many languages. Discover our publications by areas of expertise
Publications in
Business Development:
Business planning for Private Veterinary Units Manual
In Mongolia all veterinary services in rural areas are rendered by veterinary units (PVUs) which are private and operate as business entities. The private veterinars very often lack business and management experience, which hinder development of a veterinary unit. The manual has provided basic knowledge on various aspects of company operations including legal framework for PVUs‘ operations, business planning, key marketing issues tailored to the current needs and requirements of veterinary units.
Single register of permissive documents
Clear and transparent regulatory environment is one of the important pre-conditions for successful business sector development.
Rules, procedures, legal requirements have to be transparent and understandable. Beginning and experienced entrepreneurs have very often problems to understand which permissive documents are required to start a business, where to get them, what are the responsibilities of the regulatory bodies, etc.
This publication in Russian and Kyrgyz languages summarised profound analysis of the regulatory and permissive environment of the Batken province. It provided detailed information on what permissive documents were required for all types of business in the Republic of Kazakhstan, where these documents could be obtained, what was the procedure, and lists addresses of the relevant organisations in the Batken oblast.
Guide on state control
Small business is subject to control by a lot of state organisations, e.g. tax office, transport inspection, fire control, sanitary and veterinary inspections, social funds, labour inspections and many, many others. Lack of knowledge about the legal framework and unclearness of the term “control” and procedures to be applied, is very often mis-used by the official for rent seeking. It may cost a small company considerable losses and distortions.
It is of a vital importance for any entrepreneur to know his / her rights and obligations towards various control agencies. This Guide provides detailed information on the state agencies authorised to control small businesses, on entrepreneur’s rights and obligations, on exact procedures to be followed with references to the relevant legislation. The Guide enables entrepreneurs to get better understanding of the regulatory environment and protect his/her rights in the day-to-day business operations.
Business Ideas Manual
The objective of the manual is to stimulate development of small enterprises in rural areas of Aktobe region by presenting business ideas which proved to be successful. The team of experts has analysed small business ideas from various environments and selected those which are most perspective for the rural areas of Aktobe. The ideas are presented in a unified format providing brief background, pre-conditions and basic financial calculations.
Considerable part of the ideas refers to agriculture and development of service sector in rural areas. Efforts have been made to consider the development priorities set by the Aktobe regional administration. The manual does not provide ready solutions but is aimed to stimulated business thinking of rural people and inspire search for market opportunities in their own environment. It also proved to be a valuable tool for business consultants of the region. The manual is available in Russian and Kazakh languages.
Publications in
Rural Development:
Rural Development Manual
Though rural development as a term is easy to understand, it is rather difficult to get an insight in qualitative and quantitative instruments available and used to identify rural areas and to assess rural development. Rural development touches all aspects of human economic, social and cultural activities. Different ministries, institutions and associations are involved in the policy building and implementation on national, regional and local level.
The Phare project “Support for diversification of rural economy“ (SDRE) was set up to assist Latvian Ministry of Agriculture in formulation and implementation of an agricultural development strategy. The SDRE project proposed and tested methods for elaboration and implementation of rural development plans. An important accent was laid on implementation of these plans on the lowest administrative level (pagast) with active participation of self-governments, local interest groups and private entrepreneurs.
This Rural Development Manual summarises the strategies elaborated by the project and all the experience related to their various aspects. Chapter one highlights the most important issues and objectives of rural development in general as well as on the EU and national level. Chapter two deals with the roles of relevant European institutions. Chapter three provides infromation on various structural funds and other resources available for implementation of rural development plans in Latvia. The fourth chapter gives a description of the methodology on national, regional and local level and explains how to involve local communities in preparation and implementation of action plans.
Publications in
Agriculture and Marketing:
Seasonal Variation of Livestock Prices in Mongolia
The Animal Health and Livestock Marketing Project has established a Market Information System. Valuable data on livestock products prices has been collected during 4 years. The data has been analysed to determine the price developments during 2009-2012, seasonal trends and price variations between the provincial markets. The findings for 10 key products have been summarised in this publications to assist herders, market experts and consultants to better understand the livestock product’s markets in Mongolia.
Fodder Production Manual
Most of the cattle production in Mongolia is still extensive with animals feeding on pastures all year round. It is one of the development priorities for Mongolian agriculture to improve feed system and develop efficient fodder production. Therefore during 2010-2012 the project has implemented field trials for hay/fodder production in Darkhan and Tuv provinces.
Fodder production manual summarised important findings of the field trials as well as provided in-depth information about forage plants, agri-technology, improvement of fodder quality, feeding systems, etc. It has been printed in 3 parts in Mongolian language.
Drug Compendium
Technical assistance to private veterinary units was one of the key components of the projects and included training, capacity building, knowledge transfer and provision of the equipment. As part of these activities, a compendium of veterinary drugs licensed for use in Mongolia has been compiled. It provides all information which a veterinary professional in Mongolia needs to know about their pharmaceutical features and usage.
Farmer's Diary
- Project: Development of Credit to Private Rural Farmers, Moldova.
A Farmer’s Diary was published together with the Moldova Agroindbank. It provided key information related to legislation, agricultural production, business and marketing as well as places for the notices.
How to Create a Machinery Ring
The objective behind this manual is to present the concept of machinery ring which is a form of farmers’ cooperation aimed at multi-farm use of agricultural machinery. Lack of agricultural machinery was one of the acutest problems faced by individual farms in Kazakhstan during that time.
Therefore the machinery rings could become a possible solution to overcome this lack and to allow cost effective use of available machinery. The manual provides important information of the idea itself, machinery costs calculations, relevant legal and financial issues. The manual summarises findings and outputs of the project’s technical work, therefore it gives practical tips on decision making process, provides valuable overview on the legal forms possible under the legislation of Kazakhstan and reflects on some taxation issues. Draft contracts and machinery ring’s statutes are presented in the annexes. The manual was successfully used to establish 6 machinery rings in Aktobe region.
Series of publications on crops and livestock production
- Project: Pilot Projects for Agricultural Enterprises in the Animal Production and Fresh Produce Sector, Kazakhstan.
Each publication has provided practical information on specific issues related to arable and livestock production.
Privatisation of Food Wholesale and Retail Distribution System in Yaroslavl
- Project: Privatisation of Food Wholesale and Retail Distribution System, Russia
The booklet summarised Project’s experience and recommendations on privatisation in Yaroslavl region. It gave overview of the implemented activities as well as reported about challenges faced by the project and solutions found and implemented by the Project’s team.
Publications in
Access to credit:
Credit Guide
The Guide was designed for small business sector and summarises the sources of credits available in the capital and provincial centres of Mongolia. Each credit institution was presented with a brief history, detailed requirements regarding business plan and collateral, procedures and documents which will be required for a credit application, as well as contacts of the credit department. Two editions of the Guide were printed in 2010 and 2011.
Management of Rural Credit Partnerships Manual
The project was actively involved in support of Rural Credit Partnerships (RCPs) in Aktobe region and financed elaboration of the manual to summarise the experience already accumulated in Kazakhstan. The manual describes wide range of issues related to management of a rural credit partnership, credit policy, marketing as well as existing legislation framework. It is aimed at the management of existing Partnerships as well as at the groups of rural population seeking to establish the new ones. The manual is elaborated in close cooperation with RCPs‘ association MIRAZ and Agrarian Credit Corporation which supported development of credit cooperation throughout Kazakhstan.
Small Business Financing
The main objective of this manual is to give an overview of the general issues related to efficient financing of a small enterprise which is one of the increasingly important topics for the SMEs in Kazakhstan. In clear and understandable way, the manual provides description of the financial flows and financing needs of a small enterprise. The forms of financing are presented and well compared, the tools to evaluate the efficiency of planned investments are
given as well . An entrepreneur is given an opportunity to summarise and improve his/her understanding of investment mechanisms, risks and opportunities connected to credits. The last chapter of the manual provides basics of financial planning considering the specifics of a small enterprise. The manual was efficiently used during the project’s numerous trainings and individual consultations.
How to apply for the APPA credit
The project has provided support to the Ministry of Agriculture to manage the World Bank which was disbursed to agricultural and rural businesses through local commercial banks. Therefore the manual gives a short overview on key aspects of the credit line. Detailed guidelines how to apply for an APPA loan with an action plan are provided, including elaboration of a farm development plan and a business plan. The manual further provides practical recommendations how to get help from agricultural consultants.
Small Business Financing
The main objective of this manual is to give an overview of the general issues related to efficient financing of a small enterprise which is one of the increasingly important topics for the SMEs in Kazakhstan. In clear and understandable way, the manual provides description of the financial flows and financing needs of a small enterprise. The forms of financing are presented and well compared, the tools to evaluate the efficiency of planned investments are
given as well . An entrepreneur is given an opportunity to summarise and improve his/her understanding of investment mechanisms, risks and opportunities connected to credits. The last chapter of the manual provides basics of financial planning considering the specifics of a small enterprise. The manual was efficiently used during the project’s numerous trainings and individual consultations.
How to Start and Register a Rural Credit and Saving Co-operative Manual
As farmers, small entrepreneurs and owners of household plots had little or no access to financial resources, a new form of credit institution, namely rural savings and credit co-operatives (agricultural consumer credit cooperatives) appeared in the rural areas as an alternative solution. Their activities include mobilisation of members‘ savings, attraction of loan capital and provision of credits to the members, foremostly for production purposes.
The aim of this manual is to assist people looking to establish a rural credit co-operative with the following:
- Where to begin?
- What steps should be taken to establish a co-operative?
- How to correctly prepare documents for registration?
To provide grounded answers to these questions the manual provides outline of a concept of a rural savings and credit co-operative (RSCC), overveiw of its activities, its differences to other financial structures, commercial banks in particular, and status of its member.
Management of Rural Credit and Savings Cooperatives Manua
This manual waswritten for both members and managers of RSCCs to use as an information source on how a co-operative can be organised and managed effectively. The manual might also be useful as a reference guide for member and management training activities.
This manual was intentionally forward-looking, introducing concepts and practices that many credit co-operatives were not yet able to adopt immediately. However, given the rapid pace of co-operative development and the need for members and leaders to share a common vision of how their organisations can grow and thrive, this manual provided directions and details required to meet these evolving needs.
Savings Mobilisation Manual
The manual had summarised experience of numerous Saving Mobilisation seminars organised by the project. The initial stage of the project has revealed that only few managers of credit cooperatives had experience and knowledge to attract and manage savings. Only few of them had basic ideas about benefits from savings services for their cooperative and interest rates. The trainings provided knowledge on various savings services, specifics of the savings products which could be offered by credit cooperatives as well as correlation between savings and credit resources. Therefore the manual concentrated on the weakest points such as how to rollout the savings products and designing appropriate savings products.
Credit Securing in Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives Manual
The manual reflects on a wide range of issues how a credit cooperative can secure credits issued to its members. It deals with key principals of credit policy, including conditions which a potential borrower has to fulfil, legal framework, evaluation of credit application and credit size which is needed for a particular business project. It further explains methods of collateral evaluation and checking, and provides case studies how to determine collateral market value.
The final part of the manual deals with situations when a borrower is unable to repay his/her credit and the collateral needs to be sold. The manual has been designed for credit officers and members of credit committees, but could be also useful for cooperative’s members and credit applicants.
Accounting and Taxation in Rural Credit and Savings Co-operatives Manual
Accounting of credit cooperatives should be performed according to the common rules and procedures defined by the current legislation. At the same time, it has some specific features which result from the legal status (non-commercial organisations) and type of activities (credit and finance sector) performed by a cooperative.
Good accounting is the basis for proper management and sustainable development of a co-operative. Thus this manual aimed to provide practical guidelines to establish proper accounting and taxation functions which were often considered as problem areas
Economic Indicators of Agricultural Production (for bankers and consultants)
During the time of the Project lack of access to credit was one of the problems hindering development of market oriented agriculture in Kazakhstan. The young banking sector had no experience in financing of agriculture, and a lot of credit offices had difficulties to evaluate business plans for arable and livestock production. This lack was addressed by the Manual which provides economic background for key agricultural products in Kazakhstan including costs calculations, profit and loss analysis, sensitivity analysis, seasonal price trends, etc.
Publications in
Institutional capacity building:
Legislation Compendium
The Compendium has resulted from the Project’s efforts to revise existing legislation in the context of the Agricultural Sector Strategy. It provides full texts of the laws and legal documents and was used during various project activities such as legislation working group, training and capacity building.
Batken Guide
Batken Presentation Guide is aimed to promote the Batken Oblast within business community and visitors of the region. The Guide contains many-fold information on Batken oblast including history, culture, economy, nature, potential, etc, and has been published as a book with about 150 pages in 3 languages – Kyrgyz, English and Russian. This guidebook contributes to raising awareness about the business opportunities, the touristic potential and – last but certainly not least – the beauty of Batken Oblast. Being a valuable source of reference to a broad audience, it contains a lot of illustrations to the region and the following 5 chapters:
- General Information
- Economic Outlook
- Transport
- Social and Cultural Affairs
- Nature and Tourism
Poverty Reduction Program Monitoring and Evaluation Manual
- Project: Capacity Building for National and Local Government on Implementation of Poverty Reduction Programme, Kazakhstan.
This manual describes the poverty monitoring action plan designed to support and guide the Poverty Reduction Programme in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The implementation of this action plan will ensure that the relevant data are collected, analyzed and disseminated. It will allow the policymakers and other stakeholders, both at the national and the regional levels, to evaluate the progress and to modify the poverty reduction program as appropriate.
The Manual addresses different dimensions of PRP monitoring, including:
- Tracking progress in achieving the poverty reduction goals;
- Validating the strategy chosen by the national and regional governments;
- Mobilizing and sustaining public support for the goals and the strategy;
- Identifying reasons for success or failure, allowing effective management of the strategy and improvements to be made while programs are in progress;
- Enhancing the involvement of civil society and non-governmental actors in poverty reduction strategy;
- Increasing accountability in the use of resources, generating transparency; and
- Incorporating quality management into the poverty reduction strategy.
Efficient Business Training (Manual for Trainers)
The Project has considerably supported development of business advisory and training services in Aktobe oblast including training of trainers. This manual summarises project experience in business training and provides valuable practical tips for trainers. It reflects on training methodologies, program and materials elaboration, training and monitoring tools, as well as outline of the several courses successfully tested by the Project. The manual was issued in Russian and Kazakh languages.
