BDS Portals - BDS Forum

Contents: Directories of support institutions, finance, business consultants, business associations and chambers. BDS strategies and sector approaches. Business information on marketing, import-export, trade fairs, taxation, business planning, bookkeeping and cost calculation, monitoring and evaluation... www.senegal-entreprises.net

Design: Because of 3 menu bars (see left, right and horizontal) almost all contents are visible on the first level, thus very user friendly.

Start and Improve your Business www.start-your-business.net
Learning platform on business creation and business follow-up.
Webpage, CD-ROM and printed Handbook.
Preparation: Identification of business idea; market, supply and infrastructure analysis; business management; financial analysis; Legislation.
Steps of implementation: business planning; financing; registration; product development; marketing activities.
Follow-up: improve accounting; product development; market extension; staff and stock management; maintenance; financing

Ethiopian BDS Network www.bds-ethiopia.net
Information platform for BDS facilitators and BDS network member organizations. Information on BDS lessons learnt, business information on taxation, marketing, trade fairs, import-export, business planning, bookkeeping and cost calculation.

Dieter Gagel, Heidelberg 2006
Impact and Sustainability of ICT based BDS Portals
impact-bds-portal.ppt 607 KB

Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce www.ethiopianchamber.com.
The Ethiopian Chamber website has been published in collaboration with the GTZ MSE Development Project and generates income via advertizing and sub-webpages of member enterprises (see advertizers and links to sub-webs on homepage). The Ethiopian Chamber generates income also from hosting and managing of other webpages like www.amhara-development.org of the regional Amhara Government. See also the Directory of Developmenht Programmes under www.ethiopianchamber.com/projects.html

Adama Chamber of Commerce www.adamachamber.com.
The Adama chamber website has been published in collaboration with the GTZ MSE Development Project and generates income via advertizers and sub-webpages of member enterprises (see advertizers and links to sub-webs on homepage)

Dire Dawa Chamber of Commerce www.diredawachamber.com,
Mekelle Chamber of Commerce www.mekellechamber.com

Support of Business Associations and their Access to Markets
www.business-ethiopia.com Dutch Cooperation in Ethiopia
Value Chain Development, BDS and Networking. Value chains in milk, honey and beeswax, edible oil and pineapple. In the library of business-ethiopia find documented M+E system for value chain development.

Mali-Business www.mali-business.com. French BDS portal with documents on BDS achievements of the National Federation of Craftsmen (FNAM) and organizational development.

Promali www.promali.org. Promali is not a BDS Portal but an income generating website of FNAM. FNAM is webhoster for hotels, hospitals, NGOs, projects, consultants and other businesses. Promali financing the BDS facilitators of FNAM since the GTZ project's end in 2001.

Association Guinéene des Evaluateurs (AGEVAL) www.ageval.org
French website of the Guineian Evaluators' Association. Providing information on Monitoring and Evaluation. M+E Manuals from Worldbank, ILO, UNDP, GTZ and others for downlaod in Intranet.

Follow-up of start-ups with BDS in Tunisia
www.bds-forum.net/tunisia. French website documenting BDS as follow-up system after start-up trainings in collaboration with the National Tunisian Manpower Agency.

BDS examples of Tanzania, Niger, Mali, Tunisia
www.bds-forum.net/africa Documenting BDS experiences in the above mentioned countries

Information Platform on SME Portals www.gtz.de/sme-portals
GTZ website on BDS portals and learning platforms in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Action-Research www.action-research.de
Most of the above presented BDS interventions are based on the participatory action-research approach.

Capacity Building and Poverty Reduction
www.bds-forum.net/poverty-reduction. Developping action plans by bottom-up approach together with Craftsmen Federations of Mali, Benin and Guinea. Action plans have been taken over by the national PRSP structures.

Lessons learnt on Internet based
BDS Portals and Learning Platforms [top]

Efficient Internet BDS Portals should be based on concrete BDS structures on the ground and business advisors using information in daily business consultancy work on enterprise level.
Direct target groups of Internet based BDS portals are not business owners (with less Internet use) but intermediaries like business consultants, BDS facilitators, partners and donors.
By Media mix of Internet, BDS newsletter, CD-ROM, printed handbooks and sales in bookshops, information via intermediaries trickles down to enterprise level and the whole country.
Produce webpage with simple html code that can easily be updated by local low-cost personal and partners.