5.1 The SME Development Policy (SMEDP): Support for Growth-oriented Women Entrepreneurs in Tanzania, 2005

It should be noted that the latest round of SME development policies are very recent. The MIT released its national SME Development Policy in 2003, a process it has been working on since 1998. The SME Development Policy was approved by Parliament on 11 February 2003 and officially launched on 27 August 2003. The overall objective of the policy is “to foster job creation and income generation through promoting the creation of new SMEs and improving the performance and competitiveness of the existing ones to increase their participation and contribution to the Tanzanian economy”

(MIT, 2003). The implementation plan for the SME Development Policy includes a list of priority programmes and projects,24 categorized under seven major objectives:

Objective 1: Enabling the legal and regulatory framework Objective 2: Improved SME access to physical infrastructure and work places Objective 3: Strengthened entrepreneurial culture (through entrepreneurship development in the education system) and markets for sustainable business development services (BDS), training, and the provision of business information Objective 4: Improved SME access to finance Objective 5: Strengthened stakeholder capacities to achieve effective implementation of SME assistance programmes and interventions (including institutions and associations)

Objective 6: Enhanced rural industrialization Objective 7: Cross-cutting issues, such as gender mainstreaming in all initiatives pertaining to SME development.

The implementation of the SME Development Policy cuts across all other major programme and policy areas currently in place, notably the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), the Sustainable Industrial Development Policy (SIDP), the Strategic Trade Policy, the Agricultural Development Strategy Programme (ADSP), Rural Development Strategy (RDS), and Strategies for Poverty Reducing Employment (MIT, July 2003). The danger of overlap due to lack of coordination on elements related to the SME sector was noted in the MIT (2003) report. To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.

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