The Impact of Policy and Role of Donor Agencies on Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Assistance Projects in Russia

The goal of this article is to reflect on the impact which key donor organisations have had on Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) development projects in post communist Russia and to illustrate the difficulties of conducting SME development in Russia during a time when “Shock Therapy” was the dominant ideology at most of the Western donor agencies and organisations. An example is given below from a SME institution development project in Samara, Russia. The author thanks his Western and Russian colleagues for their insights and suggestions and hopes that this article will contribute to future policy discussion on SME policy and development at donor organisations.