“The Free State Province SME Development project funded by the Flemish International Cooperation Agency (FICA) and implemented by provincial-level and municipal-level stakeholders with facilitation support from the International Labour Organization (ILO) seeks to strengthen the capacity of Free State Provincial Government and its stakeholders in the private sector and civil society to make these policy priorities actionable, by implementing a range of initiatives in support of local SME."

The overall project objective is to create decent employment opportunities for historically disadvantaged population groups in Free State Province. The overall project outcome is sustainable community-based small businesses that have created at least 5,000 decent jobs.

The immediate project objectives are::

• To nurture a stronger culture of entrepreneurship among the population of the Free State Province,
• To create a more conducive policy, legal and regulatory framework (PLRF) for the start-up and operations of SMEs in the Free State Province
• To strengthen the capacity of local organizations to provide sector-specific business development services (BDS) geared towards SMEs at community level
• To stimulate BDS uptake among prospective and emerging entrepreneurs and their employees living and working in these communities