01/09/99 - 01/08/01
TDI Group was contracted by Ecuador’s new private sector export promotion organisation, (Corporacion de Promocion de las Exportaciones e Inversiones - CORPEI), to manage, promote and administer the Learning and Innovation Fund - a World Bank financed export oriented matching grant fund programme aimed at SME’s in the manufacturing, horticulture and mariculture sectors. The ELIF also supports the alleviation of poverty through a program of cost-sharing support to NGOs that provide commercial development and training services to rural and urban SME and micro-enterprises.
01/08/99 - 01/12/04
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development contracted Landell Mills Ltd (in association with SKM) to provide technical assistance to the CPMU (Central Project Management Unit) for this project, which assisted in the preparation and implementation of small-scale infrastructure projects throughout 23 provinces.
The consortium provided institutional support and capacity building to the National Project Director and his team, working at national, provincial and district level, particularly in the establishment of project management, monitoring and reporting systems, as well as in the design, tendering and supervision of construction works. The objective was to assist the provincial authorities to design, prepare and implement small-scale rural infrastructure projects to ADB standards. LML provided international environmental and social inputs (as well as all the local inputs) to the project including a sociologist, environment adviser, and Benefit Monitoring and Evaluation specialist. SKM provided the Construction Quality adviser (long-term), Roads Supervisor (long-term), Water Resources adviser, and Financial/Database specialist for the project.
Project progress was extremely successful with over 100 sub-projects completed with a total budget of over $100m. These included irrigation, road and water supply projects.
The project followed the decentralisation policy of the government, with provincial and district staff trained in identifying sub-projects in co-operation with local communities, and carrying out feasibility studies, before being approved by the CPMU and ADB.
01/08/99 - 01/10/03
Export Diversification Project – Matching Grant Facility Management
This World Bank project commenced in August 1999 and involves the management and disbursement of a €11 million matching grant scheme. The objective was to provide financial and technical assistance to private sector companies (primarily SMEs) to assist them to achieve international competitiveness by diversifying and increasing their exports. The project had a staff of twenty-three.
01/08/99 - 01/12/02
Woodworking Sector Development Programme
TDI provided technical assistance to the woodworking sector. The overall objective was to strengthen the Ghanaian economy by stabilising and increasing export revenue through promoting the export of value-added wood products. This involved improving skills in selected firms, either directly or through support to training institutes in the wood sector, and by supporting the restructuring of the resource base by providing incentives to use under-utilised species.
The second phase of the project focused primarily on SME’s and micro Enterprises and had a stronger focus on sustainability for both the enterprises involved and the resource base.
01/08/99 - 31/07/02
This was a technical assistance project to assist the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) of China to establish and regulate a national consulting industry. In addition to the project’s institutional strengthening and capacity building roles within the industry and MST, the project aimed to improve the quality of national consulting on donor-funded projects. Landell Mills led a team working with the MST, comprising 4 international consultants, 4 national consultants from China International Economic Consultants (CIEC) and four counterpart staff. After an initial reviewing of international consulting standards and of donor agency regulations, the project focused on four main issues:
01/05/99 - 01/07/03
Landell Mills, as head of a 5-member consortium, has been responsible for the management of the EU-funded EBAS scheme. EBAS was a cost-sharing instrument designed to be available to all ACP states under the Lomé IV Convention. This matching grant scheme has helped businesses & intermediary organisations (trade associations, chambers of commerce, etc.) finance expansion projects & meet up to 50% of the costs of services facilitating an increase in competitiveness. EBAS had a grant fund of Euro 20 million & was operational from 1999-2003.
The overall objective of EBAS was to reinforce the competitiveness of ACP enterprises. To achieve this, EBAS strived to promote the market for business consulting services by encouraging private enterprises & business associations to procure the services of outside professional consultants or service providers to improve their business performance.
Through the use of consulting services, EBAS shared the cost of services for:
Its external independent evaluation was highly favourable and the Scheme is among eleven projects featured in the EC’s recent publication entitled 'Making trade work for development: putting theory into practice. Case reports of European Union trade development projects around the world' ( http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/reports/making_trade_work_2003_en.pdf).
The French-speaking countries of West Africa, including Benin, were supported by a regional office based in Abidjan. EBAS supported 15 SMEs and Intermediary Organisations in Benin to the value of 550,000 Euros.
01/05/99 - 30/04/01
The project team, based in the Department of Agronomy, assisted in improving the quality of rice and other seed production so that Cambodia achieved self-sufficiency in rice with the opportunity to become a rice exporter.
01/01/99 - 01/01/03
Competitiveness Fund Management
TDI managed this large World Bank fund ($17 million). The project, the Competitiveness Fund, was a matching grant scheme, under which grants were made available to private sector firms (primarily SME’s) to assist them improve their competitiveness to the highest international standards.
Assistance was provided to over 1000 companies in a wide range of technical areas. There was a specific regional focus. The project had a staff of 15, with 6 short-term experts, and there were three regional offices. A key task was to promote awareness of the Competitiveness Fund to intermediaries and end-users. Training of counterparts was a major focus of the contractor so as to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fund once the technical assistance component of the project was completed.
01/01/99 - 01/01/02
Trade Development and Investment Promotion Programme (TIPO)
This project built on much of the developmental work undertaken during TDI’s previous TA contract with the dual agency for trade and investment in Slovenia (1995-1997).
The main activities undertaken included: - TIPO’s export development programme was reviewed and modifications suggested (in particular some of the criteria and procedures relating to the cost-sharing grant scheme were improved); further long and short term technical assistance and training was provided in institutional strengthening and corporate planning both to TIPO and the Ministry and a further export promotional programme was designed and implemented.
The project also expanded the FDI direct market programme and network of on-site consultants; presentation of a report on FDI oriented incentives (which highlighted a number of business and investment enabling environment issues to be addressed by the Slovene authorities as well as the potential costs and benefits of introducing EU compliant FDI oriented incentives); Feasibility study on special economic zones and co-operation with the FIAS study on the administrative barriers to FDI.
01/01/99 - 01/01/01
The overall objective of the project, implemented by Landell Mills, is to improve agricultural production and hence revenue form the sector in Georgia by the creation of a bank dedicated to the special needs of farmers and agri-industry in general. The intention is to gradually eliminate the need for external assistance by setting up a self-sustaining agricultural credit institution. The need for such an institution is based on the reluctance of existing banks to lend to the agricultural sector. The principle elements of the project include: