POLICY AUDIT TEMPLATE
“An International Benchmarking Analysis of Public Programmes
for Growth-Oriented Entrepreneurship”
The OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme and the Danish Business
Authority (DBA) have started a project aimed at analysing and benchmarking public programmes that
target business enterprises with growth potential, i.e. high-growth enterprises including gazelles (i.e. the
young variant of high-growth firms). The project intends to cover both programmes that deliver services
through public and private intermediaries and those that deliver services directly. Examples of programmes
we are interested in include business accelerators, catapults, and other forms of intense and targeted
business services and finance support. We are interested in hearing both about national programmes
implemented regionally through branch offices and/or local intermediary organisations and about
programmes developed autonomously by regional and local governments.
The objective is to understand strengths and weaknesses of these programmes, as well as similarities and
differences with regard to issues such as the selection of target firms, types of services and support offered
(including business diagnosis), skills of programme staff, delivery arrangements (including referral system
in place) and monitoring and evaluation issues.
The most interesting policy descriptions will be jointly selected by the OECD LEED Programme and DBA
and the authors will be contacted to write up a fee-based paper by early September.
To submit your proposal, please: (a) complete the first part of the form with your personal information; (b)
fill out the second part on basic information concerning the initiative; (c) describe in approx. 1000 words
the initiative you are proposing following the template. Together with the form we would be grateful if you
could send us your CV.
Please send your programme description proposal by Friday, 22 June 2012 to:
Marco Marchese, Economist, marco.marchese@oecd.org
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Title
First name
Last name
Organisation
Position
Email address
Phone
BASIC INFORMATION ON THE INITIATIVE
Name of the initiative
Implementing agency
Country and/or region(s)
Section
Context of the initiative
DESCRIPTION OF THE INITIATIVE
Key questions to address
Rationale and objectives
Target firms
Firm selection
Range of services
(including business diagnosis)
Delivery arrangements
(including referral)
Staff profile
M&E system in place
Proven impact
Additional information:
Context of the initiative: pls. provide information on the legal background of the initiative and its
geographical scope.
Rationale and objectives: pls. explain the reasons underlying the programme and its objectives. Clarify if
the initiative intends to target any specific market failure or system failure.
Target firms: pls. describe if there is any specific target group of firms or, if not, the average profile of
client firms. Are they technology-based companies? Are they in services or manufacturing? Are they
young or mature firms? Are they oriented to domestic or international markets?
Firm selection: pls. provide information on how supported firms are selected. What are the criteria used?
Are they based on the past performance of the business? Is there any internal appraisal done by the
programme staff of the growth potential of the client firms?
Range of services (including diagnosis): pls. tell us first of all if there is any internal diagnosis of client
firms and, if so, give us detail on how such diagnosis is carried out. Secondly, what are the other main
services delivered internally or externally through the network of private business support services (e.g.
finance, specialised advice, training, mentoring and coaching, access to international markets, etc.?).
Which one is the prevailing one?
Delivery arrangements (including referral): pls. give details on how the programme is delivered. For
example, is a public authority tasked with the direct delivery of the services offered within the framework
of the programme? Or is service delivery left to private or semi-public intermediary organisations (e.g.
training agencies, consulting companies, law firms, etc.)? In the second case, how are intermediary
organisations selected? How does the overall referral system work?
Staff profile: pls. give us information on the profile of the programme’s staff members and how staff
members interact with target companies. Does the programme staff have any industry experience? Do they
have an applied-science or rather generalist profile? What is approximately the average number of years of
experience? How do they interact with client firms? Do they visit them? Do they receive them in the
headquarters? Or are relationships with client firms completely delegated to intermediary organisations?
M&E system in place: pls. explain whether there is any monitoring and evaluation system in place to
assess the outputs, outcomes, impact, and efficiency of the programme? What of the previous criteria is
quantitatively measured?
Proven impact: pls. elucidate whether, based on previous formal evaluation, the programme has any
proven impact, especially in terms of outcomes.