Supporting Small Forest Enterprises: a Facilitator's Toolkit

The goal of this toolkit is to help supporters of small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) work more effectively. We have written this toolkit for ‘facilitators’, for example donors at the international level and, most impor- tantly, government extension services and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the national level. We have not written this toolkit for enterprises – although they may find some of the materials in component three useful.

We have arranged the toolkit in a series of self-explanatory modules (or tools) for different elements of SMFE support divided into three components. We begin in component one with broad international considerations on setting up capacity building programmes for SMFE support (primarily aimed at donors). We then move in component two to considerations on national level planning and capacity building, before providing in component three more hands-on advice for direct facilitation activities. The idea is that practitioners at any level can dip into sections that catch their eye, and those unfamiliar with enterprise support can read through the toolkit in a logical way.

Each of the sixteen modules (or tools) provides step-by-step guidance, followed by practical tips based on our personal experiences. We have also included a section pointing the reader to other useful manuals and tools already in existence. At the end of this toolkit is a reference list and a glossary of terms.

We invite readers to send the lead editor (Duncan Macqueen, email: duncan.macqueen@iied.org) examples of their own experiences in this field. We hope that these will enhance the quality of the guidance in any subsequent updates of this toolkit.