To promote the development of evidence-based public policies, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) commissioned an in-depth analysis of the current strategic and legislative framework for the “business enabling environment” in BiH. This research was conducted by the Center of Excellence (CoE) for Evaluation and Policy Research as part of the Partnering in Excellence and Evaluation Research (PEER) grant under the USAID/BiH Monitoring and Evaluation Support Activity (MEASURE II). 

This research report represents an in-depth analysis of the “business enabling environment” in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). It is based on secondary sources (strategic documents, legislation, and policy analysis) as well as on focus group discussions (FGDs) – with the aim of reviewing the current state of the field. More particularly, this report aims to answer what current practices in monitoring and evaluation are used and how evidence informs the decision-making processes, i.e., practices regarding current approaches in designing measures that support SMEs and entrepreneurial activity and the current state of the SMEs landscape and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in BiH in the context of “creating a business enabling environment”. 

Findings and recommendations are derived based on extensive desk research analysis of strategic policy documents (strategy and action plans); and two focus groups with government and employers’ representatives.  

Some key findings include:  

• Programs and measures implemented by different government levels are typically monitored, but evaluations are rarely conducted. No impact evaluation has been identified.
• Evaluations of policy documents or strategic documents are not available publicly. 
• Monitoring and evaluation practices are typically planned in the strategic documents.
• The process of designing policy documents or strategic documents is not well supported by statistical data, analysis, and reports. 
• Priorities and measures in strategic documents are broadly defined, while various incentives offered at different levels (cantons, entities, and BD) are more specific. 
• Indicators in strategic documents are typically defined for strategic goals, priorities, and projects/measures. In some cases, the difference between project-level and program-level indicators is rather unclear, whereas? Outcome and impact indicators are well-defined in most documents. However, in some cases, outcome or impact indicators are used for the project/measure, even though all projects are grouped under higher categories (programs/priorities and strategic goals). Specifying such broad indicators for a project-level activity diminishes the possibility to actually observe the expected results.

Full Report and the Extended Summary can be downloaded here:

• Creating a Business Enabling Environment: In-depth Analysis