Home : Reports and Publications : Audit & Evaluation : Evaluation of the WEI – October 2004
4.0 Conclusions
The WEI organizations support the mission and mandate of WD. The activities of the WEI organizations are also considered distinct from, but complementary to, the CBSCs, CFDCs, FEDOs, financial institutions and other provincial organizations. The WEI organizations have recognized the need to, and value in, pursuing partnerships and are actively doing so.
WD through the Women’s Enterprise Initiative is the primary support of the WEI organizations. There are issues surrounding the management of the WEI files by WD in terms of timeliness of payments and consistency of management messages and approaches. The WEI organizations are making conscious efforts to publicly acknowledge the support received from WD.
Since their inception, as demonstrated by Program Performance statistics, the WEI organizations through their lending programs serve both start-up clients, those who are purchasing existing businesses and those who are expanding, with start-ups and expansions comprising the largest part of their lending. The organizations continue to serve women entrepreneurs exploring business ideas as well as those who move on to start-up a business. The WEI organizations are assessing avenues to offer additional services to expansion clients, including targeted programs and partnerships with other organizations.
Of particular interest for the sustainability of the WE Initiative, a projection provided by WES indicated that if the current low interest rates continue (the present interest rates are not high enough to cover the loan loss ratios), and taking into account loan repayments at former higher rates, their loan capital will decrease to zero by 2008. AWE states that their loan fund will be depleted in 2006. As the organizations mature, their practices reflect their growing experience base, leading to the opportunity for standardized approaches based on a sharing of lessons learned by the four WEI organizations within the region.
The WEI organizations are addressing service gaps for women entrepreneurs, particularly those starting businesses. Organizational effectiveness has been hampered by changes in WEI organization personnel as well as lack of clarity concerning roles and responsibilities between HQ and satellite office. The WEI organizations through business planning support, partnerships and networking have improved access to services and loans for women entrepreneurs. On the other hand, mentoring activities have been decreasing over the past five years. Increasing mentoring programs should be seriously considered for future effort due to existing research indicating that women entrepreneurs benefit immensely from mentoring.
The organizations have also undertaken due diligence processes to try to reduce risk levels for those accessing loans through the organizations. Through these means, the Women’s Enterprise Initiative has resulted in increased economic return and job creation/retention in Western Canada.
Reporting designed to identify results and manage to increase impacts is increasingly the focus of government funded programs. The current methods of collecting information by WD appear to have resulted in unreliable and confusing information. Due to the WD focus on partnership development, a reliable means of reporting on this aspect of WEI activity should be found and incorporated into future agreements with WD. The WEI organizations have expressed an interest in collecting data that is results focussed and useful to effective management of their organizations.
Stakeholders consider the WEI organizations to be cost effective, using their limited resources to maximum benefit. Adverse loan loss ratios could have a negative impact on this perception, but at the present time loan loss ratio levels considered to be appropriate by WD have not been defined. The future expansion of partnerships will support the organizations to address service gaps and meet client needs.