Employment creation through Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SME) development The overall project objective is to create decent employment opportunities for historically disadvantaged population groups in Free State Province. The overall project outcome is sustainable community-based small businesses that have created at least 5,000 decent jobs. The immediate project outcomes are, firstly, a more entrepreneurial mindset among people in the Free State, secondly, a more coherent provincial-level and municipal level PLRF for SME development, and, thirdly, a technically, financially and institutionally sustainable market exchange for selected sector-specific BDS within the target communities. The key performance measures to track these outcomes are the number of SME started (target: 2,000) and the number of SME grown (target: 1,000) by the ultimate project beneficiaries. The key performance parameter to track these outputs are the number of women and men reached through the mass-media project (target: at least 100,000 women and men) and change in perception among the audience about entrepreneurship, the share of students linking up with local BDS providers for support services after graduating from class-room based entrepreneurship education (target: at least 20% of students), increased knowledge among provincial level stakeholders on the local SME sector, stronger linkages between SME development projects, number of community based entrepreneurs accessing business finance (target: at least 500), number of community-based entrepreneurs having enrolled for BDS (target: at least 5,000) and number of people in these communities reached through the demand side management interventions of the project (target: at least 1,000). The project will have a focus on selected sectors of the Free State Economy; sectors short-listed for inclusion are (1) tourism, (2) construction and (3) community-based social services ranging from environmental conservation to health, education, sports and leisure. Tourism, construction and social services are priority sectors of the Free State Government Growth and Development Strategy and are concurrently prioritized in the country strategy of the Flemish donor agency. These three sectors have (a) high growth potential, (b) high labour absorption capacity, (c) low barriers to market entry also for semi-skilled and unskilled labour, (d) high concentration of women, (e) effective outreach to rural areas – for example, tourism and construction jobs are often the only means of formal employment outside cities, and (f) a comparatively high decent work deficit. The sectors have furthermore been short-listed since they offer good potential for the promotion of decent and green jobs, in response to the commitment made by the South African Government (and by extension the Free State Government) to steer the economy towards a more resource-efficient, low carbon and pro-employment growth path. Finally, the inclusion of social services as a priority sector for SME development will make a direct contribution to the ongoing efforts of the Free State Government to boost service delivery outreach and quality. The actual choice of sectors will be validated during the project inception phase in consultation with local stakeholders. The project will intervene in selected municipalities of the Free State Province with high concentration of historically disadvantaged population groups. The target municipalities will be identified during the project phase in close consultation with local stakeholders. The project has a duration of three years, likely starting in January 2011, and a budget of 4,49 million Euros.