Trust is a key component among stakeholders in any undertaking. Building trust takes a number of steps that ensures all stakeholders feel part and parcel of the deal. In the context of entrepreneurs support, promoting transparency between the empowering organization and the funding organization will then mean that the entrepreneur is included in the onset of the project.
My solution proposes that the entrepreneurs be afforded a chance to understand the project goals, expected outcome, type of support to be given and their responsibility. Agreements should be reached among the three stakeholders to ensure that none of them has over expectation from the project. The monitoring and evaluation team should consist of representatives from the three stakeholders.
In reporting about the social enterprises and the whole project, the empowering organization and the entrepreneur should be allowed to carry independent review and engage with the funder of the project. This will be totally different to what happens today where the entrepreneur is regarded to as a recipient only.
All this should be carried out before the commencement of the project. Upon completion of the project period, the investors should set up a monitoring team to see the enterprises developed have continued beyond the project timeline and continue to achieve the planned impact.
By including the entrepreneurs in the project processes, it will ensure that the investor gets a genuine feedback as opposed to when the project implementers send reports alone.
My solution proposes that there be independent reporting or feedback directly to the investors by the organization and the entrepreneur. To enable this, separate reporting tools should be developed for the two. Comparing the feedback will enhance accountability and ensure that the funds are being used for the intended purpose. For the purpose of maintaining a healthy relationship, the reports should then be shared among the stakeholders.
By taking up this solution, the project would incur more administrative cost to cater for the establishment of the monitoring and evaluation team, capacity development of the team members and reproduction of materials for the capacity training. The project would also incur some cost to sustain the post project monitoring team. This would cost less that 350.00 USD depending on the timeline of the project and the frequency of reporting.
