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Good practice Imported

SIYB Business Training for Women Entrepreneurs — Colombo & Kandy's Two-Track Randomised Trial

Sri Lanka · Colombo · See the Sri Lanka profile · See the Colombo profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 27% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A randomised trial delivered ILO's SIYB training to 1,256 women across 10 divisions of greater Colombo and Kandy. Training alone did not raise profits for existing subsistence enterprises; training plus a cash grant boosted profits for eight months before the gain disappeared.

1256 women
Women randomised into the trial (2009-2011)
628 women
Existing subsistence-enterprise participants
628 women
Aspiring-entrepreneur participants
10 divisions
Divisional Secretariat divisions covered
4.5 million people
People reached by SIYB worldwide
95 countries
Countries where SIYB has been delivered

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
World Bank Development Research Group & ILO Start-and-Improve-Your-Business (SIYB) Programme
Period
2009–2011
Keywords
Women's entrepreneurship, business training, microenterprise development

Context

The ILO's Start-and-Improve-Your-Business (SIYB) programme is the world's most widely used small-business course, delivered to more than 4.5 million people in over 95 countries; researchers tested it on Sri Lankan women in greater Colombo and greater Kandy.

Objectives

Test whether SIYB business training, alone or combined with a cash grant, improves outcomes for two distinct groups of women: those already running subsistence enterprises, and those out of the labour force but interested in starting a business.

Activities

1,256 women across 10 Divisional Secretariat divisions were randomised in early 2009 to a control group, a training-only group, or a training-plus-cash-grant group, following a January 2009 baseline survey, training in April-May 2009, and four follow-up survey rounds through June 2011.

Results

For existing subsistence-enterprise owners, training alone changed some practices but had no measurable effect on profits, sales or capital stock; training plus a cash grant produced a large, statistically significant profit increase for the first eight months, which had disappeared by the two-year follow-up. For women interested in starting a business, training led to earlier business entry and higher profitability among new entrants, though it did not raise the overall rate of business ownership by the final round.

Conclusions

Business training may do more to help people start businesses well than to fix underperforming businesses already in the subsistence phase.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Combines standardised SIYB training-delivery costs with a per-participant cash grant for half of one treatment arm; scale of about 1,256 participants.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Baseline in January 2009, training in April-May 2009, four survey rounds through June 2011 (about 2.5 years total).
Staffing & skills
Local SIYB-certified trainers delivering the ILO curriculum, Survey enumerators for baseline and four follow-up rounds, Research team (World Bank/academic) for design and analysis

Conditions for success

  • Random assignment feasible across sampled divisions
  • Willingness of participants to complete multi-year follow-up surveys
  • Availability of cash-grant funding for the training-plus-grant arm

Common failure modes

  • Training alone did not shift profits for already-operating subsistence enterprises
  • Profit gains from training plus a grant faded by the two-year follow-up, indicating limited durability

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Data sources

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