The Clean Technology Centre has been commissioned by the OECD to support country-level work on policies targeting better environmental performance and productivity (“green growth”) for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region of EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP).
This will include direct support for developing environmental regulatory policies for SMEs (in line with best practices from the EU) as well as operationalising policies to support green SMEs in Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The study will also examine existing and potential linkages to the green economy and SMEs.
This work is to be undertaken in the context of the of the OECD’s components of the EU-funded EU4Environment project (This project builds on the success of the EaP GREEN project, which has supported countries in the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) with adopting policies that are in line with EU standards and support green economic growth.
The European Union for Environment” (EU4Environment) Action aims to help the six partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine preserve their natural capital and increase peoples environmental well-being, by supporting environment-related action, demonstrating and unlocking opportunities for greener growth, and setting mechanisms to better manage environmental risks and impacts. The Action is funded by the EU and implemented by five Partner organisations: OECD, UNECE, UN Environment, UNIDO, and the World Bank. The Action implementation period is 2019-2022.
The project includes work on General Binding Rules (GBRs) for the environmental regulation of SMEs, as well as support for SMEs to adopt greener practices. The main objectives of this assignment are:
- Support the development of GBRs for a particular economic sector (sector TBD)
- Support the development of a “green standard” for a particular SME-dominated economic sector (agriculture or tourism)
- Support developing a self-assessment tool for SMEs (initially Moldova and possibly Azerbaijan)
- Support the development of metrics for measuring SME greening at a national level (Moldova)
- Participate in a regional workshop on SME greening
The first objective will require that the expert(s) use their knowledge of GBR approaches from EU countries to transpose best practices for a specific sector (TBD but likely agriculture/poultry farming) in Georgia and Azerbaijan, ideally with applicability in other EaP countries. It will also require participating in direct discussions and capacity building exercises with the relevant policy makers. This will include two country visits, accompanied by OECD officials.
The second objective will require the expert(s) to work with the OECD and relevant policy body (could be SME agency or ministry responsible for SMEs) to develop a “green standard”, drawing upon lessons from their own expert experience.
The third objective will involve working directly with the OECD and an SME business association ODIMM (Moldova) to help develop a self-assessment tool, based on national experiences from the expert(s)’s country. The experts will also support the adaptation of the tool to work in other national contexts.
The fourth objective will involve working directly with the OECD and ODIMM (Moldova) to help develop metrics for measuring SME greening at the national level, to provide a baseline for progress.
The fifth objective will involve providing input to OECD staff on the planning of the workshop, coming to Paris to participate in the workshop, and supporting the organisation and invitation of additional participation.