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Long before the famous economist Adam Smith wrote his well known treatise « The Wealth of Nations », citizens and leaders of sovereign states have been preoccupied with the question of « How to improve their own living conditions ». It is only in the last century however that the definition of what constitutes a wealthy nation has evolved from a crude measure of income to include such indicators as human rights and the equality of access to opportunities, public resources and unspoiled nature, in short what is frequently termed as « The quality of life ».
Most social scientists would agree that given several different societies with equal resource endowments, those which have a higher proportion of competent, resourceful and enterprising people are likely to generate the higher levels of output per capita that stimulate both increased income and the growth of a social conscience … (about 1/2 /Basics /full text Concept Summary).
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About 2/2 /Basics /short: … CEFE is a comprehensive set of training instruments using an action-oriented approach and experiential learning methods to develop and enhance the business management and personal competencies of a wide range of target groups, mostly in the context of income and employment generation and economic development.
CEFE, being a training concept is based on the assumption that the enrichment of society is essentially depending on its human resources, and the more productive and accountable these people are, the greater will be the wealth of that nation. It has evolved over the years from an approach training individuals who want to start their own enterprise to a far-reaching training methodology, designed to evoke enterprising behaviour and competence in a wide variety of situations. The fundamental assumption is that people with a clearer vision of their goals and equipped with the skills to achieve them are far more likely to become productive individuals in society.
CEFE is a highly adaptable concept that has been used to promote a wide range of very different social groups such as credit officers in Egypt, demobilised soldiers in Ethiopia, refugees in Mozambique, women in vocational training in Tunisia, ex-prisoners in Chile, favelados in Brazil, university graduates in Vietnam, staff members of privatised enterprises in Uzbekistan, high school students and university professors in Germany, just to name a few.
CEFE has proven to be a very successful approach to the promotion of small and medium enterprises, employment, income and economic growth. The major findings of an official evaluation of the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation carried out in different countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa reflect that … participants declare CEFE to be:
- useful or very useful for the development of their entrepreneurial competencies: 91%
- useful or very useful for their personal development: 93%
- useful or very useful for the development of their business: 86%
- 98% of existing entrepreneurs with 1-2 employees and 100% of entrepreneurs with 6-10 employees claim that their income and turnover increased by at least 30 % after going through a CEFE training.
- Out of a training course for potential entrepreneurs 44% do not start a business, while about 45% became successful entrepreneurs.
- Up to now, CEFE seems to be especially successful and fruitful when used for people who want to get access to microfinance lending schemes.
- When looking at employment, the increase in number is significant after a CEFE training with an average of 4 new jobs created per participant at an average cost of 104.- US $ per job.
More texts: about CEFE /Basics.