What is the beauty of CEFE? Concept, manuals, experience based learning? Participants, trainers, network? All this is striking. Yet the real beauty shines in the faces of people whose life we can help change.
Where do these numbers come from?
In 2019, 459 CEFE beneficiaries from 15 countries in the Balkans, Latin America, Africa and Asia answered within a CEFE Global Impact Study (CIS), how CEFE training and coaching influenced their life and work situation – about 2 years after they attended CEFE. The Study targeted young people in rural areas. Based on the data of the Global CEFE Compass (GCC), a permanent study being carried out since 2011 that provides information on training courses, trainers and target groups in CEFE practicing countries, the data of the CIS could be extrapolated to the global level. The figures cover the time from the beginning of CEFE international rollout in 1986 until 2019.
Let us look a bit closer into it.
CEFE combats unemployment
40.5% of the respondents have been unemployed before the CEFE training – a percentage that unfortunately reflects reality in so many countries. It went down to 8.7% afterwards, which can be considered as a reasonable value even in advanced economies. CEFE is not only a tool for business creation, it also life skills and turns people into successful job seekers.
CEFE creates businesses
45% of the respondents stated that they started their own business after CEFE training. A share of 97.7% indicated that CEFE training contributed much (59.1%) or very much (38.6%) to this. In absolute figures it means that CEFE nowadays contributes to almost 300,000 start-ups per year, or 5.9 Mio since the beginning. The business survival rate is high; interviews were made 2 years after CEFE on average.
CEFE creates employment
CEFE also led to the creation permanent jobs. Many of the existing or new businesses hired additional staff after CEFE, generating estimated almost 6 million permanent jobs worldwide. It is striking that this impact was clearly higher among respondents who already run a an enterprise before they attended CEFE. 65% of these participants reported a business growth of 50% or even more within the 2 years after the training and coaching. They related this change significantly to CEFE training.
CEFE contributes to better livelihood
The impact goes beyond that. Respondents answered that, on average, they pay main parts of the livelihood of 3.2 family members or friends. This results in a total of 42 Mio people with improved livelihood, apart from the respondents and employees.
CEFE convinces
When asked if they would like to participate in further CEFE training, 91.4% of the respondents said yes. The main part of them (30%) was interested in further CEFE training in general financial management. Other areas of interest were, for example, general business management, marketing & market assessment or business plan preparation.
in total
…CEFE had over 13 Mio participants. At least in recent years, 54% are female.
…the impact of CEFE is largely independent of local, cultural, social or political contexts.
We would like to thank the global CEFE Network members for the kind support, the 27 interviewers for their work and the respondents for their openness. We are very grateful to the GIZ sector program ‘Employment in Rural Areas with Focus on Youth’ that enabled the study and provided many good comments in the entire work process.
You want more?
The Study reveals many more facts and findings. Different impact figures have been correlated with aspects like: gender, age, living area, education level, countries, duration of training and coaching, role of grants and finance. And conclusions can be drawn for improvement of better business development services.
We will send further data, conclusions and our CEFE International report to the interviewers. If you are interested to get access to these papers, we will include you in the mailing list, when you contribute to an ongoing and growing impact monitoring by carrying out interviews among your CEFE participants and/or completing global CEFE compass questionnaires. If you are interested, please contact baerenz@cefe.net.