EU Launches EUR 1 million Business Development Services Pilot to contribute to the Financial and Social Inclusion of Refugees and Migrants
As part of the EaSI programme, the EU has launched a EUR 1 million pilot, the Business Development Services Pilot (the “BDS Pilot” or the “Pilot”), to further strengthen the provision of BDS to refugees and migrants and therefore contribute to their financial and social inclusion.
The objective is to provide partial coverage for the costs incurred by intermediaries when providing such services, with the aim to boost entrepreneurship amongst these vulnerable groups that are often confronted with a challenging environment when setting up and developing a business in a different country than their country of origin (language barriers, administrative burden, lack of knowledge of local legislation, etc.).
Application process
The BDS Pilot will take the form of a new feature embedded within the existing EaSI Microfinance Guarantee for which the Call was launched in June 2015 and subsequently amended in December 2018.
The Pilot is addressed and restricted to interested parties that have entered already into an agreement with the EIF under the EaSI Microfinance Guarantee (“Existing Financial Intermediaries”) or that may qualify to become Financial Intermediaries (“New Applicants”) under the EaSI Microfinance Guarantee and wish to also submit an application in accordance with the parameters set out in the Call.
