Business Development Services Support Project (BDSSP) is a $ 20 million project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and executed by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC).  BDSSP’s goal is “to foster better employment opportunities through support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) development with an emphasis on the country's marginalized groups (women and youth)”.  CIDA has identified SME development and growth as a key element to help alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life of many Egyptians.  BDSSP builds on CIDA’s involvement in the SME sector development in Egypt and it is closely aligned with CIDA’s Egypt Program goal: “to support Egypt in its efforts to reduce poverty of the country’s marginalized groups, in particular women and youth”.

The project aims to play a key role in the development of non-financial services for SMEs through working in partnership with intermediaries (Business Development Services (BDS) Facilitators and Providers), to improve the delivery and sustainability of demand driven non-financial services to SMEs, which enhances the performance and profitability of SMEs and achieve the link between poverty reduction and business development. Meanwhile, Cross Cutting Themes (Gender Equality, Children at work and Environment) are mainstreamed into all project activities.

The Capacity Development (CD) of the Business Development Services (BDSs) Providers is the core aspect of the project. In addition, the project works closely with different BDS Facilitators. One group of BDS facilitators assists in building the capacity of the BDS Providers and developing new business development products and services (CD Facilitators). The second group of BDS Facilitators focuses on expanding the demand for services by SMEs and on enabling the environment for SMEs (Enabling Environment Facilitators).

BDSSP works more intensely within two governorates of focus; Minia (Upper Egypt) and Alexandria (Lower Egypt) to enable BDS providers to deliver a wide range of integrated non-financial services in each governorate of focus.  Meanwhile, BDSSP aims at facilitating SME development in other geographic areas, separate from the governorates of focus; in which it provides responsive support to specific BDS needs that has potential to be replicated either locally or nationally.