The initiative arose in order to address the implementation gap in taxation, administrative barriers, and corruption at the regional level. It stems from a nine-year project of the Center for International Private Enterprise, seeking to improve the business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia.

Publications capturing the project’s best practices have been published by CIPE in Arabic and French. Anti-corruption and coalition-building techniques developed under the project have also been applied by CIPE in Ukraine, Thailand and Lebanon.

Impacts include:

• The project helped launch 17 regional coalitions which include 225 business associations.
• The regional coalitions conducted 222 advocacy efforts related to 138 legislative changes on the regional level.
• The business associations represented reported a 30 percent increase in membership.
• Over 5,000 firms were protected annually from government interference and rogue bureaucrats by CIPE partner business associations.
• The International Institute for the Management of Business Associations, self-sustaining by the project’s end, had trained over 1,800 professionals.