Teshome, Woldeab (PhD)Debebe, Wondafrash2018-09-192023-11-182018-09-192023-11-182012-09http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/11994'11ie r o{es of miCYo and smarr scare enterprises to tlie overa{{ economic devdoyment Iiave got tlie attention of yoficy mateen, inte-rnationa{ organiz ations, N yOs andresea-rclien as wd{ as yractitionen in 'recent days. '11ie government of 'Etliioyia lias designed at a na.tiona{ {evd JvIS'Es devdoyment program by the y ear 2005 under its 'Urban Industria{ Dev e{oyment Tacteage. '11ie gen era{ objective of the yrogram is to design a d ear and organized yrogram tliat can fo ster tlie invo{vement of JvISTs in urban devdoyment as wd{ as to augment tlie ro{es of tlie sector in reducing urban yoverty and unemy{oyment. 'Pyovisions of credit, worteingyremise, and training as wd{ as creation of mar teet finteage are devised as strategic tooCs to acliieve tlie desired Objectives. '11iis study assesses tlie ro{es of JvIS'Es devdoyment strategy in r ecti/.cing urban yoverty: tlie case of cobb{estone enterprises in Addis Ababa, XofJe X eranio SUb-city. '11ie stUdy is designed based on befoYe and after metliod of imyact assessment. A tota{ of two Iiundred and ninety four oyerators were random{y sdected out of 3025 cliisd manufacturing oyeraton using {ottery m etliOeL Descriptive statistics, bivariate as wd{ as mu{tivariate regression ana{ysis and cross tabu{ations in S'PSS venion 16 are used to ana{yze tlie data. Questionnaire, f ocus yrouy discussions, teey informant interviews and Observations are conducted on differ ent asyects of tlie enteryrises. A fivd ilioOd frameworte is used to undentand tlie strategies, assets and activities of tlie oyeraton. '11ie study findings indicated tliat in fjenera{ tlie oyerators owned asse ts after joining tlie sector. The findings of the study reveal that although there is a disparity in operators' income, it is improved after the establishment. Thus, the number of poor operators, who were living below the absolute poverty line decreased after the implementation of the program in the study area. Sex of enteryrises is tlie on{y factor found to have significant il1j(uence on y erformance. '11iat is, mares tliat y erform better were 38.632 times more fitedy y e'rformed tlian f emares. yiven tlie imyortance of tliis sector, fn yarticu{ar, tlie promotion of miCYo and sma{{ en teryrises yrogram Ii.as tlie yotentia{ of addressing fivefiliood requirements. 'Poficy r ecommendations of tlie government sliou{d advocate tateing tlie reading ro{e by yroviding an enabfing environment for oyerations fike trainings, tlie esta6fisliment of infrastructure for access to marteets, yrovision of worte site structures, dissemination of marteet information and innovation amongst otlier we{Ctenown st1'ategies. Keywords: Micro and small enterprises; income; livelihood: enabling environment; pelformanceenMicro and small enterprisesincomelivelihood: enabling environmentpelformanceThesis