Enterprise development

Providing entrepreneurship and enterprise management training in the Arab States

The Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme is a management-training programme with a focus on starting and improving small businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment in developing economies as well as economies in transition. It is comprised of three packages: Generate Your Business Idea (GYB), Start Your Business (SYB) and Improve Your Business (IYB). SIYB has been implemented in over 95 countries, including Qatar, Iraq and Jordan.

To cater to a wider target group that includes out-of-school and unemployed youth, a simplified version of SIYB, “My First Business (MFB)”, was recently developed. In December 2013 the programme started pilot testing under a United Nations Development Programme project in Yemen.

The programme also includes the “Expand Your Business” (EYB) package, which targets entrepreneurs wanting to expand their small sized enterprises. In the wider Middle East, the EYB has been implemented in Jordan by freelance consultancy firms and is commercially driven. The EYB programme is also used as a tool to translate the conclusions from value chain analysis interventions into strategic growth plans for involved enterprises, which occurs through a participatory exercise with both management and employees in medium sized enterprises.