Improved Business Development Services targeting MSMEs in Iraq

By introducing and institutionalizing the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business programme within the International Organization for Migration (IOM), potential as well as existing entrepreneurs will benefit from quality support services that allow them to start or enhance the performance of existing businesses, helping create employment opportunities for IDPs and host communities.

Summary:

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iraq are collaborating to support the development of existing national small-scale enterprises and potential entrepreneurs from displaced and host communities through entrepreneurship skills training. 

Under the new collaboration, the ILO has introduced its advanced entrepreneurship and business management training programme, Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB), to selected staff from IOM to enable them to deliver the programme to IOM-supported existing and potential entrepreneurs. The programme contains three interrelated packages: Generate Your Business Idea (GYB), Start Your Business (SYB), and Improve Your Business (IYB).

By introducing and institutionalizing the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business programme within the IOM, potential as well as existing entrepreneurs will benefit from quality support services that allow them to start or enhance the performance of existing businesses, helping create employment opportunities for IDPs and host communities.

Objectives:

IOM is capable of efficiently and independently providing the SIYB programme to existing national MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs in order to start or improve viable small businesses.

Activities:

Fifty IOM staff members and consultants are trained and certified to provide Start and Improve Your Business training and group-based follow-up to small enterprises through:

The ILO will conduct two SIYB Training of Trainers’ workshops for 50 IOM staff members, delivered by certified ILO SIYB Master Trainers. Thus, IOM trainers will start delivering the TOEs in GYB, SYB, and IYB for the at least 1000 Iraqi IOM beneficiaries (refugees, IDPs and vulnerable host communities) under coaching and observation from ILO SIYB Master trainers until every IOM trainer completes the SIYB certification requirements. The IOM trainers who completed the SIYB certification requirements will be invited for the SIYB refresher workshops to evaluate the IOM trainers and certifying them.

Institutionalization of the SIYB programme at IOM is completed and operational through:

The ILO will conduct the SIYB management workshop for IOM management staff to introduce the SIYB programme management and implementation guide to be able to follow up and monitor SIYB trainings in IOM projects. At the end of the project, ILO and IOM will prepare jointly a two-year workplan to ensure a smooth exit strategy of the project.