Economies of developing countries such as Sudan have been struck a major blow from the impact of COVID-19. Micro and small-scale industries, rural industries and cooperatives are facing challenges for survival. Therefore, the ILO PROSPECTS programme has prioritized the development of a cadre of trainers to work with agro-cooperatives, micro and small-scale enterprises and local counterparts to ensure their sustainability through improved entrepreneurship and enterprise management skills.

During this capacity-building training session, the ILO used its flagship business development tool Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) to promote entrepreneurship and business start-ups in the targeted states of East Darfur and West Kordofan. The first training session was provided to representatives of active entrepreneurship hubs in the country.

In these regions, a number of micro and small-scale enterprises provide support to various sectors, including agricultural value chains, small-scale manufacturing in food processing, metalwork and mechanics, and in a limited number of service areas in woodworking.

Despite their widespread presence, highly informal conditions prevail at these units, and the number of workers they could employ remains limited. In the groundnut and sesame value chains in the region, land access is highly contested, technology and agricultural knowledge is rudimentary and access to finance and business support networks is restricted.

“The PROSPECTS programme has thus focused its interventions on the sustainability of micro and small-scale businesses and agro-cooperatives working in this sector. Given these challenges, entrepreneurship and financial education trainings have the potential to generate more and better job opportunities, promote new technology, introduce new products to the market, enhance economic growth and promote socio-economic development both for the forcibly displaced and host community households,” explained Sean Paterson, Chief Technical Advisor, PROSPECTS Sudan.

Dalil Souami, the master trainer in the region for SIYB said, “The SYIB training package has been adapted and contextualized for market conditions specific to Sudanese operating areas. The purpose of the training was to enable trainers or facilitators to support entrepreneurs, identify opportunities, enhance the viability of small businesses and agro-cooperatives, establish a small or micro-enterprise and use the tools and skills acquired from the SIYB training to sustain and expand incomes.”

The training objectives also included strengthening enterprise management knowledge, instructional skills and competencies in entrepreneurship, as well as improving the financial literacy of target beneficiary groups.

The training was designed in two phases.

1. Fourteen trainers were capacitated to lead entrepreneurship through dedicated training. This training is a core component of SIYB, critical to the creation of enterprise development plans and modalities. These modules have proved their effectiveness in facilitating the business development services in highly informal operating environments.
2.  Thirteen trainer candidates led SIYB modules and received one-on-one mentoring support from a SIYB Master Trainer. Candidates successfully completing the end of course examination were certified as SIYB trainers. They will become responsible for managing the teams deployed to the target localities.

SIYB-certified trainers will be responsible for cascading the training to approximately 2,000 representatives from agro-cooperatives, selected micro and small-scale enterprises, as well as invited personnel from the Ministry of Finance in the two states (1,000 representatives from each state), where the PROSPECTS programme currently has its intervention. Certification will provide the trainers with access to the ILO’s SIYB portal, containing updated training resources and the opportunity to network with the SIYB Master Trainers working in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

By improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem and promoting entrepreneurial activity, the PROSPECTS programme believes that implementing partners will be able to create the conditions necessary for improving community resilience, value-chain development and the improvement of household-level incomes.