All news: microenterprises + small enterprises + informal enterprises + value chains

Start and Improve Your Business - Success Stories 2024

A trainer journey of resilience and empowerment in Afghanistan

After facing an uncertain future in Afghanistan, Sahar Taj rebuilt her life through the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme. Now a business coach, she empowers Afghan women to become entrepreneurs, equipping them with skills and...

Start and Improve Your Business - Success Stories 2024

Empowered by the ILO: Haya Said Sheikh's sweet success with Quick Sesame

Haya Said Sheikh, through her business Quick Sesame, has successfully introduced healthy, sugar-free versions of traditional Palestinian sweets. With the support of the ILO's Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) entrepreneurship training...

Start and Improve Your Business - Success Stories 2024

Pineapple farming brings new opportunities in the Jordan Valley

Amer Basem Ahmad Faqha, an agricultural engineer from Tubas, cultivates pineapples in the Jordan Valley. With ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training, he improved irrigation, reduced costs, and expanded his farm, creating a cooperative...

Start and Improve Your Business - Success Stories 2024

A Venezuelan bakery business thrives in Colombia

Venezuelan migrant Roisi Gabriela Indriago runs De un Bocado, a bakery in Bucaramanga. With Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training, she improved pricing, inventory, and marketing, growing sales and expanding her reach through social media...

Start and Improve Your Business - Success Stories 2024

From IT graduation to green entrepreneurship

After losing her IT job, Leilah Saleh Djidda turned to sustainable farming. With Start and Improve your Business (SIYB) training, she launched AL AZZIM BIO, an organic farming initiative using water hyacinth as biofertilizer to cut costs, improve...

Start and Improve Your Business - Success Stories 2024

A business to empower women in northern Nigeria

Through Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training, Rahila Abdu gained the skills to launch Household Essentials, a business that empowers women by providing training in liquid soap, body cream, and insecticide production. Overcoming financial...

Building fairer supply chains and advancing decent work in Latin America

Photo Essay

Strengthening Lebanon’s communities amid conflict: A holistic approach to education, training, and employment

Featuring testimonies from trainees and business owners, the project highlights real stories of resilience and career transformation amid Lebanon’s protracted crises.

SCORE Project: ILO presents the impacts on productivity and working conditions in SMEs in Brazil 's Garment Sector

Advancing a roadmap for the Amazon Chestnut sector to foster decent work and environmental sustainability in the Peruvian Amazon

With the support of the ILO and CITEproductivo Madre de Dios, the Technical Roundtable for the Amazon chestnut is promoting an innovative roadmap to strengthen its value chain, promoting decent work, gender equality and environmental sustainability...

Capacity building in small businesses

Youth and women recount their inspiring journeys into agribusiness with support from the ILO ProAgro Ethiopia

The ILO ProAgro Ethiopia project is transforming small businesses through innovative initiatives in the Sidama region. From empowering women in agribusiness with modern equipment to supporting youth in poultry processing and eco-friendly ventures,...

Article

Advancing Horticultural Exports through South-South and Triangular Cooperation

A recent workshop in Naivasha, Kenya, highlighted the potential of this approach by bringing together diverse stakeholders to address export challenges, promote sustainable practices, and improve livelihoods in the horticulture sector.

International Year of Cooperatives

ILO advances dairy value chain in Ethiopia by strengthening cooperatives

In Ethiopia's Somali region, the ILO, in collaboration with VSF Suisse, is empowering dairy cooperatives through capacity building, improved access to veterinary services, innovative feed solutions, and water resource development, to address...

Inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems development in action

The ILO organized a webinar aimed at practitioners and donors engaged in entrepreneurship promotion to exchange insights and experiences on strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and support entrepreneurs to thrive and grow, and create decent...

In Abidjan, the ILO maps out the path towards formalisation in Africa

The African Regional Knowledge Sharing Forum on Innovative Approaches to Addressing Informality and Promoting Transitions Towards Formality ended with strategic recommendations and a clear vision for the future of work in Africa.

Voices from ILO PROSPECTS

Trader to a visionary leader: Story of Habiba who aims to launch a livestock cooperative

Habiba Moghe Hussain, a Somali refugee, transformed her cattle business after winning Ethiopia's Business Plan Competition, now aiming to establish a women's livestock cooperative to empower her community.

ILO strengthens the project management capacity of partners to address child labour in cocoa and gold mining supply chains in Ghana.

The ILO ACCEL Africa project in Ghana organized a capacity development activity to enhance the skills of tripartite partners and CSOs in monitoring and evaluation, gender inclusion, and knowledge sharing to accelerate the elimination of child labour...

PROSPECTS Impact

Kenya’s Journey to Recognizing Informal Skills: The Making of the Recognition of Prior Learning Policy

With support from the ILO, Government of Kenya launched Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy that certifies skills gained outside formal education, empowering informal workers and refugees with official credentials, improving employment...

Promoting responsible business conduct for the realization of decent work among enterprises in Nigeria

On 21 and 23 October 2024, the ILO, in collaboration with IOE and NECA, conducted workshops on responsible business conduct for the realization of decent work in Lagos and Abuja, gathering 164 participants to discuss the ILO MNE Declaration.

PROSPECTS Impact

Rising from informal work to a government employee: the story of Florence Wambui

Florence Wambui shares her journey from informal work to securing a Ministry job in Kenya, showcasing how Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) certification and fashion training empowered her career transformation.