Promoting entrepreneurship and private sector development in Iraq

The International Labour Organization, in partnership with the Iraqi Company for Banking Guarantees, is holding a Training of Triners (ToTs) workshop for training service providers in Iraq on the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB), to equip them with the necessary tools to support potential and existing entrepreneurs in the region.

The ILO’s business management training programme covers three main areas which respond to the progressive stages of business development: Generate Your Business Idea (GYB), Start Your Business (SYB), and Improve Your Business (IYB).

This includes modules on developing a business plan to start-up a business; supporting entrepreneurs to assess their readiness to start a business and introducing existing entrepreneurs to principles of business management.

In Iraq, the face-to-face training includes 20 participants who are potential trainers from the financial sector, namely partner ICBG, banks and microfinance institutions that the ILO is working with, in addition to trainers from UNICEF-supported youth centres, as well aslocal NGOs supporting SMEs. Once trained, these trainers will deliver the training packages to targeted beneficiaries, including young internally displaced people, refugees and host community members looking to start their businesses, or existing businesses looking to develop and grow their enterprises.

One of the ILO’s key priorities in Iraq under its Decent Work Country Programme, is to support private sector development and job creation. This includes improving entrepreneurship for women, youth, internally displaced people, refugees and vulnerable host community members through introducing ILO’s comprehensive package of Start and Improve Your Business, in addition to introducing financial education and a financial inclusion model. The latter will complement the skill development trainings and ensure that trained youth and business owners have access to affordable financial services to implement their business plan.

This workshop is jointly implemented under two projects, supporting entrepreneur and business development: a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which aims to improve business development services and entrepreneurship education for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and youth in the in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in collaboration with Partnership for improving prospects for forcibly displaced persons and host communities (PROSPECTS) which is supported by the Government of the Netherlands, bringing together the ILO, the IFC, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Bank to address education, employment and protection among forcibly displaced persons and host community members.