Informal Economy
Local trainers in Vanuatu access enterprise development tools
The ILO, through the UN Informal Economies Recovery Project is working in partnership with the BDS providers to deliver business training, advisory and mentoring. The target beneficiaries for the services will be the creative sector and agricultural sector enterprises affected by COVID-19.
The trainers gained access to ILO’s learning hub https://learninghub.ilo.org and explored the suite of on-line and face-to-face tools available.
In the 1990s and 2000s the ILO introduced its flagship enterprise programme – Start & Improve Your Business (SIYB) - to Vanuatu. Since then, the ILO has developed and tested more programmes including on-line capable tools, valuable for COVID-19 recovery.
BDS providers in Vanuatu requested for a review of their current enterprise and entrepreneurship development programmes, including setting up of on-line programmes.
The ILO - through the UN Informal Economies Recovery Project - organized this training. [A similar training was organised in early July 2021 for BDS providers in Fiji.]
The enterprise development programmes accessed through the learning hub, included:
- Community-Based Enterprise Development (C-BED)
- Small Business Competitiveness
- Ready for Business and
- Our.COOP
“It will definitely help me with my work especially with the Training Toolkit for OUR.COOP. These are relevant material that will help capacity building for Cooperatives and Cooperative members Households in the Informal economy”, said Mr Leintz Vusilai, the Senior Training Officer for the Office of the Registrar of Cooperatives and Business Development Services (ORCBDS).
To add value to the programme, the ILO delivered a session on the benefits and strategies to transit enterprises to formality. In addition, the Department of Labour delivered a session on labour legislations relating to business.
Mr Troy Kalsong from V-Lab said that the training was beneficial as it provided tools and resources to build their capacity as trainers; “ In fact, V-Lab is currently using a C-BED module to pilot and develop a Business Awareness programme for seasonal workers,” he said.
The ILO, through the UN Informal Economies Recovery Project will be working in partnership with the BDS providers to deliver business training, advisory and mentoring. The target beneficiaries for the services will be the creative sector and agricultural sector enterprises affected by COVID-19.