New management training for small entrepreneurs in developing countries

"The project combines finance / pedagogy aspects and will greatly benefit from sponsorship skills resources provided by the Finance Department and Veolia Campus."

Philippe Capron

The European Institute for Cooperation and Development (IECD) is a not-for-profit association the mission of which is recognized as being in the public interest. It designs, develops, and promotes educational, socio-economic, cultural, and health initiatives in about fifteen countries and particularly in developing countries. It aims to contribute to human development and the health of people of all conditions by supporting their intellectual and material needs. Its actions target small entrepreneurs, vulnerable children, or young people in back-to-work programs in Africa, Lebanon, Madagascar, the Palestinian Territories, and Vietnam.

Supporting small entrepreneurs in many countries

The Institute employs 187 people through private and public funding: two-thirds of its work is funded by companies, corporate foundations, associations, philanthropic donorship, and individual donors.

Among the actions implemented, management training is a strong area of development. IECD supports small entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, and Vietnam and thanks to the Institute and its partners, these men and women can benefit from management training.

A project to redesign management training

Experience has shown that the management training unit can be improved, especially with regard to financial management, and content and methods could be better adapted to target audiences and materials. The IECD therefore plans to overhaul this training with the support of the Veolia Foundation.

A working group, including a trainer from each country, a coordinator in Paris, and a copywriter for the content, will be formed for this project. Veolia Campus will be providing the IECD with skills sponsorship for this project. Following the production of the training framework, the IECD will use experts to write it and external resources (graphic designers and illustrators) to produce the necessary content (image box, games, graphic design, etc.). Once the simplified training content adapted to small entrepreneurs has been created, the trainers in charge of providing the training will be trained in the use of the new content and new training techniques (games, role plays, use of images, etc.).

4,000 potential beneficiaries

The revision of training content and methodologies will benefit all beneficiaries of the Small Business Support Program, which currently trains 4,000 entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship candidates every year. It targets vulnerable entrepreneurs, who are often from the informal sector, as well as women and young people.