MSELECT was awarded a project by Mercy Corps to deliver Business Development Supportin Iraq funded byThe European Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP). This project focused on poverty reduction and recognizing business development through private partnership as a potent tool for promoting sustainable growth and generating employment.
The program called for supporting local businesses to create new jobs and promote broad-based growth. It provided consultancy to 20 businesses under the YIELDS Program in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil governorates,10 businesses in each governorate over 5 months.
This project was implemented by firstly conducting a thorough needs assessment and SWOT analysis. The MSELECT team gathered a considerable amount of data in order to identify the gaps in each individual department from each of the 20 businesses.
After carefully analyzing the data, recommendations were provided on which areas required a training solution and which required financial or HR solutions. Accordingly, training courses were assigned to each business who were trained and mentored on the topics below:
Human Resources
Team Building
Coaching
Business Planning
Accounting
Sales and Marketing
Cost Control
Leadership and Management
Communication skills
Negotiation skills
A total of 139 participants were trained in this project over a period of 5 months.
On an organizational level, through this BDS, the SMEs either enhanced or gained the ability to:
Assess market demand and growth potentials to increase productivity and sales
Conduct feasibility studies for Scalability of businesses into other geographic areas, increasing services and complementary products or services.
Plan stronger strategies for development and sustainability
Allocate and manage their human resources and assets more efficiently
As a result of this partnership, the businesses experienced and were exposed to consultancy, modern business tools, and essential skills on a high level and were taught how to use them to achieve growth, reach export markets and become more innovative, competitive, and sustainable