In majority of programmes NIRAS provides technical support to business development of agricultural MSMEs and Business Development Services (BDS). Such support involves e.g. business planning, financial management and general support to development of entrepreneurial and technical skills. In supporting the BDS, the focus is not only on capacity building of private service providers in their specific fields, but also in governance and advocacy capability.
NIRAS has worked with MSME and BDS support in most regions of the world such as in Ukraine (Improvement of Logistics Services and Marketing Channels for SMEs in Agriculture, 2005-2007, EU); in Mali (Support to Small and Medium Enterprises at Regional Level –PAPESPRIM, 2008-2013, Danida) and in South Africa (Institutional and Implementation support to Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME/MSME) Development, MFA Finland, 2006-2010) and in Latin America (MIF Technical Cooperation, Technology Transfer for Private Sector Development, 2007).