Promotion and Training of Business Service Providers and Organisations
In the 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 such private service providers in their specific fields but also in governance and advocacy capability.
NIRAS has worked with 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).
In Kosovo (Business Support to Rural Advisory Services, EU, 2006-2007) and in Cambodia (Tonle Sap Information Communication Technology Project, ADB, 2010-2013) NIRAS supports and advises on enhancing the delivery of agricultural advisory services to rural areas to improve their capacity to act as incubators for business development by stimulating through advising on links to markets and information as well as to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills to increase productivity