Business & Private Sector

Evaluation Insights: Phytosanitary Capacity Development

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming Evaluation Synthesis: STDF/PG/350 — Global Phytosanitary Manuals, Standard Operating Procedures and Training Kits Project Context Phytosanitary capacity is foundational to agricultural trade. Countries that lack documented regulatory procedures, trained inspection staff, and functioning plant health systems face higher trade costs, increased consignment rejections, and reduced market access. This … Read more

Karsten Weitzenegger supports AIM2Flourish

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Invited by partners in the Americas, Karsten Weitzenegger has joind AIM2Flourish, the higher-education curriculum for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and business for good innovation. AIM2Flourish is the world’s first global initiative steering future business leaders towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a flourishing world for all. We offer a highly adaptable, … Read more

Evaluation Insights: Finland’s Aid for Trade 2012-2015

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming The external evaluation of Finland’s Aid for Trade Action Plan 2012-2015 brings clear implications for future trade related development policy and private sector instruments. It finds that Finland’s Aid for Trade portfolio is relevant and has produced results in several strong sectors, but that strategic guidance, coordination and … Read more

Evaluation Insights: Ghana Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling Programme

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming The TRAQUE programme in Ghana was a relevant and partially effective but operationally constrained Aid for Trade intervention that strengthened elements of national trade and quality systems, while falling short on more ambitious institutional reforms such as a national accreditation body and warehouse receipt system within the available … Read more

Entrepreneurship Forum for Socially Disadvantaged Youth

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Foro Emprendedurismo para jóvenes en desventaja social Desarrollo de habilidades emprendedoras en la formación profesional de jóvenes en desventaja social El Programa ‘Desarrollo de habilidades en la formación profesional de desventaja social en Centroamérica’ de la GIZ financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) 2012-2013, esta cerrado. El grupo … Read more

Evaluation Insights: Trainings on the ECOWAS Common External Tariff

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming The report evaluates a GIZ supported training program that helped ECOWAS customs administrations and freight forwarders implement the Common External Tariff and finds the intervention largely relevant, effective and supportive of CET rollout, but constrained by weak domestication, incomplete monitoring and limited strategic engagement beyond technical customs issues. … Read more

Why is the supply of BDS to small enterprises often so low?

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Building BDS Markets That Actually Work: Supply-Side Lessons from the Field Before you can develop a Business Development Services market, you need to honestly assess what’s holding it back — and often, the problem starts on the supply side. Weak BDS markets don’t fail by accident. Macro-economic constraints quietly block market growth, and subsidised monopoly … Read more

Why do small business hesitate to invest in people management and training?

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Why Small Businesses Fail to Invest in Their People — and What BDS Can Do About It In a knowledge-based economy, the competitive edge no longer belongs to those with the most machines or the lowest prices. It belongs to those with the best people. Yet for many small and medium enterprises, investing in staff … Read more

Hamburg’s Start-up Initiative: A Blueprint for Market-Friendly BDS Development

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Few examples in European business development illustrate the potential of public-private collaboration as cleanly as Hamburg’s Initiative for Business Start-ups (Hamburger Existenzgründungs-Initiative, HEI). Launched as a deliberate experiment in market-friendly intervention, it has — over more than a decade — grown into one of the city’s most enduring tools for connecting entrepreneurs with the support … Read more