Our activities

Future entrepreneurs nourished through targeted curriculum

Entrepreneurship Curriculum Programme (ECP) is a cost-effective investment to develop enterprising attitudes and entrepreneurial alertness in secondary education, with a view to enable youth to participate actively in the economic transformation of their communities and countries once they leave school. ECP serves as the education programme that empowers students to create individual and collective success, contributing to the growth of small businesses, which help to spur technological advancements and economic productivity for vibrant local economies. ECP started in 2002 and has so far been deployed in more than 10 countries. In Namibia, where ECP has been rolled out since 2008, around 1000 teachers are now conducting entrepreneurship classes in 624 secondary schools across the country.

Sustainable and inclusive fisheries value chains

The fisheries sector provides a source of food, jobs and livelihoods, with the great potential for income generation particularly among the most marginalized populations. However, the sector faces challenges such as post-harvest losses. UNIDO, as a neutral broker between the private and public sectors, provides a cross-cutting approach to support sustainable and inclusive solutions. The approach aims to engage actors on multiple levels simultaneously to develop innovative solutions responding to local needs and market priorities, including the small-scale fisher folk and fish processors, private and public institutions, and government. In South Sudan, UNIDO is providing a comprehensive package of services for a more competitive and profitable fishery post-harvest business that comply with international market requirements, with 30 fish camps, 2 new fish markets and 14 women’s agri-processing business associations established for higher quality fish products.

Improving food and agri-food businesses for human and economic development

Food safety is a key driver for human and economic development and the connector between three major policy agendas: Health, Agriculture and Trade. UNIDO Develops, promotes and disseminates best practices in food safety for the benefit of food and agri-food businesses as well as consumers to accelerate and promote inclusive and sustainable industrial development. UNIDO’s food safety approach is centered around three key pillars:

• enabling sustainable businesses through effective food safety capacity building;
• enabling a favorable food safety environment through integrating food safety into the wider context of regulatory frameworks, national quality and food safety policies as well as infrastructure development;
• fostering food safety advocacy and partnerships through enabling the engagement of the private sector in local, regional and global partnerships and advancing multi-stakeholder food safety dialogue and interventions.

In more than 3 countries, “The Accelerator for Agriculture and Agro-industry Development and Innovation Plus” project has been accelerating the sustainable transformation of food value chains and food systems, targeting at $30 million SDG-aligned investments channeled into agro-industry.

Facilitate rehabilitation to build back stronger economy and society

The outcome of human security and post-crisis assistance efforts is largely determined by successfully making the transition from the initial stage of emergency aid to rehabilitation, reconstruction and development. The assistance often faces challenges of developing a medium to long-term humanitarian plan of technology access, skills training, business development and entrepreneurial support services. UNIDO takes the human security and human rights-based approach to sustainably secure, restore and develop productive capacities through mitigating risks, threats and vulnerabilities in livelihoods and productive activities. In the last 10 years, UNIDO has worked in more than 30 countries to provide a cross-cutting approach to support post-crisis rehabilitation. In Iraq, our project of developing the training facility with a public-private development partnership has brought the trainee unemployment rate from 58% to 34%.

Tackling the industrial skills mismatch with learning and knowledge development

New industrial opportunities for growth and development are offered in the fourth industrial revolution. Meanwhile, the industrial skills mismatch is a challenge for industrializing countries where graduates struggle to find jobs while employers in high-growth industries are unable to find candidates with the required skill sets. UNIDO’s Learning and Knowledge Development Facility (LKDF), a holistic approach engaging individuals and SMEs, private and public training facilities, and  governments, fosters dialogues and knowledge sharing between the private and public sectors, reduces the skills mismatch, promotes inclusive and sustainable practices in global skills development, and enhances economic growth. In Morocco, our project established a training hub, 5 workshops, and a career center where 676 young people benefited from career support.

Promoting gender equality with women entrepreneurship

The economic empowerment of women is key to achieving gender equality and is one of the most promising means of lifting millions from poverty. Despite efforts to promote gender equality, women’s global labour market participation remains low, leading to social exclusion and poverty. UNIDO’s women economic empowerment involves enhancing their ability to participate equally in existing markets through entrepreneurship and decent work, access and control of production, and giving them an increased voice, agency and meaningful participation in economic decision-making. UNIDO works directly with women entrepreneurs, associations and SMEs, private and public institutions to build capacity and engages with governments for policy environment development. Our project in the MENA region has increased the number of entrepreneurs that created or expanded their businesses as a result of support from women’s business associations by 175%.

Prosperous youth, prosperous economies

Youth can play an important role in generating economic wealth and empowerment. However, too often their voices go unheard, and the education and training system fails to provide young people with the skills they need to get a job in the private sector. The high levels of youth unemployment in many developing countries are leading to social exclusion and increased poverty. UNIDO supports youth employment by its international expertise including private sector development, market-driven vocational training program, institutional capacity building and policy recommendation. In Tunisia, the project targeted at educated youth has created more than 3,100 jobs by October 2019 and trained 7,500 aspiring entrepreneurs to improve their management and IT skills.