What is the impact of SIYB?

Does the SIYB programme actually lead to more, viable businesses being started; more competitive enterprises and to the creation of more jobs and better quality employment? These are important questions for the ILO, its constituents and SIYB stakeholders to have answers to. Accordingly, the SIYB Regional Project Office periodically conducts evaluation studies to find out the impact of the programme within the region.

What is training impact?
Training impact is a change that can be attributed with reason to a training intervention. SIYB training impact, then, is a change that can be attributed directly to GYBI, SYB or IYB training interventions on the entrepreneur or their business. The SIYB programme acknowledges that impact results from the synergies of several inputs and forces working in support of the entrepreneur and/or the enterprise. Still, it is interesting and key for the SIYB programme to isolate the effects of training as a catalyst in achieving positive change. This is because SIYB is essentially a training programme. Thus it must demonstrate its own contribution to growth in this respect.

Measures adopted to increase programme impact:
Since the SIYB programme is demand driven product, the ILO has responded to the identified needs of stakeholders, including the entrepreneurs. Based on findings of the studies cited above, the Regional Project Office has adopted the following measures to increase programme impact:

• GYBI introduced to assist potential entrepreneurs come up with up concrete business ideas and encourage entrepreneurship in a region with high unemployment rates in the formal labour sector
• SYB introduced in more than 20 countries to assist in creating viable small businesses regionally
• linkages to finance and networking components added in realization of the fact that training per se is not the sole solution/need of many entrepreneurs
• EYB programme developed for growth oriented businesses.
• training and certification of Trainers and Master Trainers on competences instead of mere attendance to enhance programme quality
• developing the Simplified of SIYB materials to address the needs of micro-entrepreneurs for whom SIYB is an overkill, etc etc