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CSAP: Enhancing entrepreneurship for all

29 September 2006

“The journey has just started and it will go a long way in promoting the culture of entrepreneurship”.

These were sentiments shared at the Commonwealth Services Abroad Programme/ Commonwealth Business Women’s Networks (CSAP/CBWN) Link-It Project review workshop held at the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) Regional Centre for Africa in Lusaka, Zambia.

The workshop brought together the learning and best practices of programmers being delivered by GIDD in collaboration with CYP and CBWN. Over 15 participants drawn from Britain, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Kenya, St. Lucia, Trinidad,   reviewed programmes implemented across the Commonwealth in a bid to identify best practice and facilitate the development of a best practice module to strengthen technical inputs.

The Commonwealths Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) assist member countries in developing and sustaining institutions to improve people’s lives through co-operation with governments and the private sector.

The CSAP initiative places experts on a volunteer basis to assist in the design, development, and implementation of people-centred, mass-impact projects.

All CSAP projects involve interacting with large numbers of people: at the grass roots, with youth, women and community groups from the rural poor, and in professional groups such as business entrepreneurs, scientists, technologists and environmentalists. Each project is implemented by a team, which includes the volunteer expert, the local project or government authorities and CSAP staff, working together towards shared goals.

CBWN is a virtual network run by the Commonwealth Business Council and supported by women entrepreneurs, multinational corporations in Commonwealth member states, and owners of small and medium sized enterprises. The Link-IT project aims to assist women entrepreneurs in overcoming business obstacles using information and communications technologies (ICTs) initiated in 2004.

“Meeting with current and volunteer experts and hearing of their experiences has provided me with valuable information to assist me in achieving the objectives of the project.” - June Bryant, CSAP/CBWN LINK-IT Project of Tanzania.

CYP has collaborated with CSAP in the implementation of the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative (CYCI) in Dominica, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, St. Lucia and Sierra Leone. The workshop also sought to review the CYCI Toolkit in light of experiences of the CSAP volunteers and made recommendations for updating the resource tool.

According to Judy McNeill, CSAP Programme Officer at the ComSec, the workshop findings will assist strengthen the volunteer programme in terms of design and programme support.

“We will work to put together a module of good practice in thematic areas to provide guidelines based on experience and learning to assist in project implementation”.