I just want to take a little break from the true nature of the blog and share a little of what we doing in my neck of the woods to foster youth in agriculture development and value chain attention:
Agribusiness
Enterprises to be the focus of Business Labs Workshop
Twenty-five persons
will later this month be engaged in a one-week on-the-spot Business Labs
Workshop focused on Agribusiness Enterprises, sponsored by the Young Americas
Business Trust (YABT) and Israel’s Agency for International Development
Cooperation (MASHAV), in collaboration with the Centre for Enterprise
Development Inc (CED).
The workshop will provide trainers and young entrepreneurs
with guidance and support to generate viable and creative ideas to assure new
agribusiness enterprises. The Business Lab will stimulate innovation and
generate entrepreneurial initiatives that positively affect the society and
their community. The Workshop will offer
hands-on business experience and guidance in business modeling and planning,
marketing and financing; it will evaluate existing ventures to identify and
pursue new opportunities.
It
will run from August 26-30 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Conference Room and
will be facilitated by an Israeli team comprising Mr. David Slyper, who is a former Founder and CEO
of Business Development Centers (MATI) and Technology Incubators and Innovator
of SME supporting tools in Israel and other developing countries; and Miss Rina
Yaffe, an expert in developing training programs using experiential learning
methods and a facilitator of innovative workshops on entrepreneurship and on
the implementation of SME supporting tools and networks in developing
countries.
By the end of the Business
Labs participants will have
- expanded
acquaintance, self-confidence and understanding of agribusiness in practical
planning, development, economics, operations, management and marketing terms
- and will have hands-on experience in product\service planning, producing,
marketing and selling, business modeling and business planning of a small or
medium enterprise, under the local geographic, statutory, cultural,
socio-economic, vocational and supply and demand conditions.
- They will also
become acquainted with the YABT and MASHAV tools, created within the four focus
areas (Leadership and Networking, Training and Experiences, Strategic Alliances
and Technological Resources) and with Israeli models for supporting
entrepreneurs.
TRAINERS
- Trainers who will
participate in the Business Lab will experience and learn the
methodology so that the program may be replicated. They will also acquire
familiarization with setting up and production of the "Business Lab".
This workshop provides
trainers and young entrepreneurs with guidance for the development of
agribusiness enterprises, that can later continue receiving support through the
Second Edition of the Caribbean Innovation Challenge (CIC), which will be
launched later this year.
The CIC is part of the
Entrepreneurship Component of the UNDP project Youth Innovation (Youth-IN): A
Caribbean Network for Youth Development, which responds to the needs of youth
identified in the report of the CARICOM Youth Commission (2010): 'Eye on the
Future: Investing in YOUTH NOW for Tomorrow's Community.
As part of the process of the Caribbean
Innovation Challenge (CIC), the Business Labs help young entrepreneurs in the
region to formulate their business proposals.
