![[South Sudan] Small businesses to build resilience with UNIDO, Japan project](South Sudan traders.jpg)
[South Sudan] Small businesses to build resilience with UNIDO, Japan project
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Government of Japan have launched a project to increase resilience and self-help capacities of South Sudan communities. The initiative will help to restore livelihoods through small-scale business development.
The project will identify beneficiary groups and locations for micro- and small-scale enterprises in and around Juba. It will then facilitate skills training on food processing, entrepreneurship and business management, thereby helping to set up small-scale enterprises that can be replicated in other regions of the country, including communities hosting IDPs, and create business points for customers.
A UNIDO project inception mission visited South Sudan on 21-30 June to brief partners and counterparts in the country on the project implementation plan.
“This project will help to recover most disadvantaged communities in the country and offer them knowledge and tools to run small businesses,” said Santino Deng, Director of Administration and Finance, and Acting Director of Gender, Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, after the briefing.
“I am pleased to note that the project will take an inclusive approach and involve relevant government authorities and local communities as decision makers to identify and promote business models that are suitable for the people and communities of South Sudan,” Deng added.
On 27 June, the UNIDO mission met with Kiya Masahiko, Ambassador of Japan to South Sudan, who welcomed his country's engagement with UNIDO.
“Despite the emergency and humanitarian situation in the country, we commend UNIDO, which has the strategic responsibility over private sector development, for the launch of this project to support the people of South Sudan. It will promote inclusive and sustainable small-scale business development, particularly linked to the needs of internally displaced persons, funded by the people of Japan,” said Masahiko.
