CONSULTING SERVICES

WDI’s Development Consulting Services (DCS) delivers high-quality work for its clients. Often, this excellent consulting work leads to extensions of contracts or similar projects in the same region.

Two recent examples of this is WDI’s work in Algeria and Kazakhstan.

WDI, based partly on our successful work in the past on the EMPLOI project in Algeria, was awarded a three-year grant by Higher Education for Development (HED) to provide capacity building services to Mentouri University in Constantine, Algeria.  The goals of the project, named RESUME (Recruiting Employable Students at the University with Management Education), are to enhance the school’s English language studies and Business Management curricula to align them with the needs of the Algerian labor market, and to establish a career center that will help Mentouri students make informed decisions about career paths and strengthen the school’s relationships with private sector employers.

The project continues WDI’s work in Algeria that began in January 2007. Back then, the Institute started the EMPLOI project, a partnership with Institute of National Commerce and the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).

In Kazakhstan, WDI recently was awarded a contract to provide strategic advice to Kazakhstan Economic University (KazEU). The project is supported by the European Foundation for Central Asia (EFCA), which conducts the work of the Eurasia Foundation in Central Asia. A WDI team of consultants will make recommendations for modifying the university’s mid-term and long-term strategic plans. The goals are to strengthen the university’s market position, enhance its educational services, and improve its management structure. 

This project builds upon WDI’s experience working with the International Academy of Business (IAB) in Almaty from September 2006 to March 2008. WDI partnered with IAB to enhance the capacity of the Marketing Education and Research Center to build a sustainable and cooperative partnership with the private sector.

To read more about these projects, as well as other ongoing DCS work, click here.

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

WDI’s Executive Education has graduated 88 Rwandan women from its pioneering entrepreneurship training program, which started in 2008.

The Goldman Sachs-sponsored program, organized and designed by WDI in cooperation with the School of Finance & Banking in Kigali, is designed for women from Rwanda seeking to expand their small businesses. After graduation, three-fourths of the women with a business at the start of the program have reported a growth in profit - with a majority of the women reporting growth of at least 10%.

The graduates gather annually for reunions, which gives them an opportunity to receive additional business training, network with other program graduates, learn about funding opportunities, and address specific challenges they’ve faced.

Sessions during the six-month training program include marketing, finance, accounting, HR, legal aspects of running a business, and operations. Networking events are an integral part of the program, with participants visiting successful Rwandan enterprises to learn about best practices.

To read more about Executive Education’s entrepreneurship training, click here.