TAGHEER CONDUCTS EXPORT MANAGEMENT COACHING IN AFGHANISTAN

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is currently implementing the Advancing Afghan Trade project, an EU-funded trade assistance project in Afghanistan. Its objective is to improve conditions for regional cooperation and trade as a lever for economic and human development and poverty reduction in Afghanistan through technical assistance to the Afghan Government and the private sector.

To achieve these objectives, ITC has contracted TAGHEER to coach small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in exports in order to improve their trade performance. The instruction is designed to prepare them for export management, cope with export challenges inside Afghanistan and beyond the border, and provide information on the application of labelling, packaging customs clearance, and freight forwarding. In preparation for this assignment, TAGHEER staff participated in a training of trainers (TOT) session in Sri Lanka, facilitated by the ITC, to receive advanced instruction on the delivery of on-the-job coaching services to Afghan SMEs.

The ITC, in consultation with TAGHEER, has prepared a coaching manual on export management. The manual will be introduced to selected export SMEs in Afghanistan following an initial assessment of their current export management practices. TAGHEER will be developing a coaching plan to improve their export management administrative practices to reduce their transaction costs. This coaching will involve the training the SME staff, information-sharing, monitoring their activities remotely, and remaining available to answer queries throughout the coaching period.