Like an infant, a business needs nurturing for a healthy, safe start. And at the Sodbi Business Incubator in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, fledgling entrepreneurs learn everything they always wanted to know about setting up shop. Drawing on the experienced counsel of German UN Volunteer Stefan Schandera, new businesses are springing up in a vacated bank complex, providing jobs in trade or insurance, producing everything from furniture to printing materials. Growing strong in a supportive environment complete with Internet and office services and free use of Sodbi's library, business ventures develop over their three-year incubation period.

New and unemployed entrepreneurs receive training on business plan development, marketing, personnel management and information technology. And when they are steady on their feet, they move their businesses to other premises-out into the real world. Stefan works closely with the staff of Sodbi, providing instruction on small business operations, NGO and volunteer management, fund-raising and donor relations. These are skills generally needed to increase income-generation opportunities around Kazakhstan, a country in economic transition. Key partners of the Incubator include universities offering technology tips, successful businesses investing in and giving advice to newcomers and banks granting credit.

Sodbi, which is part of national and global business incubator networks, also won a national competition for having trained 150 people in information and communication technology. Engaging civil society through volunteerism, Stefan and his colleagues at Sodbi also collaborate with the local employment office to mobilize volunteers for social projects, including care for the elderly. The Incubator continues to examine ways to open up new opportunities for people to volunteer.

• Using everything from cow dung fuel to computers, villagers in Bangladesh's Commile District learn to make a living with the support of 40 UN Volunteers from neighbouring India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and a corps of community volunteers. The locally-trained volunteers kick-start a host of small ventures to serve their community at state-sponsored youth clubs by building latrines and digging wells. At each of the 40 centres, the UN Volunteers then help secure income for the poor by providing advice on how to set up sewing and weaving projects, fish ponds, chicken farms and rickshawpulling enterprises.
• In Lesotho, a team of eight UN Volunteers works with the Maseru City Council to help connect poor communities and expand job opportunities. UNV engineers consult with communities to map out roads linking settlements in a bid to improve access to transport as well as to improve the mobility of those seeking work. UN Volunteers also guide City Council personnel in participatory approaches for mobilizing community members to build and maintain their infrastructure. Supporting women in these settlements, the UN Volunteers have also helped form three handicraftproducing cooperatives.