Recruitment of an agency to provide trainers and training materials for enterprise support organizations & entrepreneurs – Côté d’Ivoire

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD)

Avenue Jean-Paul II, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

E-mail : n.gningue@afdb.org

Recruitment of an agency to provide trainers & training materials for enterprise support organizations & entrepreneurs / startups

 

In Africa :

Note – this EOI is an update of the EOI entitled “Recruitment of an agency to provide trainers for enterprise support organizations across Africa” published by AfDB on February 19, 2019. Firms that have answered the Feb. 19 EOI are also being considered for this EOI but are strongly encouraged to re-submit as indicated below.

1. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting the economic growth and social progress across the continent. The Bank delivers financial and technical supports to Regional Member Countries (RMCs) through transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty and bring inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five priorities (High 5s) have been identified for scaling up and accelerate the Bank’s delivery, namely: Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Power Africa, Integrate Africa and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. In order to accelerate the improvement of the life for the people in Africa, the Bank approved in 2016 the Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy (JfYA) with the objective to create 25 million jobs and equip 50 million youth with skills for enhanced employability and entrepreneurial success by 2025. The JfYA strategy is to support countries in their efforts to strengthen youth entrepreneurship to stimulate youth employment and economic development with a focus on young women ;
2. As part of these activities, the Bank is creating the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (IEL) under the Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD). The objective of the Lab is to support youth employment and entrepreneurship in Africa by empowering Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs). The Lab will also serve to support the AfDB’s Boost Africa Programme under which the Bank supports high growth potential start-up enterprises through funding and technical support ;
3. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) requires executing agencies to implement capacity building activities on behalf of the IEL. These activities will target four (4) actors in entrepreneurship in Africa, namely: business incubators, business accelerators, various types of (first time) fund managers, and (mostly young and female) start-up entrepreneurs. For this, the Bank expects to identify and select experienced executing agencies to: i) prepare, adapt and/or make available a ‘best practice’ ‘curriculum’ for each of the target groups, and ii) use this curriculum to train actors in the specific target groups, iii) develop and apply a monitoring and evaluation tool / survey to record feedback from the trainers and from the participants as well as the event / workshop organizers. Preference will be given to firms with a demonstrated and well-established experience in Africa and firms that have a track record of gender awareness and sensitivity in matters related to youth entrepreneurship and business development in Africa ;
4. Responses are sought from well-established firms with long standing and broad-based experience in entrepreneurship training along with long standing and broad-based experience in emerging and/or developing markets in Africa or beyond. Firms should have experience working in several regions on entrepreneurship training and support and should have demonstrated experience in training entrepreneurs and/or ESOs. These firms should also have developed comprehensive training programmes and accompanying materials that can be customized to meet the training needs of the four specific target groups or actors identified here ;
5. The firms sought are most likely not experts in all sectors identified previously and preference will be given to those firms that have demonstrated experience in a given sector independently of the other sectors. Given the nature of the different actors, it is considered highly unlikely that any one firm will be able to offer the best expertise possible in all 4 sectors. Firms are therefore asked to focus on the sector they know they are best at. This will help the Bank select appropriately not only for this opportunity, but for others that are being considered under the IEL. The four areas of entrepreneurship support and the capacity building services desired for each are the following:
6. Training in all aspects of setting up and operating a commercially viable / financially sustainable business incubation company or organization focused on entrepreneurs and early stage startups and SMEs ;
7. Training in all aspects of setting up and operating a commercially viable / financially sustainable early stage business acceleration company or enterprise focused on entrepreneurs and early stage startups and SMEs ;

• Training in all aspects of setting up and operating a commercially viable / financially sustainable fund management enterprise dealing with angel investing, venture capital (VC), equity and other forms of investment, including alternative investment vehicles such as impact / social investment funds and/or crowdfunding / crowdlending platforms, etc.) with a focus on entrepreneurs and early stage startups and SMEs ;
• Training in all aspects of starting, setting up and operating a commercially viable / financially sustainable startup or entrepreneurial venture. Training will cover all steps in a successful startup journey starting from idea generation, business plan development (lean startup, design thinking, etc.), running/managing a business, seeking investment, planning for exit, and this will include a focus on high growth (VC type) businesses.

Recommendations on the approach to take are welcome in response to this EOI.After the EOI, the Bank will select firms for each area of the four areas of entrepreneurship support described above and then invite the selected firms to respond to an RFP. Selected firms will be asked to use the training material they have developed or can make available to deliver a workshop at one 1 or 2 venues that will take place in Africa in 2019. The workshop will be offered on the occasion of a venue addressing a relevant topic or one of the four (4) targeted audiences. The Bank has already established a list of events. Copies of the training materials will be shared with participants and may be made available online by the Bank.

The individuals targeted by this training are the following :

• Operators and key staff of existing – and possibly aspiring – business incubators ;
• Operators and key staff of existing – and possibly aspiring – business accelerators ;
• Fund managers and their key staff, including angel, venture capital (VC), equity and other fund managers seeking to or already operating funds that seek to invest in startups and early stage businesses (with a focus on youth and young women driven entrepreneurship) ; and
• Young entrepreneurs and operators of startups.

Respondents are asked to follow these instructions and include the information requested below when submitting their answers :

• Name of company ;
• Country of registration, address and contact details (name, function, phone, email, web page) ;
• Main activity the company is engaged in (one paragraph, max. 10 lines) ;
• Indicate for which of the 4 sub-categories of the EOI you wish to be considered? (choose one and answer on one line) ;
• Statement of expertise to undertake the requested assignment demonstrating relationship with existing work and highlighting organizational and staffing/network capabilities on the ground (one paragraph, 8 lines max.) ;
• Statement of experience to undertake the requested assignment focusing both on training materials you have available and on training delivery experience (one paragraph, 8 lines max.) ;
• The AfDB jobs team invites firms to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services ;
• Interested firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services.

Only AfDB shortlisted firms would be considered for a Request for Proposals, not individual candidatures ;

• The firm/agency will have a proven track record, substantiated with references, of assignments undertaken in the space, preferably with a track record in Africa ;
• The eligibility criteria, shortlisting and selection procedure shall be in accordance with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants ;
• The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any agency that expresses interest ;
• Interested firms may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 08:00 to 17:00 hours (GMT or Abidjan time), Monday to Friday ;
• Expressions of interest must be sent by e-mail to the address mentioned below no later than March 24th, 2019 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning “Expression of interest for an Agency for creating/availing a curriculum and for delivering training to (Mention one of the four target group).

For the attention of : Ms Ndeye Absa Gningue

E-mail : n.gningue@afdb.org

Copy to :  Richard Labelle

Email : r.labelle@afdb.org