AfDB: Requet for expressions of interest for Consultancy services for organizing workshops for incubators & accelerators in East Africa

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

CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR ORGANIZING WORKSHOPS FOR INCUBATORS & ACCELERATORS IN EAST AFRICA

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 approach of the JfYA strategy is to support the countries to build an ecosystem conducive to youth employment.

2. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) therefore requires the services of a consultancy firm. The objective of this assignment is to organize “built-in-a-box” workshops targeting Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs) across Africa, allowing networking sessions and framed to address needs and challenges of those organizations across Africa.

3. The services to be provided under the Assignment include:

• Organization of Workshops dedicated to Incubators, Hubs, ESOs in East Africa

• A specific curricula should be developed to address needs of ESOs

• Training of entrepreneurs/ startups and SMEs/SMIs will focus on issues such as:

• Business planning including new models of business planning such as the “Lean Startup” model, the 1-page business plan,

• The importance of knowing your market and your customer (KYC – know your customer); market assessment tools which feed into business planning activities

• Business plan “pivots” in relation to evidence based marketing and customer / client evaluations, etc.;

• What digital tools to use and how to use these tools and platforms to seek funding, support and information;

• The use of mobile devices for customer outreach and research; the use of social media for business development; SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) based methodologies for customer outreach; conducting market surveys and developing product prototypes, etc.

• A survey should be conducted with participants to address current pain points and identify the right curriculum to help them strengthen their capabilities

• A post-event report should be released detailing the direct and indirect impact (quantitative and qualitative impact of the workshop in 3-6 months
• A video should be developed with interviews and advocacy from different participants

4. The consultancy firm should be based in East Africa and have proven records of references with Multinational companies across Africa

5. The AfDB jobs team invites consulting 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: i) brochures, ii) description of similar assignments, iii) experience in similar event, iv) availability of appropriate skills among staff.

6. The eligibility criteria, shortlisting and selection procedure shall be in accordance with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants.

7. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any consulting firm who expresses interest.

8. Interested consulting 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.

9. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by e-mail to the address mentioned below no later than September 19^th , 2018 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning “Expression of interest for organizing workshops targeting incubators & accelerators across Africa”.

 

For the attention of:

Ms Ndeye Absa Gningue

E-mail: n.gningue@afdb.org

Copy to:

Ms. Rosemond Offei-Awuku

Email: r.offei-awuku@afdb.org

1. Robert Zegers

Email: r.zegers@afdb.org

 

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy services for organizing workshops for incubators & accelerators in East Africa

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department – September 2018

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy services for organizing workshops for incubators & accelerators in East Africa.

1. Background

The rate of formal job creation in Africa is insufficient to absorb the growing working age population. By 2040, Africa will house the world’s largest workforce. However, the pace of job creation remains significantly slow. African labour markets create an average of 3 million wage-earning jobs annually, a number that falls significantly short of the 10 to 12 million youth entering the labour force each year.

In response to this crisis, the African Development Bank has adopted a strategy called Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) for the period of 2016 – 2025. This strategy responds to the priorities in the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy and the New Corporate Priorities¹. Creating productive jobs for the youth would help improve their living conditions, while providing the much needed human capital to transform Africa’s energy, agriculture, industrialization and regional integration efforts.

The JfYA strategy is built on three pillars, namely Integration, Innovation and Investment. Under the integration pillar, the Bank will amplify its impact on employment by bringing a youth employment focus to all Bank operations. The innovative pillar aims to develop, scale, and replicate flagship programs that create new economic opportunities for tens of millions of youth in sectors driving Africa’s growth. Three sectors have been identified for these interventions: agriculture, industrialization and ICT. The Investment pillar of the initiative seeks to put in place an investment facility that will catalyze financing for youth employment initiatives.

Through the innovation pillar of the strategy, the Bank aims to launch an Innovation and Information Lab e-platform (The Lab). The objective of the Lab is to support Africa’s entrepreneurship ecosystem by incubating and piloting promising new ideas and assessing best practices for existing interventions in support of youth employment. In addition, the Lab will provide knowledge resources to help mitigate the constraints and challenges entrepreneurs face in Africa and allow them to successfully launch and grow their businesses. The Lab will achieve this goal by:

• Increasing the capacity of “enterprise supporting organizations” (ESOs) such as incubators, accelerators, hubs, financial intermediaries and other specialized firms, operators and networks that provide capital,

• Mentoring, coaching, networking, technology and management skills, linkage to other Business Development Services, and other resources and accompanying measures that are required to create and support viable entrepreneurship ecosystems across Africa.

• Creating a network of ESOs & entrepreneurs across Africa to promote learning and exchange, business and market linkages, and investments.

 

2. Scope of Work

The following points will provide an overview of the duties and responsibilities of the consultancy firm:

• The High – 5 : Light up and Power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa

• The successful candidate will be responsible to support the finalization of the agenda for

2-3 days workshop.

• Follow up with the designated partners/incubators on the preparation of the thematic sessions of the workshop.

• Develop and disseminate the workshop methodology in close collaboration with ESOs

• Facilitate the workshop ensuring active participation of all participants and the achievement of the objectives and expected results.

• Develop a workshop report with details of the workshop and its results, to be presented to the JfYA Team with reference materials including presentations, group work results and a survey.

• Systematization of elements identified during the workshop that will inform the areas of focus for future workshops

• A post-event report should be released detailing the direct and indirect impact (quantitative and qualitative impact of the workshop in 3-6 months
• A video should be developed with interviews and advocacy from different participants

 

3. Eligibility Criteria

The JfYA Team invites organizations having expertise in organizing events with Incubators, Accelerators, Start-ups across Africa, satisfying the following said conditions:

• Organization should have minimum experience of 5 years in the field of Event

• The organization should have permanent staff dedicated to the organization of the Workshop

• Creative Director should have more than 10 years of national and international experience
• Copy writer both English and French is a competitive advantage

• Agency should have proven record of experience with Multinationals and International Donors

4. Engagement Period

The period of contract shall be between 1^st of October to 31^st of December 2018.

5. Deliverables / Outputs

• Before the workshop

• Recruit participants and provide technical advice on the draft agenda and related participatory methodology

• Participate in the design of dynamics, exercises and methodological approaches that allow the workshop to successfully respond to ESOs’ needs.

• Compile and synthesize any relevant workshop materials.

• During the workshop

• Workshop facilitation following the basic facilitating principles applied for consultation meetings with professionals.

• Coordinate the participation of the presenters and other facilitators (if applicable) ensuring they have clarity about roles and responsibilities.

• Applying creative facilitation technique to ensure continuous participants’ engagement and lively, and collaborative discussions

• Compile the results of the group work and present summary.

• Prepare a summary of the main conclusions of the workshop

• After the workshop

• Compilation of materials + Pictures immediately after the workshop.

• Prepare a final report focusing on outcomes and results: Summary of the main conclusions and recommendations of the workshop in general

• Identify lessons learned related to workshop organization and facilitation.

• Summary of the evaluation by participants.

• Systematization of elements identified during the workshop that will inform the areas of focus for future workshops

6. Remuneration

The consulting firm will be paid in accordance with the established rules and procedures of the Bank’s procurement model.