Call for Proposals for The Recruitment of Incubators in The Areas of Digital Services, Textiles and Leather Manufacturing, and Agri-Tech – International Youth Foundation (IYF)
Consultancy and Training
International Youth Foundation (IYF)
For over 30 years, the International Youth Foundation’s (IYF) our sole focus has been to help young people succeed. Our work is fueled by the belief that young women and men everywhere possess dreams, ambition, and the same spark of potential. However, we also know that opportunities are not equitably distributed. Rooted in the belief of youth as problem-solvers, change-makers, and leaders, our initiatives are catalysts for change. We forge global and local partnerships that transform lives, together. IYF is currently implementing the USAID Integrated Youth Activity (IYA) –Kefeta project in Ethiopia. The Kefeta project aims to empower youth to advance their own economic, civic, and social development. Its three objectives are to: increase youth capacity for advocacy and agency; create new economic opportunities for youth; and expand access to essential services that are more youth-friendly.
BACKGROUND
Sustainable job creation and youth employment are critical challenges that Ethiopia is facing today. Close to 70% of Ethiopia’s population is under the age of 29 years. Youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years constitute approximately 30% of the population equating to 35 million youth. The ability to engage these youth in productive activities is paramount for the social and economic development of the country. However, the youth in Ethiopia face enormous challenges and their potential remains untapped. A high rate of rural-to-urban migration, rapid population growth, and unemployment are key among others. With about 2 million new entrants to the labor market every year, a significant number of unemployed or underemployed youth are looking for jobs. Thus, a pooled effort is needed to grow the current job market, create new jobs, improve the quality of these jobs, and support the inclusiveness of the labor market. To this end, the USAID-funded Kefeta project adopted an inclusive and holistic approach to tackle the binding constraints to jobs and proposed a plan to create decent jobs for more than 8, 000 youth in 17 cities.
Kefeta will capacitate target youth through adapting tailored employability training in both wage and self-employment pathways. The training for entrepreneurship pathways includes life skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and business skills training. The training aims to address the readiness and entrepreneurial concepts to start up viable businesses. However, the problem of young and inexperienced youth is multifaced, including lack of networking opportunities, business registration knowledge, and ability to conduct feasibility studies and business planning. Most importantly for innovative or creative businesses, there are many challenges to operationalize a business idea because it requires exposure and facilities to test and produce prototypes and commercialize the product.
Kefeta plans to partner with experienced business incubators to create an enabling environment and improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurship and start-ups. Specifically, Kefeta is looking to recruit one or more incubators to place 85 youth having creative/innovative businesses idea or high-potential growth existing businesses in the areas of digital services, manufacturing, and agri-tech.
OBJECTIVE OF THE SERVICE
The general objective of the incubation covers the following:
- Enable young entrepreneurs to thrive in line with the legal parameters and processes for starting and running a business.
- Support entrepreneurs to test models on creating sustainable jobs through nurturing high-growth startups (enterprises)
- Produce the next generation of entrepreneurs with the ability to thrive in an ever-changing local and global business environment, including high resilience and quick recovery from external shocks
- Cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset for young professionals in key employment sectors
The Specific Objective includes the following.
- To provide advanced training for young entrepreneurs through an in-depth practical and innovative incubation approach,
- To introduce the use of advanced technology trends and access to online tools for automation, faster delivery of services, and improvement
- To increase the pipeline of selected sectors entrepreneurs in Ethiopia,
- To graduate highly trained entrepreneurs that can provide products and services to local and/or international markets,
- To bring increase the number of women entrepreneurs that can bring substantial insight and create impactful value in the ecosystem,
- To create value-based young leaders that focus on solving and improving problems through innovation and ingenuity.
For more and detailed information use the document below:
Consultancy advertisement ES revisions.docx
MINIMUM FIRM AND CONSULTANCY REQUIREMENT
The prospective Service Provider is expected to meet the following minimum requirements:
- It must have at least 5-years and above practical experience in entrepreneurship capacity building service and business Development service, preferably having a lot of engagements with the MSMEs, public sector, NGOs, and UN agencies.
- Knowledge of relevant digitalization markets and trends
- Experience working with the GO or other international organizations beneficial.
- Capability to deploy strong analytical aptitude, communication, and presentation expertise.
- Capability to deploy good communication expertise in English language(s)
- Certification from the appropriate organization/institution
- It shall demonstrate its capabilities, understanding of the TOR, and methodology of the skill development approach.
The multi-disciplinary team should comprise members with the following educational qualifications, experience, and competencies:
- Team Leader Principle Consultant: Master’s degree or more in the areas of business management, digital commerce, engineering, IT, web development, or related disciplines and experience in incubation
- Associate Consultant: Master’s degree in the areas of business development, networking, innovation, technology, entrepreneurship,
- Familiarity with requirements in a national and/or regional government ministry as well as exposure to the coordination of development programs will be an advantage.
- Knowledge of youth programming approaches is desirable.
- Experience working in Ethiopia and other African countries is a plus.
Functional Competencies
- All experts deployed to this assignment requires to have outstanding communication skills in English and Amharic
- Positive and constructive approaches to working with energy.
- Demonstrate openness to change and ability to receive and integrate feedback.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong time management and meeting established timelines.
- Training and hands-on experience in the assignment area.
- Ability to work under pressure, and to deliver in a timely manner without compromising quality standards.
Language and Other Skills
- Excellent knowledge of English, and local languages including the ability to write reports clearly and concisely and to set out a coherent argument in presentation and group interactions.
- Capacity to facilitate and communicate with different qualifications and experience participating in the training.
- Computer skills: full command of Microsoft applications (word, excel, PowerPoint) and common internet applications.
Required specification.
- Upon the advertisement of the Call for Proposals, qualified institutions are expected to submit both Technical and Financial Proposals, renewed trade licence, Tin Number.
