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 MAPPING EXISTING INCUBATORS & ACCELERATORS ACROSS 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 consultant to conduct training seminars on youth employment interventions harmonization in Niger, Chad and Central African Republic. The objective of this assignment is to strengthen the capacities of national partners together with development agencies involved in the country, to help them build institutional mechanisms for better coordination and coalition to increase the employment effects of their programmes and projects, including the Bank operations.

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

1. Quantitative enumeration of active Enterprise Support Organizations across Africa at three levels; country, regional and continental level. The main objectives are:

• To identify potential active and innovative networks of Enterprise Support Organizations at country, regional and continental level for opportunities as implementing intermediaries for Business development support services to youth led startups/SMES

• To inform the development of a comprehensive Pan African live one “stop shop” database and information service on ESOs in Africa as a knowledge base to spin off a variety of goods and services in support startups/ MSMEs, ESOs and other actors in the ecosystem by providing the necessary data to feed into the development of the Youth Innovation lab E-platform of the Jobs for Youth in Africa Initiative of the AfDB

1. Qualitative research to help understand the opportunities and challenges of faced by enterprise support organizations. The specific objectives are:

• To examine the availability and quality of business support to Startups/MSMEs and ways to overcome those challenges. This is expected to cover both the supply and demand side looking at business support needs from the perspective of the Enterprise support Organizations.

• To examine the experience of active enterprise support organizations in Africa at country regional and continent level with the aim of identifying good practices that are scalable and the opportunities for innovation.
• Mapping exercise has to cover all African Countries with a particular focus in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa & Côte d’Ivoire. Those 5 countries were identified by the JfyA & Boost Africa Team as Pilot countries for the deployment of the Innovation Platform.

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 (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, evidence of joint venture if applicable etc.).
6. The eligibility criteria, shortlisting and selection procedure shall be in accordance with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants.

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

7. 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.

8. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by e-mail to the address mentioned below no later than August 25th, 2018 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning “Expression of interest for mapping existing 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

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GROUP

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Mapping existing incubators & accelerators for the Youth Innovation and Information Lab

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department

July 2018

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Mapping of existing incubators/accelerators and relevant entrepreneurial networks across Africa for Jobs for Youth in Africa Innovation Lab

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. Context of Research

• 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

Today in Africa, completeness of data on Enterprise Support Organizations in terms of their nature, standards of operations, interests and the challenges they face remains very scanty and incoherent. The study aims to provide a comprehensive and complete continental mapping of active Enterprise Support Organizations; their nature and structure, standards of operations and the issues they face in support of startups development and MSME growth.

Convergence data on Enterprise Support Organizations across Africa will help improve the effectiveness and reach of these organizations with the aim to scaling up direct interventions to startups/ MSMEs in Africa. In addition to addressing crucial knowledge gaps to foster a better entrepreneurship ecosystem of key actors working directly with startups and MSMEs, the Bank seeks to strengthen its own ability in identifying and working with relevant ESOs through informed modalities and to explore opportunities for investments in related financial instruments established in support of startups/ MSMEs. The outcomes of the study will help eliminate information asymmetries in the market and allow market actors to link directly via the platform and otherwise with players in the market, i.e. fund managers find funding partners and opportunities. Likewise, startups/ MSMEs find ESOs and resources.

3. Objectives

The overall objective of this study is to conduct a research and develop a database of ESOs across Africa. The research will identify ESOs and their concrete needs, in particular institutional capacity gaps of ESOs at different levels of the ecosystem, inter linkage challenges as well as regulatory bottlenecks faced by the different actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (incubators, entrepreneurs, accelerators, etc.). Those insights will be supporting the implementation of the JfYA strategy, specifically, the Lab. Since the aim of The Lab is to promote business development, provide both soft and business skills, mentorship, and forge trade links benefiting entrepreneurs, a view on jobs per industry would also be of an incremental value for the next steps for a virtual platform.

Therefore, the Bank seeks a consulting firm to carry out the mapping of ESOs that will be used to develop the Lab. The detailed scope of work follows.

4. Scope of Study

The study is expected to cover two aspects:

1. Quantitative enumeration of active ESOs across Africa at three levels; country, regional and continental level. The main objectives are:

• To carry out a desk study and informational gap analysis based on existing resources and databases of ESOs in Africa.

• To provide information that will help in developing a comprehensive Pan African live one “stop shop” database and an information service on ESOs in Africa as a knowledge base to spin off a variety of goods and services in support of startups/ MSMEs, ESOs and other actors in the ecosystem.

• To identify potential active and innovative ESOs for opportunities as implementing intermediaries for business development support services to youth led startups/MSMES and also informing AfDB’s work on the Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

1. Qualitative research to help understand opportunities and challenges faced by ESOs.

The specific objectives are:

• Develop an assessment mechanism tool to ensure standard of ESOs mapped and eventually added onto the platform (keeping in mind translated impact in job creation).

• To examine the availability and quality of business support to startups/MSMEs and ways to overcome those challenges that could be addressed by the Lab. This is expected to cover both the supply and demand side looking at business support needs from the perspective of the ESOs.

• Examine the experience of active ESOs in Africa at country regional and continent level with the aim of identifying good practices that are scalable and the opportunities for innovation.

The scope of the mapping exercise will cover all African countries with a particular focus in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire. These 5 countries were identified by the JfYA and Boost Africa teams as pilot countries for the deployment of The Lab.

5. Duties/ Responsibilities and Expected Deliverables

Under the supervision of the Director of the Bank’s Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department, and in close collaboration with the Jobs for Youth Team, the consulting firm will undertake specific tasks, including but not limited to the following:

5.1 Expected Output

1. Inception Report: The consultants will prepare an inception report proposing the approach and methodology and detailed timeframes for the study.
2. Background Papers: The consultant will produce a synthesis of research undertaken so far on thematic areas to inform the report.
3. Draft Report and Validation: The consultant is expected to produce a draft report for the study. The details will be expounded upon further discussions with successful firm. Upon clearance of the draft report by the Bank’s management, the consultant will facilitate a workshop for key stakeholders to disseminate and validate the report findings.
4. Final Report: the consultant will prepare a final report in consideration of comments of reviewers and feedback from the validation workshop.

2.2 Approaches

The approach to be adopted by the study will include inter alia:

1. Desk review: The consultants will undertake desk research involving a review of existing literature and collection of all relevant studies and materials.
2. Field work: The consultants will conduct field work to collect and validate data through Key informant interviews and focused Group Discussions, and engage with active ESOs, startups/MSMEs and government officials, collecting their views, which will be used in the preparation of the study.

6. Qualifications and Experience

6.1 Study Team Composition

The consultancy firm will be responsible for leading on the research, the general coordination, data collection and analysis and report consolidation, (initial and final reports).

The consultancy firm should, as minimum criteria, possess the following characteristics:

• A recognized think-tank institution with over ten years’ experience and proven track record of enterprise ecosystem knowledge development, with grounded experience of the Africa landscape and trends.

• Solid expertise in terms of staff that will be assigned to conduct and manage the propose study (knowledge and experience in Africa is required).

• Sufficient staff (at least 5) that will each be dedicated to a region of Africa (East, West, Central, North and South) and with some staff having knowledge of either French or English.

• Extensive experience in research and policy-level analysis.
• Some experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of programs.

6.2 Eligibility Criteria

• Proven track records in carrying out studies/mappings across Africa.

• Proven knowledge and at least 6 years of solid research and operational experience in work relating to entrepreneurship and innovation (through virtual platforms and/or on site programs).

• Strong expertise in and knowledge of the African incubator/accelerator and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

• Experience in business development activities (youth focused activities will be a competitive advantage) and market analysis.

7. Duration of the assignment

The Consultancy shall cover a six months calendar period commencing on 15^th of September 2018.

8. Reporting

The consulting firm will work in close liaison with the Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) Team and under the general supervision of the Director of the Human Capital Youth and Skills Department. The consulting firm will submit a monthly progress report on expected deliverables.

9. Remuneration

The consulting firm will be paid in accordance with the established rules and procedures of the Bank’s procurement model. The consulting firm for acknowledgment of their candidature should share a financial proposal.