Avis d’appel à manifestation d’intérêt pour le recrutement d’un consultant en études analytiques sur le capital humain, la jeunesse et le développement des compétences, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT FOR THE SIERRA LEONE HUMAN CAPITAL ANALYTICAL STUDY

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD)

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

Email : n.sarr-kone@afdb.org copy t.muzira@afdb.org and m.foday@afdb.org

5. The African Development Bank (AfDB) (« the Bank ») is the premier pan-African multilateral development finance institution established in 1964 with a mandate to promote economic growth and social progress across the continent. The Bank delivers financial and technical support to Regional Member Countries (RMCs) through transformative projects that significantly reduce poverty and bring inclusive and sustainable economic growth. To accelerate the improvement and growth, The Country Strategy Paper (CSP) is use as a driver to deliver on Bank’s development interventions with Governments in member countries.
6. Sierra Leone Country Strategy paper 2020-2024 will come to an end in 2024. The Bank is developing a new strategy that will span from 2025-2029. In accordance with the Bank rules, the Bank is planning to prepare a Country Diagnostic Note (CDN) to identify the binding constraints to inclusive growth and sustainable development in Sierra Leone. The CDN will serve as a guide for the Bank’s engagement with the Government of Sierra Leone over the medium-term. It will provide an analysis of Sierra Leone’s socio-economic situation and prospects and discuss the policies that need to be implemented to accelerate inclusive growth and achieve the Bank’s High-5s. The CDN will inform the strategic choices for the next Bank’s Country Strategy Paper for Sierra Leone covering 2025-2029 and selection of the areas on which the Bank should focus its interventions over the medium-term. The proposed work will use existing national and sectoral reports as well as international data to produce a comprehensive analytical report on growth and sectoral performance and identify emerging issues going forward. In this regard, the CDN will serve as guide for forward-looking dialogue with the country’s authorities on areas that policies need to focus on to drive faster, inclusive, and sustainable growth.
7. It is against this background that the Bank is hiring a consultant to conduct an analytical study on three key human capital development outcomes (Health, Skills for employment, Poverty, and inequality) to fully understand the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges the sector is faced with in contributing to the improvement of the development agenda of the country and feed the assessment outcomes into the CDN. The study will examine four key areas in providing evidence-based constraints impeding the implementation of the government development plan and peculiar gaps that hinders in investing in human capital and progress on social development of the country. The report will focus on areas such as i) TVET Skills for employability and productivity ii) Entrepreneurship ecosystem as a means for self-employment and private sector growth iii) Job Creation (wage employment) in job rich industry value chains including but not limited to agriculture iv) Quality health infrastructure.
8. The objective of the study is to gather the required human capital development information necessary for the preparation of an analysis to inform the African Development Bank Country Diagnostic Note. Which in turn feeds into the development of the Country Strategy Paper. More specifically, the study will bring out milestones and gaps that exist in the implementation of health, education, skills and employment for youth and social protection within the framework of the national development plan, as well as opportunities attributed to human capital development outcomes relevant for a country dialogue and future interventions.
9. The targeted stakeholders for the assignment include senior staff of government MDAs, private entities relevant to this course. The CDN assessment will take into consideration the following tasks.
10. The TVET Skills for employability and productivity

• • The consultant will examine the employment trends by gender, age and regions
  • Unemployment and underemployment of youth and women
  • Causes of unemployment (including skills mismatch etc.)
  • Adequacy of TVET education and training facilities in Sierra Leone with special emphasis on TVET (infrastructure, training curriculum, personnel, and institutional support etc.)
  • Status of TVET education in Sierra Leone (enrolment rates, transition rates etc.)
• Entrepreneurship ecosystem for self-employment and private sector growth
  • Entrepreneurship profiles by region and gender
  • A rigorous assessment on causes of slow private sector development in Sierra Leone
  • Challenges and gaps that exist in programmes gear toward entrepreneurship inequality
  • Assess existing programmes gear towards cushion poverty, inequality and social protection and private sector growth.
• Job Creation in job rich industry value chains including but not limited to agriculture
  • Barriers to creation of job opportunities and access to employment in the labour market
  • Supporting thriving and resilient small and medium enterprises (SMEs development in productive sectors including Agriculture)
  • Driving productivity and higher value with private sector investment
  • Labour supply and demand in Sierra Leone
  • Labour market analysis
• Quality health infrastructure
  • Severity of disease burden (the impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators)
  • Health burden in Sierra Leone
  • Trends of population with access to health facilities within a reasonable distance from their homes
  • Assess capacity of health workers and infrastructural facilities available
  • Health infrastructure Gaps and technology challenge including adequate data collection and research.
  • Investing in human capital gaps and opportunities

7. The Bank hereby invites individual consultants to express their interest in providing the services described above. Interested consultants must provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services mentioned above (documents, reference to similar services, CVs, experience in similar assignments, etc.).
8. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a shortlist and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Rules and Procedures for the Selection of Individual Consultants. Please, note that interest expressed by a consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist. The Bank reserves the right to cancel or postpone this REOI process.

Minimum Required Qualifications and Experience:

• At least ten years of professional experience in conducting research in relation to Health, employability/job skills, inequality, non-formal education, social policy and programming, poverty, women entrepreneurship and business development and financial inclusion etc;
• Strong background in poverty, skills and employment climate smart entrepreneurship, health and education analysis;
• Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills;
• Good practical experience on development of strategies, project document and policies for the African Development Bank;
• Proven experience in development of policy brief within sub-Saharan Africa, and related strategic framework documents. Experience within Sierra Leone is a plus.
• Solid knowledge on non-formal education, youth employment, gender analysis, social development, and access of vulnerable groups to finance;
• Familiarity with Sierra Leone development policies, youth employment policies, health and education policies, skills development initiatives, social protection policies, public private partnership strategy, frameworks and programmes;
• Experience in similar human capital development programme, preferably in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Evidence of quality report writing and presentation of skills such as publications in accredited spaces.
• At least a master’s degree in social sciences, social protection, international development, economics, or related fields. A PhD will be an added advantage.

1. The recruitment of the consultant will be in two stages:
2. Shortlisting/evaluation of candidates based on the below criteria. A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end of the request of expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their profiles.

1. Consultants having scored over 70 at the shortlisting stage will be invited to take part in a panel interview.
   • Duration of assignment: two (2) months).

1. Deadline for applications: 24^th October 2023 (at 5:00 pm GMT)
2. Date of commencement: 20^th November 2023 (expected)
3. Place of assignment: Freetown, Sierra Leone

• For the Expression of Interest to be considered, the consultant needs to be registered in the AfDB DACON Consultant Database. New registration can be obtained at https://www.afdb.org/en/projects-and-operations/procurement/consultancy-services-e-consultant on a PC only through Internet Explorer. Interested individual consultants may obtain further information at the addresses below during the Bank’s working hours: 08:00 to 17:00 hours (GMT/Abidjan time), Monday to Friday.

• Expressions of interest must be submitted via e-mail to the address mentioned below specifically mentioning: “Expression of Interest for Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development analytical study Consultant”

1. Language Requirement: Excellent oral and writing skills in English.

For the attention of:

Mrs. Teresa SARR-KONE, Email: n.@sarr-koneafdb.org

With copy to:

Mr. Tapera MUZIRA, Email: t.muzira@afdb.org

Ms. Mary FODAY, Email: m.foday@afdb.org