Request for Expressions of Interest for the Recruitment of an Executing Agency / Firm to Develop a Platform Strategy and an Online Interactive Digital Platform for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab of the AFDB – Côte d’Ivoire

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (EOI)

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

EOI – RECRUITMENT OF AN EXECUTING AGENCY / FIRM TO DEVELOP A PLATFORM STRATEGY AND AN ONLINE INTERACTIVE DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR THE INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB OF THE AFDB

 

Context :

1. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. The Bank delivers financial and technical support to Regional Member Countries (RMCs) through transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty and bring inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Five priorities (High 5s) have been identified under the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022). These are: Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Power Africa, Integrate Africa and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. As part of the Bank’s efforts to improve the quality of life for the people in Africa, the Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy (JfYA) was approved in 2016 with the objective to create 25 million jobs and equip 50 million young people with skills to enhance their employability and entrepreneurial success by 2025. The JfYA strategy will 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 strengthening the capacity and operational reach of Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs), i.e. business incubators and accelerators and financial intermediaries including fund managers operating at all stages of the startup investment cycle – from seed / angel to exit, and various other intermediaries supporting entrepreneurship;
3. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) is seeking an executing agency to develop a platform strategy for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab and, as a first step in the realization of the strategy, to implement a database and interactive map of ESOs in Africa and to assess the feasibility / desirability of establishing a crowdfunding / crowdlending facility for entrepreneurs as part of the platform. The platform will have the following functionality and/or provide the following services :

• Facilitate collaboration, linkages and partnerships between actors (see list of beneficiaries below) working in support of entrepreneurship in Africa ;
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and the delivery of online content including online learning, services and applications in support of entrepreneurship in Africa ;
• Offer interactive services: Online training, e-mentoring, blogs, chatbots, etc. ;
• Serve the data analytics requirements of the Lab in the matter of collecting and managing and making available data on entrepreneurship and ESOs in Africa. The Lab Platform will facilitate data analysis and visualization
• The ESO database will be curated and updated on an ongoing basis (live) ;

4. The following deliverables are required:

• A platform strategy document including an overview of the current state of thinking regarding the use of platforms for service delivery in support of ESO strengthening and entrepreneurship support, best practices in using platforms in Africa and beyond, and an assessment of the feasibility of the Lab platform and steps to implement along with recommendations including working with existing platforms. The strategy should be no longer than 15 pages at the most, not including appendices ;
• Develop and host a database of ESOs – The platform will host a database of African ESOs (enterprise support organizations – business incubator, business accelerators and fund managers – seed, angel, equity, debt, etc.). In a separate undertaking, the Bank is now gathering details and information about ESOs across Africa by direct research and by using an online survey and using this information to create a list of ESOs along with extensive qualifying data. The executing agency / firm that will be selected will be required to transfer this data set to a database that will facilitate full search capabilities including Boolean and proximity searching as well as the operation of quantitative analyses on the numerical and logical data acquired. Some of this data will be accessible online to users via an interactive query interface ;
• Designing, implementing, testing and securing the database and the online platform the database will reside on along with related services such as a user-friendly online query interface is a key activity and requirement under this EOI ;
• Host an interactive map of African ESOs listed by country and location. This calls for the development of an interactive map showing the location of all ESOs in Africa down to the local level with mouse over capabilities and the listing of key ESO data. The map application will be linked to the database so that changes to the database will be automatically reflected in the interactive map ;
• Access to the Lab platform must be possible via mobile device (smartphone for the most part) and via a desktop / laptop. A mobile Web and a desktop interface will be developed accordingly. The platform is meant to be interactive, with a modern design and an attractive “Look & Feel” ;
• The platform will permit public access to select data and information and the self-registration of users ;
• The platform will be designed in such a way that future applications and content can be readily added to the platform based on demand, felt need and opportunities to partner with existing application servers or platforms. The possibility of linking to 3^rd party content – for example, existing learning materials – will need to be explored. The platform should be developed using open data principles ;
• The platform will be hosted in the cloud ;
• The platform will initially have English and French as initial language interfaces. The possibility of adding other language interfaces such as Arabic, Portuguese and other languages in the future will be explored ;
• The executing agency will also assess the possibility of developing a crowdsourcing platform as part of the services available via the Lab e-platform. Depending on the outcome of the crowdfunding assessment, a crowdfunding platform may also be required to be developed or an agreement with an existing crowdfunding platform service provider be suggested, negotiated and tested.

5. The main users and beneficiaries or target groups the platform will serve are:

• Enterprise support organizations (ESOs – Incubators, Accelerators and other intermediaries) ;
• Investors and fund managers seeking to invest in opportunities in Africa ;
• African entrepreneurs and startups ;
• African Governments and civil society organizations working in support of entrepreneurship development, with a focus on young people and young women ;
• Local and international partners in both the public and private sectors with an interest in activities supporting entrepreneurship and startups in Africa ;

6. Executing agencies with the following experience are invited to respond – with experience in/with:
   • Developing a Web based platform strategy ;

• Developing and maintaining thematic Web based platforms to support development activities in Africa and in other emerging and developing economies ;
• Private sector development, entrepreneurship and startup development, investment in African startups ;
• Established data analytics capabilities including AI (artificial intelligence).

The objective is to use the platform to acquire and share data and information that will provide more clarity to the entrepreneurship & startup investment “market” in Africa and to make it more efficient in supporting entrepreneurship and startups.

7. Selected firms will be invited to respond to a detailed RFP laying out the products and services required. Firms that respond to this EIO are asked to demonstrate their capabilities to facilitate the RFP selection process ;
8. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab Platform is a first-of-its-kind project. The Bank is open to suggestions to improve the terms of references for undertaking this assignment ;
9. Important – to facilitate the assessment of responses received, respondents are asked to follow these instructions and include the information requested below when submitting their answers. Once these answers have been completed succinctly, they may also include supporting documents in their application. Please note that the total size of the application must not exceed 5 MB:

• 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 ;
• Your understanding of the task at hand (max 10 lines) ;
• Statement of expertise to undertake the requested assignment (2 paragraphs, 15 lines max.) – can append supporting materials. Suggestions, if any, to improve the EOI and the proposed task (Max 15 lines).

10. 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 shortlisted executing agencies / firms will be invited to submit a Request for Proposal, not individual candidatures ;
11. The selected firms / executing agencies will have a proven track record, substantiated with references, of similar assignments. Preference will be given to firms with experience working on similar projects in Africa ;
12. The eligibility criteria, shortlisting and selection procedure shall be in accordance with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants ;
13. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any agency that expresses interest ;
14. 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 ;
15. Expressions of interest must be sent by e-mail to the address mentioned below no later than Wednesday, May 23, 2019 at 23:59 (GMT) and specifically mentioning “Expression of interest for an executing agency to develop a platform strategy and an online interactive digital platform for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab of the AFDB”.

For the attention of:

Ms Ndeye Absa Gningue

E-mail: n.gningue@afdb.org

Copy to:

1. Richard Labelle

Email: r.labelle@afdb.org