Notice Of Invitation To Submit Bids For An Operator Of The Ecowas Youth Business Incubator Training Programme

Date : 15 Jan 2022 - 30 Jan 2022
Venue : Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso,
Town : Ouagadougou
Country : Burkina Faso

CALL FOR TECHNICAL/FINANCIAL BIDS

Notice Of Invitation To Submit Bids For An Operator Of The Ecowas Youth Business Incubator Training Programme

Job Title : Consultancy for the ECOWAS Youth Business Incubator Training Programme

(ECOWAS BIP)

Type of Contract : Individual or Corporate Contract

Project Title : ECOWAS Youth Empowerment and Development Programme

Period/Duration of Assignment/Services: Immediate (One month)

Start Date : 7^th to 20^th March 2022

Submission of Applications/ Bids

Completed applications and Technical bid documents are to be submitted to the following email address cdjs@ecowas.int

All Candidates should submit their applications and bids on or before 30^th January, 2022, by 5 p.m. West Africa time (4pm GMT). The heading “Technical Bid for the ECOWAS Youth Business Incubators Progranmme” should be on the subject line of the email.

All enquiries or requests for clarifications or additional information should be routed electronically to the email address above. The EYSDC Office in Burkina Faso will reply to all requests without revealing the source of the original request.

Introduction

ECOWAS is committed to the economic empowerment of youth which is key to the development and integration of the region. To achieve this, relevant policy and programme frameworks are developed and implemented. Youth consist a major population group but are vulnerable to economic and social challenges confronting the region. Their vulnerability imposed by prevailing socio economic circumstances has thrown up issues of unemployment, irregular migration, trafficking in persons, trafficking in illicit drugs etc. Conscious of these development challenges, ECOWAS is not relenting in evolving appropriate measures and working with development partners and other critical stakeholders to address the issues.

Youths represent more than 70% of the population of the region, and are impacted greatly by the Corona virus pandemic and other challenges challenges ranging from perpetual conflicts, terrorism, insurgencies, poverty, unemployment, forced migration, human trafficking , drug trafficking and numerous other problems propelled by the effects of climate change and environmental degradation especially in the Sahel axis of the region.

Conscientious efforts are made by ECOWAS to carry along young men and women who are the victims of the effects of these challenges in its regional integration process. Evolving development programmes and interventions being implemented are made inclusive to ensure no one is left behind in line with the UN dictum of social inclusion. It became incumbent therefore to expand the list of interventions and projects to include youth empowerment initiatives, which potentially will go a long way in mitigating the impact of covid – 19 and other socio economic challenges in the region. The ECOWAS Youth Business Incubator Programme is a youth empowerment programme adopted as a practical project that will contribute in filling up the gap created to ensure adequate inclusion and participation of youth of the region.

Business incubation

The ECOWAS Youth Business incubation programme is a youth empowerment initiative which seeks to build the technical, economic and organizational capacities of youth from various ECOWAS member states, and provide them with employable skills to be able to incubate their businesses and be self-employed. The programme is projected also to strengthen the skills of the youth through the exchange of information and coaching, with a focus on experiences, methodologies and best practices in business creation and management. It will further support them to access financial and technical support for their businesses and enterprises.

The pilot phase of the project, which will commence with three countries in the Sahel region of ECOWAS (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), targets 3000 youths i.e. 1000 youth from each member state in the next five years. It is envisaged in the pilot phase that the process will enable the incubation of 40 innovative projects, (13 ideas per country put into business plans, which have the potential for job creation and sustainability).The projects identified will be supported and transformed into sustainable enterprises. When implemented successfully, the programme will facilitate taking off the streets youth in these countries, and open up opportunities for young men and women to be self employed

Objective

The overall objectives of the ECOWAS BIP project is to provide an enabling environment, and needed support for young people to establish their business enterprises successfully, create sustainable small scale enterprises and jobs.

Specific Objectives

Specifically the business incubation programme will:

Provide capacity building, technical assistance, and financial support to emerging young businessmen and women to create and sustain their businesses.
strengthen the capacity and empower young men and women to be self-reliant
Provide business support services to enterprising youth of the region.
increase number of youth based SMEs in member states
Provide business management skills; access to financial services and capacity building
Share knowledge and impart best practices on sustainable enterprises
Create employment through small business development and partnerships
Mentor young men and women in enterprise development and business

Activities

The training will involve:

Skills training and capacity building workshops (Training on Incubation Modules, Developing and Implementing Business Plans, Business management, Financial management and services, Knowledge sharing and best practices)
Development of efficient and effective training modules for the incubation training
Business support services (Mentoring, Access to Credit and Financial support)
Needs assessment and development of operational document
Monitoring and Evaluation of Incubator operational Implementation

Methodology

The incubation programme consists of 2 weeks training for youth selected for the incubation capacity building training. Selection for the exercise will be based on a competitive process whereby prospective participants will be invited through a call for proposal to submit Concept notes and business proposals on one of the three areas for the incubation workshop. The three areas proposed for the workshop are:

Pharmaceutical Products enterprise incubation
ICT business Incubation
Solar Energy technology business Incubation

At the end of the incubation training exercise, each participant is expected to develop and submit a business plan which will be assessed and reviewed to qualify for the start up support to be provided on graduation.

The Incubation training will be a full boarding to be held in a reputable training Centre with all the required facilities for the training. At the end of the training, the President of the ECOWAS Commission will award the graduand Incubators with certificates and the start up support to be provided

Eligible Training Centre

Technical bids are invited from well-established professional and business training Centres and firms with the technical competence to deliver effective and efficient Business Incubation training in Burkina Faso, Mali, or Niger. The training will be hosted in the country indicated by the successful bidder selected for the incubation training.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for consideration as the operator of the Business Incubation Training Programme: Bidders must possess and demonstrate the capacity to:

Develop and execute strategy for outreach, hunting, attracting and onboarding innovative entrepreneurs, and start-ups.

Design & managing Incubation and Acceleration programs

Submit modules for the three technical areas for the incubation training (Pharmaceutical Products (Covid) enterprise – ICT enterprise – Solar energy technology business incubation enterprise)

Provide high-quality coaching and advisory support to entrepreneurs.

Manage the day-to-day interaction with the Incubatees

Provide support to entrepreneurs across ideation, acceleration, investment and scale-up stage.

Develop, execute and own an operational and engagement strategy for the entire community including donors, start-ups, investors, corporates, mentors, advisors, and domain experts.

Provide Post incubation training Monitoring and Evaluation and continued strategic guidance to entrepreneurs and the programme operations to ensure sustainability of established enterprises etc.

Be the switchboard for trainees to access relevant resources and connections

Prospective bidders must also:

Demonstrate capacity to ensure tight management of milestones and progress of entrepreneurs and start-up Companies

Demonstrate good understanding of the social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Show capacity to qualify and evaluate applicants for creativity, innovation, acceleration and investment stage.

Possess good quality infrastructure, technical facility and conducive environment for the incubation training)

Have qualified personnel and trainers with experience in the designated areas for the incubation

Be able to guide & support start-ups for fundraising activity.

Date and Venue

The training will take place at the venue and country proposed by the successful Bidder. The date of the training will be announced after selection of the successful bidder/trainer.

DOCUMENTS TO INCLUDE WHILE SUBMITING THE PROPOSAL

Interested bidders must submit an application dossier comprising the following items

Technical Proposals

An explanatory note on the understanding of the TOR and reasons for application
A brief introduction of the methodology and proposed delivery of the business incubation training

Profile or Curriculum Vitae (To include)

Details and references for experience acquired in delivery of similar programmes
Details of Technical and physical facilities proposed for the incubation training
Modules developed and executed in similar programmes
Details and profiles of the Professional and Technical Trainers proposed for the programme.

Financial Proposal

The financial proposal shall show:

The total amount of the financial bid. And a detailed or itemised breakdown showing the following, amongst other details:

Honorarium or Professional fee of Resource Persons/trainers for the expected working days.
Cost of accommodation and feeding the expected number of trainees

Cost of all transportation required for participants during the programme

Cost of materials, facilities and venue, etc for the incubation training
Cost of Publicity Material (Tee shirts, brochures, banners, badges, programme of activities) where necessary
Cost of Production of Certificates

Cost of Media coverage (National and International) where necessary. A clear programme of media coverage and publicity must be supplied, where a cost is provided.
Cost of Security coverage for the programme (where necessary)

Cost of Medicals and Covid tests
Cost of Post incubation Monitoring and Evaluation (where necessary)
Other logistics costs, where necessary

The financial offer of the successful bidder is subject to negotiations on the basis of budget availability and ECOWAS scales of fees/ECOWAS Procurement Code.

Terms of Payment

Payments schedule is as follows:

Deliverables	%
Signing of MOU and opening of the Incubation Session	30%
Closure of the Incubation and submission	40%
Submission of the final report of the training programme and recommendations (not more than 30 days after completion of the training session)	30%

EVALUATION OF THE TECHNICAL BIDS

Cumulative Analysis (Weighted Rating)

The Incubation Programme shall be awarded to the Bidder whose bid shall have been evaluated and established as follows:

Exactly as required or acceptable, and
Must have received the highest cumulative rating on the total pre-established technical and financial criteria on this particular invitation.

Weighting: The weighting analysis for the evaluation of the bids as follows:

Total/ Max rating for the technical bid : 70% of total bid
Total/ Max rating for the financial bid: 30% of the bid

Only candidates whose technical bids score a minimum of 70 points would be considered for financial evaluation. After verification of the adequacy between the financial and technical proposals, each financial bid (F) will receive a financial rating (NF) calculated in comparison to the lowest financial bid (Fm) calculated as follows: NF= 100x Fm/F (F being the price of the financial bid)

In conclusion, the proposals shall be ranked by adding up their technical RATING (Nt) and financial rating (Nf), using the weightings (70% for technical proposal, and 30% for financial proposal) to arrive at an overall rating (NG)

The proposals shall thereafter be ranked according to their total weighted ratings: NG = 0.7 x Nt + 0.3 x Nf

Financial rating is calculated based on the formula: (100 Points) x (the lowest price USD)/ (cost in USD offered by another bidder) = points awarded to the cost of the other bidder.

The bid shall be awarded to the proposal that has obtained the highest total weighted rating, taking into consideration ECOWAS Procurement Code provisions.

Selection Criteria

Selection of the successful Bidder shall be executed by a technical committee of experts constituted by the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre and shall be in line with the provisions of the ECOWAS procurement Code.

The selection criteria will be adopted based on the requirements of this TOR.

ECOWAS reserves the right to terminate this procurement process at any time without selecting any bidder.

Only successful bidder(s) will be contacted.

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