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: [email protected]; cc : [email protected]

RECRUITMENT OF AN ENTERPRISE SUPPORT ORGANIZATION (ESO) FOR INNOVATION CALL FOR COVID-19 IN SOUTH AFRICA

 

  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 significantly reduce poverty and bring inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five priorities (High 5s) have been identified for scaling up and accelerating 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 ;
  1. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) of the Bank therefore requires the services of an Enterprise Support Organization (ESO) for an innovation call for Covid- 19 for South Africa. The objective of this assignment includes, but are not limited to the following : Undertake a deep dive study to assess entrepreneurship trends in South Africa; (ii) Assess the current status of the winners of several ideathons that took place in South Africa, and provide additional resources for their implementation (including the #AfricaVsVirus Challenge organized by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (“the Lab”) in April 2020); and (iii) Assist in prototyping ideas of entrepreneurs ;
  2. The services to be provided under the Assignment include :
  • Entrepreneurship trends / market assessment (Deep dive) in South Africa including key constraints and opportunities for young entrepreneurs and provide specific programmatic and policy recommendations for Bank support ;
  • Identify and select South African ventures from the #AfricaVsVirus Challenge at The Lab and/or from other ideathons, hackathons, or other initiatives in South Africa (identification of all recent initiatives and projects descriptions/details for South Africa) and the relevant enabling reforms required to support them ;
  • Provide Business Development Services (BDS) including hardware prototyping (05 ideas to be prototyped) for ventures in South Africa relevant to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
  1. The AfDB jobs team invites consulting ESOs to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested ESOs must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services: i) Brochure of the company, ii) Description of similar assignments, iii) References, Team composition, and iv) Design Portfolio Book etc. ;
  1. ONLY Consulting firms will be considered for this Expression of Interest NOT individual ;
  1. The consultancy firm should be based in South Africa and preferably have a proven track record with references working with donors/multinational companies across Africa. Having a presence in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria & Egypt is an added value ;
  1. The shortlisting and selection procedure shall be in accordance with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants ;
  1. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any consulting firm who expresses interest ;
  1. 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 ;
  1. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by e-mail to the address mentioned below no later than September 30th, 2020 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning “Expression of interest for innovation call for Covid-19 in South Africa”.

For the attention of :

Ms. Aida Mademe Sylla

E-mail: [email protected]

Copy to :

Ms. Ndeye Absa Gningue

E-mail : [email protected]

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GROUP

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Recruitment of an Enterprise Support Organization (ESO) for innovation call for

Covid-19 in South Africa

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department – September 2020

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Recruitment of an Enterprise Support Organization for innovation call for Covid-19 in South Africa.

  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) Strategy 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 Entrepreneurship 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 ;
  • 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 ;
  • Creating a network of ESOs & entrepreneurs across Africa to promote learning and exchange, business and market linkages, and investments.
  1. Scope of Work :

Broadly the assignment will include the following activities (but not limited to) :

  • Entrepreneurship trends / market assessment (Deep dive) in South Africa. It will include (but not limited to) ;
  • Mapping the entrepreneurship ecosystems in South Africa to show the nature and structure of the entrepreneurship and startup market in South Africa. This will include identifying trends, sectors of focus, technologies, and practices favored, a SWOT analysis with recommendations ;
  • Analysis of the national ambition and economic-growth scenarios ;
  • Make some recommendations for Organizations, Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Government to improve business environment ;
  • Identify and select South African ventures from #AfricaVsVirus Challenge at Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (The Lab) and/or from other ideathons, hackathons, or from others initiatives in South Africa ;
  • Identification of all recent initiatives and full projects descriptions/details for South Africa ;
  • Selection of more appropriate projects for receiving Business Development Services (BDS) and for assistance in hardware prototyping of their projects ;
  • Provide Business Development Services for the selected startups (target to around 1000 Startups/entrepreneurs) ;
  • 50 ESOs across South Africa have to be trained ;
  • Depending of research & feedback obtained, identify priority sectors / industries to be targeted (for example: Agriculture, Fintech, Services, Healthcare, Education, etc.) ;
  • Produce a research report ;
  • 05 Webinars or meet-up to be organized ;
  • Produce an end of project assessment report with recommendations ;
  • 1 Virtual networking event organized ;
  • Provide Business Development Services (BDS) including hardware prototyping (05 ideas to be prototyped) for ventures in South Africa related to the current pandemic Covid-19 ;
  • Assist Startups (up to 1000 startups/entrepreneurs) and ESOs (50 ESOs) in South Africa ;
  • 05 ideas to be prototyped ;
  • Prototyping step broadly include (could be updated/reviewed depending on the project/idea or the methodology used) : 
  1. Phase1 : Determine what Idea to prototype (Create a concept sketch) and Develop a virtual prototype (make both 2-D and 3-D renderings) ;
  2. Phase2 : Build a physical prototype, Get feedback, iterate & repeat -and – Apply for a patent, Locate a manufacturer ;
  3. Identify potential partners and establish the link/contact between the interested partners and the project in South Africa.

To achieve the above scope of services, the below mentioned tasks/outputs, but not limited to, needs to be undertaken:

  1. Eligibility Criteria :

The JfYA Team invites firms having expertise in research, business development services, support in prototyping ideas, satisfying the following said conditions :

  • Firm should have minimum experience of 5 years in the field of Business Development Services ;
  • Firm should have experience in prototyping ideas for entrepreneurs ;
  • Firm should have permanent staff in the described services and be based in South Africa, and preferably have operational experience in other parts of Africa ;
  • Firm should have proven record of experience with Multinationals and International Donors.
  1. Engagement Period :

The period of contract shall be from 6 months, starting 15th of October 2020.

  1. Deliverables / Outputs :

The Firm shall provide outputs referred to in proposed scope of work :

  • Workplan for 06 months on activities related to the current project ;
  • Entrepreneurship trends / market assessment (Deep dive) in South Africa ;
  • Laying down a full identification of all recent initiatives for these last 10 years (or beyond if necessary) and full projects descriptions/details for South Africa from other ideathons, hackathons, or from other initiatives in South Africa (including #AfricaVSVirus) ;
  • Provide Business Development Services for selected projects (Up to 1000 startups/entrepreneurs and 50 ESOs in South Africa) ;
  • Prototype of ideas (05 ideas to be prototyped) ;
  • Press Release (03 Press releases) ;
  • 05 webinars or meet-up ;
  • 01 Virtual networking event.
  1. Remuneration :

The consulting firm will be paid in accordance with the established rules and procedures of the Bank’s procurement model.