Expression d’intérêt pour un évaluateur indépendant pour l’évaluation du projet Lab

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GROUP

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Recruitment of an independent evaluator for the evaluation of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Lab project

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department – November 2020

TERMS OF REFERENCE

EVALUATION OF THE INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB (The Lab)

PROJECT

The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) seeks to recruit an independent evaluator to conduct an evaluation of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab implementation for the period 2019- 2020.

1. Background information :

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 adopted the Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) strategy for the period of 2016 – 2025. The strategy responds to 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: Integration, Innovation and Investment. Under the integration pillar, the Bank will amplify its impact on employment by focusing on youth employment in 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. The three sectors identified for these interventions are agriculture, industrialization and Technology. 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 launched the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab (The Lab).

2. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Lab :

The Lab is an innovative program, designed and implemented by the Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development (AHHD) department. It is a strategic pillar of the Jobs for Youth in Africa strategy and the Boost Africa Program (PIFD). The Lab’s aim is to support innovative young entrepreneurs with financing, technical assistance and broader ecosystem support. These industries use african culture, creativity and innovative thinking as their unique selling point, both within and outside the continent, and are particularly attractive to a large number of young people – skilled and unskilled.

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.

The Lab was initially funded by the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) which is a multi-donor trust fund that provides the grants for technical assistance activities to public and private sector entities domiciled in Africa. FAPA resources are utilized to promote innovative programs that specifically support the development of MSMEs in Africa and are also one of the components of the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) initiative hosted at the Bank.

The Lab’s vision is to :

1. Nurture a new generation of African innovators who launch the continent into an era of accelerated prosperity ;
2. Leverage key relationships to foster a climate in which African entrepreneurs become engines of the economic growth and the job creation ;
3. Empower young African entrepreneurs, and women in particular, to secure levels of funding similar to their peers in the industrialized world.

The Lab supports the youth employment and entrepreneurship ecosystem by :

• Strengthening the capacity and the market reach of women entrepreneurs and innovators ;
• Supporting innovative young entrepreneurs and youth-owned startups with a potential for high social and economic impact ;
• Improving access to finance for entrepreneurs and startups operated by young people ;
• Assessing best practices and incubating and piloting promising new ideas ;
• Eliminating information asymmetries facing entrepreneurs and investors alike ;
• Providing knowledge resources to mitigate the constraints and challenges entrepreneurs face in Africa and allow them to successfully launch and grow their businesses.

3. Goals and objectives of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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 provides 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 works to achieve its goals by :

• Increasing the capacity of “Enterprise Support 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.

4. Innovation & Entrepreneurship Lab pillars :

The Lab builds evidence on existing interventions related to youth employment and entrepreneurship and incubates new ideas that aim to accelerate employment and entrepreneurship through five pillars :

Market analysis & networking pillar :

This aims to :

• Facilitate access to peer learning, mentorships, and best practice sharing ;
• Map of ESOs across Africa ;
• Identify future Jobs / Industries relevant to African Youth ;
• Create connection across entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders including ESOs, entrepreneurs, and government bodies.

Capacity building pillar :

This aims to :

• Strengthen capacity for incubators and accelerators and various types of startup funding initiatives ;
• Organize workshops and provide toolkits for incubators, accelerators, fund managers, angel networks and Startups.

Knowledge & exchange platform pillar :

This aims to :

• Build partnership with global and local organizations, youth groups, and angel networks to support the entrepreneurship ecosystem ;
• Create a virtual platform/one-stop-shop for resources developed by the Bank around entrepreneurship & innovation.

Financial support to startups pillar :

This aims to :

• Support alternative financing mechanisms for very early stage startups ;
• Assist small ticket sizes for “high level” startups ;
• Assist with early stage fund startup.

Innovation & Incubation pillar :

This aims to :

• Support entrepreneurs working at the cutting edge of the 4^th Industrial Revolution – Internet of Thing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Robotics etc. ;
• Assess and support hardware entrepreneurs that underpin industrialization and manufacturing ;
• Prototype ideas across the continent / success stories across Africa.

5. Scope of work :

The evaluation is supposed to assess progress of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Lab against objectives.

The evaluation will have the following principle tasks :

1. Assess the relevance, coherence and effectiveness of the Lab design, its components and scope of interventions vis-a-vis it’s contribution and alignment to the Jobs for Youth in Africa strategy ;
2. Assess the cost-efficiency of interventions, including the adequacy of human resource to support the Lab and the efficiency of implementing roles of senior management ;
3. Assess the implementation progress of the Lab in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and timeliness of producing the expected outputs and outcomes drawing from among others the observations of implementing partners, oversight committee (donors), senior management -Vice-Presidency for Agriculture, Human and Social Development (AHVP), Human Capital and Skills Development Department (AHHD), JfYA staff and staff from different Bank units involved in implementation, and stakeholders in the Regional Member Countries ;
4. Assess the quality and timeliness of inputs, the reporting and monitoring system and extent to which these have been effective ;
5. Assess the achievements of all Lab interventions ;
6. Assess the relevance of the Lab’s management arrangements and the operating environment; identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, bottlenecks and lessons learnt ;
7. Analyse any constraints, risks encountered and underlying factors beyond the Bank’s control including COVID-19 impact that affect the achievement of the Lab’s results. Identify the actions needed to overcome the challenges during the second half of implementation ;
8. Provide recommendations aimed at improving the operations and performance for the Lab.

6. Evaluation Design and Methodology :

The Independent evaluator will be responsible for proposing the approach and methodology to be applied. However, a systematic consultative and analytical work approach is strongly suggested, which should include an in-depth analysis of the existing documentation; validation of information from various reports with direct contacts (interviews) with key beneficiaries and stakeholders and incorporation of their feedback into the final report.

The following approach could be used (but not limited to) :

• In-depth desk study reviews and analysis of all relevant material and resources ;
• Questionnaires addressed to stakeholders ;
• Semi-structured interviews, discussions with focus groups and meetings (in person or remote) with partners, respective Bank’s Country field offices and donor representatives ;
• Meeting with partners, beneficiaries and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project ;
• Participatory workshops with the Lab team to steer the review and discuss findings and recommendations ;
• Facilitated meeting with the AfDB, AHHD, JfYA, IEL staff and consultant, and stakeholders to reflect on project implementation, challenges and successes.

7. Deliverables and Timelines :

The assignment will last a maximum of 40 days. See below the list of deliverables and timelines.

The final Report should be in English and should not exceed 30 pages in total (excluding the annexes).

The report should :

• Contain an executive summary (mandatory) ;
• Be analytical in nature (both quantitative and qualitative) ;
• Be structured around issues and related findings/lessons learnt ;
• Include conclusions ;
• Include recommendations.

8. Qualifications and Experience :

The independent evaluator will be responsible for ensuring a successful completion of this assignment including communication and reporting, and should have the following qualifications and competencies :

• At least  a  master’s  degree  or  equivalent  in  Economics,  Statistics,  Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation or relevant social sciences ;
• Preferably a minimum of 10 years of demonstrated professional experience in strategic consultancy conducting similar assignment in Africa ;
• Knowledge of the practices of major bilateral and multilateral partner development agencies in African countries is an added advantage ;
• Demonstrated understanding and experience of regional youth employment issues, analysis and policy formulation ;
• Demonstrated knowledge and expertise of private sector development, programs on youth entrepreneurship and job creation ;
• Communicate and write effectively in English, with a good working knowledge of French ;
• Be a national of one of the member countries of the Bank.

9. Administrative reporting :

The independent evaluator will be under the general supervision of the Coordinator of the Bank Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy in the Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department. She/he will be directly supervised by the Jobs Team Task Manager responsible for the execution of the assignment and will work and consult closely with the entire team and other relevant Bank staff in other departments, regions and country offices.

10. Location :

The independent evaluator will carry out the assignment primarily from the Bank’s HQ in Abidjan. However, the nature and scope of the assignment require engagement of staff and stakeholders in the Regional Member Countries (RMCs). If needed, the independent evaluator will therefore, undertake some field visits in the selected RMCs.

11. Selection :

• The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any individual who expresses interest ;
• Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by e-mail to all the addresses mentioned below no later than November 23rd, 2020 at 23:59 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning “Expression of interest for an independent evaluator for the evaluation of the Lab project”;
• The total size of the email file transmitted must not be larger than 5 MB, and all documents must be transmitted in ONE FILE ONLY. PDF format is preferred. Files containing malware will be deleted and the application rejected.

For the attention of :

Ms. Aida Mademe Sylla

Email : [email protected]

Copy to :

Ms. Ndeye Absa Gningue

E-mail : [email protected]