Tender 166 - Intaj 2.0: Business Coaching Program - Sme Support

Tender Notice

Background:

Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. The agency pursues its mission through emergency relief services, sustainable community development, civil society and economic development initiatives. Mercy Corps has been present in the Middle East since the 1980s and currently has offices in Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya. Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps has implemented community development programs focused on promoting economic development and increased opportunity for disadvantaged communities, while responding to emergencies as they emerged in the country. In 2012, the program portfolio shifted in response to the massive refugee influx from Syria and Mercy Corps in Lebanon has solidified its emergency response programming while integrating longer-term development programming by focusing on key sectors: Protection, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Governance and Conflict, and Livelihoods.

Purpose / Project Description:

With funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, Mercy Corps has initiated INTAJ (Improved Networks, Training and Jobs), a program to support vulnerable communities in the Beqaa and the North governorates in addressing their economic needs.

Mercy Corps has identified crosscutting constraints to jobs growth in Lebanon that affect market actors at the individual, business and market levels of economic production. In order to stimulate sustainable jobs growth, INTAJ has addressed these constraints through a series of activities during a 6-month pilot phase to identify successful intervention strategies that are potentially scalable and transferrable. Based on lessons learned, successes and failures, INTAJ is scaling up the series of activities into a 2 years program.

INTAJ business support program aims to provide business coaching and financing to up to 120 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) looking to grow their business. The program provides 1-on-1 support over 3-6 months in business planning and management to help business owners (or managers) better define the challenges and opportunities facing their business and build a concrete growth plan. The program aims to build the capacity of SME beneficiaries to apply for financing from INTAJ program or other sources.

Mercy Corps is looking for experts in business coaching to provide capacity building support to small business owners and managers in the North and Bekaa regions. The business coach will regularly meet with INTAJ SME beneficiaries over a period of 3 to 6 months to help them better understand the challenges and opportunities facing their business and build a concrete improvement and growth plan. Business coaching will cover the following areas:

- Strategic business planning

- Financial management

- Sale and marketing

- Organizational development (systems, processes, IT, HR, reporting)

- Operational and logistics planning

- Market research and analysis

Coaching Objectives:

The objective of the coaching program is to support INTAJ team in building the capacity of selected SME beneficiaries in planning, management, and organizational development. The business coach will work closely with selected SME owners/managers to coach them on developing their business plans and defining implementation action plans. The coach will also be responsible to support the implementation of suggested plans.

The duration of the coaching program will vary based on the number of SMEs allocated to the business coach and scope of work for each, and will be discussed and coordinated with the program team

Interested parties may participate in the tender by sending an email to [email protected] (cc:[email protected]) requesting the tender documents in soft copy, between May 26, 2016 and Jun 15, 2016 at 04:00PM.

A Questions and Answers session will be held on Thursday Jun 16, 2016 at 11:00 am

Bids must be submitted back in sealed envelopes to Mercy Corps Beirut office on June 27, 2016 at 04:00 PM to Mercy Corps Beirut office (3rd Floor, Bee Center, Alfred Naccache Street, Achrafieh Lebanon).

All sealed bids should be labeled Tender 166 INTAJ 2.0 – Business Coaching Program – SME Support

Only tenders submitted in prescribed form and deadlines will be considered