Business Development Services (BDS) and Entrepreneurship Training consultants

Background

With the support of the European Union, Oxfam and MADA are implementing a two-year project entitled “YOUTH CAN: promoting youth economic empowerment in Lebanon”. The project aims to contribute to foster economically, personally and socially active and resilient youth to increase education, entrepreneurship, technical and vocational education and Training, empowerment, participation, and civic engagement of this cross-cohort” in line with the goals of the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (2019) of youth affected by the economic Crisis and with the priorities of the National Economic Plan to leverage relationships with the National Youth Policy (2012) to increase the opportunities for youth to have an economic active participation and improve the career orientation for graduates

Mada Association, in collaboration with Oxfam GB, will support youth entrepreneurs having already established their businesses, but having them at risk due to the Lebanese economic crisis along with the Covid-19 pandemic. The support will be through delivering a capacity building programme, individual coaching and mentorship, in addition to having access to sub grants in order to achieve the following objectives:

1. Strengthening the sustainability and competitiveness of youth-led enterprises with high potential for inclusive job creation, and social innovation in Northern Lebanon.
2. Promoting youth participation in the labour market through active engagement of Policy makers and key private and public stakeholders at local and national levels

Scope of work

Under the Action, Mada Association, in collaboration with Oxfam GB will conduct an outreach using social media platforms and traditional outreach campaigns through municipalities and local authorities to identify 50 potential enterprises for support led by Youths and located in Akkar and North Lebanon. The outreach will prioritize, but will not be limited to three main sectors, Agricultural production, Agro food, and eco-tourism. These sectors have been prioritized due to an in depth market assessment conducted early 2020 after the evolution of the Economic crisis. Other sectors might be also selected based on the level of competitiveness in the business idea in addition to the scoring obtained during the application process.

Established and nascent MSEs will be supported to become more viable and sustainable through the provision of business development services (BDS) through the provision of a capacity building programme and business coaching that addresses the main obstacles to their business acceleration, growth and sustainability in addition to a big focus on job creation. BDS could aim to focus on entrepreneurial skills, improve the management structure, internal systems, cost effectiveness, market access and marketing tools, quality of products or services of target enterprises, etc…

Business Development Services trainings will be provided by experts, having a similar previous experience mainly in entrepreneurship support to be able to develop a tailored capacity building scheme optimized depending on the identified needs of the selected entrepreneurs in line with the current economic crisis and with the context of the selected geographical area.   

Geographic focus

Based on the project target areas, the geographic focus of the project will comprise enterprises in Akkar and North. Governorates, including Tripoli and T5. Service providers and/or coaches must be able to travel frequently, several times per week to target areas to work with target enterprises on-site.

Targeted Group

The Action targets 50 registered and/or MSEs that have the willingness to register along sectors with a potential for growth and job creation that have been pre-identified. The business should be owned and established by a male or a female Youth aging between 18 and 35 years old. The business idea should be competitive having the capacity to generate decent jobs with relevance to the market needs. 

Priority will be given to enterprises with economic viability and sustainability potential, growth and job creation potential as well as a positive social impact. To assess this, the Consortium collects information, through an enterprise profiling tool, on the economic viability and sustainability of enterprises, the growth and job creation potential, and social impact of businesses. This is assessed through an assessment of the expertise of the business owner, the economic sector chain (with preference for the sectors that are most successful in the area and those with a potential to grow), and the involvement of the enterprise with women, youth, and the wider community, among other factors.

Implementation methodology

Mada is seeking local consultants to provide Business Development Services Trainings (BDS) for the targeted group mentioned above. The consultants are needed to support the intervention by providing business continuity and business resilience trainings, coaching and mentorship and respond to a range of business development needs for Youth entrepreneurs contributing to their businesses development, sustainability and creation of decent jobs.  

The growth and scale-up of MSEs will be supported through a demand-driven and needs-based approach to identify specific barriers and address them. Mada will draw a diagnostic of all selected enterprises through individual interviews, to assess main issues and point out required expert advice. Service providers and coaches will be asked to collaborate on the selection of areas of focus in terms of training topics and outlines. Coaches will be hired according to enterprise’s needs; they will deliver a capacity building program for 50 youths and coaching sessions on a one-on-one basis or – if the same need is common to multiple enterprises - in groups for a total number of 10 enterprises. Mada will closely follow up with the consultants, evaluate, and keep track of consultants’ performance.

Following the selection of enterprises, the project envisions coaching support that is tailored for the needs of each enterprise. This can be done over a series of visits, including an assessment meeting which is preferably conducted on-site at the enterprise premises. The exact support activities to be provided will be clarified following an assessment.

This assessment will form the basis of a business development plan which includes an assessment of the current situation of the enterprise, its business development goals, and its business development roadmap.

Mada anticipates an average of 30 BDS group sessions in addition to 30 coaching sessions to be provided among 10 enterprises. The business development plan will detail the support services which will be offered by the service provider/consultant after discussions with Mada. Needs are expected to vary for enterprises in different sectors, locations, and of different sizes. As a final step, service providers will work collaboratively with each enterprise to update existing business plans or produce a business plan, as needed by each enterprise.

Main responsibilities

• Assessment meetings with selected enterprises;
• Provision of 30 Business Development Services sessions for a group of 50 Youth, with an average of 3 hours per session. Trainings will be divided among three groups of 17 entrepreneurs each in three different locations.
• Develop a clear outline and training agenda based on the needs and capacity assessment conducted with the selected entrepreneurs.
• Provision for Mada for the full training Curriculum before the start of delivering the program
  Business development plan for each enterprise, detailing assessment findings, identified business development goals, the content to be covered during coaching sessions, as well as the delivery timeline;
• Development of progress monitoring forms and tools i.e. pre and post-test;
• Delivery of coaching sessions;
• Provision of material and/or tools needed for the delivery of coaching sessions;
• Final evaluation report detailing the progress of the enterprises and outlining steps for future improvement (this document could include an updated business plan if this is an identified need).
• Delivering in person training sessions with all precautions taken due to covid-19, and/or online sessions depending on the situation, with a possibility to provide trainings in different locations located in North Lebanon
• Provide direct visits to the 10 selected businesses for the provision of coaching sessions.

Timeframe

Support to micro and small enterprises led by Youth entrepreneurs is expected to start by end of November 2020 and to last for six consecutive months.

Required expertise

• Demonstrated experience in providing business development support to enterprises mainly entrepreneurs;
• Demonstrated experience in providing business training to enterprises on specific related topics which might include (Business Planning and Contingency Planning, Digital Marketing (such as the use of social media) and Branding, improving finances and cost effectiveness, business management and Managing People and Performance (HR), Improving productivity, Decent Work, relations with costumers, etc…)
• Proven ability to carry out wide-ranging operations;
• Proven facilitation and coaching skills;
• Experience in working with enterprises in similar contexts in Akkar and North Lebanon.