Consultancy for Business Acceleration for Youth Project
  • Consultancy
  • Malawi
  • Applications have closed

Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

Terms of Reference

CONSULTANCY FOR BUSINESS ACCELERATION FOR YOUTH PROJECT 

Assignment Summary

Business Acceleration for Youth (BA4Y) is a four-year (2021- 2025) innovative project funded by USAID Malawi, and implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC). Framed around a resilience-led sustainable strategy, the project aims to leverage the power of the private sector to reduce the need for long-term humanitarian assistance. Its objective is to accelerate and invest in youth owned or women-led enterprises. The project has developed a sector agnostic investable pipeline of businesses, by de-risking and mobilizing capital and establishing an inclusive and diversified private sector ecosystem.

Location of the assignment:

The consultant(s) will be expected to deliver services to SME clients across Malawi.

Anticipated start date:
1st February 2025

Duration of contract:
Six months.

Purpose and Objectives

Purpose

The purpose of coaching and business development, provided by contracted service providers, is to help SMEs achieve registered revenue growth and become “fit for finance.” This support aims to address business gaps, leading to measurable outcomes such as job creation, increased revenue, and cost reductions through streamlined operations after completing the acceleration program.

Objectives

Specifically, the objectives of the assignment are to:

  • Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of SME operations
  • Prepare SMEs to be investment ready
  • Facilitate peer to peer learning throughout the engagement
  • Support SMEs in achieving growth through financing mechanisms.
  • Support businesses to diversify their offering and build resilience
  • Support post grant/co-finance award activities

Description of the Assignment

The project assignment is designed to build the capacity of selected Small and Medium Enterprises through one-on-one coaching, targeted consulting interventions, facilitating business linkages and access to services including finance.

Consulting Services can include but are not limited to the following;

  1. Certification support (excluding basic standard formal business registration)
  2. Training for staff to support strategic direction
  3. Training of the leadership team
  4. Streamlining of the business processes
  5. Business and Financial modelling
  6. Marketing campaigns
  7. Value chain review and adaptation
  8. Updating of strategic business plan
  9. Any other related pre-financing activities

Scope of work

Detailed tasks

The tasks that each BDS provider shall deliver include to:

  • Conduct SME needs assessment and development of work plans
  • Support project led selection activities where required
  • Assessment and recommendation of SMEs for finance facility pitching
  • Provide regular progress reports in liaison with the project MELS officer, BIAO and Grants Analyst
  • Engage relevant stakeholders as and when needed
  • Provide consulting services to SMEs based on gap(s) identified jointly by the project team,SME and BDS provider
  • Support SMEs to develop a clearly documented business plan
  • Conduct select master class sessions for the SMEs, where needed, to complement consulting interventions
  • Provide business coaching for the entrepreneurs who have successfully progressed to receiving matching grants/co-finance;
  • Provide guidance to SMEs that are strategically placed to diversify their revenue streams
  • Provide assistance to interested entrepreneurs in accessing finance and other services from relevant institutions either locally or regionally
  • Provide a point of contact and linkage between supported firms, investors and the project team.
  • The level of support will depend upon the overall success of the acceleration services offered and the performance of the supported SME.

First Level:

Enrolled SMEs will receive bespoke business development services built around a business needs assessment conducted prior to entry into the acceleration process. This will cover aspects such as business plan refinement, accounting systems, business leadership coaching and advanced market research and planning.

Milestone and Percentage Contract Value Means of Verification
Milestone 1: Contract Signature (10%)
  • Submission of full signed contract
Milestone 2: Completion of business needs assessment and delivery of work plan (40%)
  • Completed detailed business needs assessment of firm selected for acceleration
  • Submission of and acceptance by BA of detailed business action plan intended to address needs identified through application of business needs assessment tool.

Milestone 3. Completion of delivery of business acceleration services (50%).
  • Submission and acceptance of report detailing services provided based on agreed deliverables contained within the business action plan including remote support sessions business linkage and access to external finance
  • Detailed meeting notes from sessions held with supported firms
  • Satisfaction surveys completed by supported businesses and analyzed by the Activity staff.
  • Verification of deliverables by supported business.

Second Level:

Eligible SMEs after completion of BDS acceleration services are able secure co-financing in the form of a grant provided by the project and an external finance partner(s). BDS providers will continue to provide coaching and mentorship to firms on behalf of the project and its co- financing partner(s).

Milestone and Percentage Contract Value Means of Verification
Milestone 1. Contract signature (10%)
  • Submission of full signed contract.

Milestone 2. Remote support, business linkages and access to finance (20%)
  • Completed detailed finance needs assessment of firm selected for co-finance
  • Submission of and acceptance of detailed business action support plan intended to assist the supported firm manage grant and co-financing received.

Milestone 3. Support SMEs achieve prescribed milestones in finance agreements (40%)
  • Submission of write-ups from remote sessions held with firms;
  • Submission of supporting documents related to grant/co-financing activities;
  • Periodic random review of remote support sessions by Activity staff to ensure quality of services being delivered;
  • Satisfaction surveys completed by supported SMEs and analyzed by the Activity staff.

Milestone 4. Delivery of Final Report (30%)
  • Submission of final activity report;
  • Submission of copies of finance reports in relation to finance plans;
  • Satisfaction surveys completed by SMEs and co-financing partners.

Technical Proposal and Supporting Documents

The offerers are requested to submit a technical proposal (maximum 10-page length, Times New Roman font size 12) excluding Annexes that identifies and outlines the coaching process, list of interventions and process flow of the consultancy services that they currently provide. The proposal should also outline the process for the 2nd level of remote support to support grant/co-finance management.

As part of the submission process, offerers are required to submit the following supporting documents as part of their technical proposal:

  1. The CV of their proposed ‘Activity Manager,’ who will be responsible for supervising the execution of activities under this contract and will be the main point of contact between ABC and the contractor.
  2. The CVs for consultants likely to be responsible for the delivery of acceleration services to selected M/SMEs.
  3. Proposed assignment workplan including description of how services will be delivered
  4. Offerers are requested to submit evidence of previous work in similar interventions
  5. Offerers will also be required to submit a company profile, business registration certificate, tax registration certificate and tax clearance certificate.

Financial Proposal

Based upon the above information, Offerers are requested to provide a detailed cost proposal per SME in two separate parts for the delivery of services. Firstly, for the one-on-one coaching, targeted consultancy interventions and access to finance linkages. The second to cover remote coaching to support grant/co- finance.

Submission

Applications should be submitted electronically by close of business Thursday 12th December 2024 (11.59pm local time Malawi) to the following email address businessacceleration4youth@outlook.com with O.chingakule@cgiar.org in copy. Please indicate in the subject ‘Response to BA4Y Acceleration ToR Request.’