BACKGROUND:

BRIDGES is a job creation programme funded by the MasterCard Foundation and implemented by First Consult PLC and DAI Europe. It envisages supporting the creation of close to 600,000 jobs for the youth (80% women) and 15,000 MSMEs, with 300,000 unemployed youth trained through supporting the Industrial Park job creation initiative and market linkage between Industrial Parks, MSMES (micro small and medium enterprises) and other large enterprises domestically.

To this end the BRIDGES Programme is interested in exploring ways to intervene and work in the construction sector to create a sustainable linkage between large construction companies and MSMEs engaged in the sector and to improve the employment modalities in the sector.

The main Objectives of this assignment are:

• To develop intervention activities/concepts that respond to the identified constraints (of the subtopics below) as well as create new and better job opportunities in the process.
  • To assess current MSMEs engaged in the production of hollow blocks and identifying their constraints and opportunities to grow their business and quality.
  • To assess and identify underlining constraints in the current employment sourcing and capacity of construction workers: Daily, semi-skill and professional workers to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the sector.
  • To assess the health and safety requirements in the sector and opportunities to expand the service  

SCOPE OF WORK (SOW):

BRIDGES is looking for consultants with the qualification to undertake the following specific tasks and activities:

SOW 1. By assessing at least 10 – 15 hollow block manufacturing MSMEs and five grade one contactors identify constraints and opportunities to grow the MSMEs business and quality. 

• Number of workers per enterprise
• Current capacity utilization
• Current access to finance, capital amount
  • Are they a recipient of a loan? Describe nature of the loan  
  • Assess if all MSMEs members have financial accounts
  • Source of inputs/raw material
• Mode of production and marketing/sales
• Standard of the hollow block they currently produce
• How can the quality of the blocks be improved? What is needed to improve the quality?  lack of skills, lack of proper machinery?
• How much is wasted while production, handling, loading unloading and transportation? What is recommended to minimize wastage and offer value?
• Have the SMEs members received any training? If yes, what kind?
• By assessing with the grade one contractors
  • Identify what type of quality and standard hollow blocks they demand
  • What problems they are facing with the current hollow blocks being produced by the MSMEs
  • How do they solve the problems? They self-produce or source from elsewhere?
  • What is the market interest if there is an improved hollow-block in the market? Would they pay higher price?
• Identify opportunities to grow this specific activity that can lead for MSMEs to either grow number of people they hire or the value of their products
• Identified opportunities should Highlight how many new jobs they can create or the amount of value addition on the product. 

SOW 2. By assessing at least five grade one contactors assess current practices on implementation of Health and Safety regulations and identify opportunities to implement a better health and safety system to increase effectiveness and efficiency of construction workers and create additional or better job opportunity.

• Assess if all the worker types have received health and safety trainings? And what the training content and frequency was
• Assess if the construction sites are equipped with Health and Safety signs and equipment’s
• Assess if there are health and safety officers and how many are on one site
• Assess how much construction input material (blocks, tiles) on average are being damaged and unused due to improper handling
• Assess if any construction material handling trainings have been availed by the contractors
• Assess the level of satisfaction from the trainings by the workers and Practically of the trainings on their daily work 

SOW 3.  By assessing at least five grade one contactors and its workers identify any limitation of the current employment sourcing mechanism by contractors and assess the market of any organization engaged in sourcing, grading and training of construction workers.

• Assess how many Workers per enterprise
  • Daily workers- Disaggregated by project lifecycle
  • Semi-Skilled workers - Disaggregated by project lifecycle
  • Professional workers
• Assess the current sourcing modalities of contractors for daily workers, semi-skilled workers and Professional workers
• Assess how the daily and semi-skilled workers look for jobs, and describe its drawbacks for the workers
• Assess if there is any organization with a construction worker’s database that source, grade, train and avail workers to construction companies? If yes provide the company profile.

SOW 4. Assess at least five grade one contactors on their experience and willingness of the companies to avail apprenticeship programs to new graduates by availing on the job trainings and other supports. 

• Assess the level of satisfaction from the trainings by the workers and Practically of the trainings on their daily work

SOW 5. Assess at least five grade one contactors and its workers on the types of trainings on the workers and willingness to avail their employees for new trainings.

• Assess what type of trainings the contractors’ avail to the daily, semi-skilled and professional workers? And what the training content and frequency was
• Assess the level of satisfaction from the trainings by the workers and Practically of the trainings on their daily work

APPROCH AND METHODOLOGY:

• Identify MSMEs engaged in Hollow block production, conduct interviews and survey to gather desired data 
• Identify grade one contractors, conduct interviews and survey to gather desired data 
• Identify Financial Institutions and assess products they offer to MSMEs engaged in the construction sector
• Develop specific intervention based on the assessment results. The intervention proposed should have
  • Detailed activities: `How, where, who, when….
  • Budget
  • list of potential partners to work with.
  • Number of potential new jobs to be created or Value to be added. 

DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME:

Deliverables

1. Inception report due at the end of the first week. The inception report should include:
   • Methodology
   • Work plan: detailed timeline of activities and meetings
   • Outline of the table of content for operational manual
   • Deliverables
2. Detailed report on SOW 1,2,3,4 and 5 with interview reports and minutes with the target group
3. With inputs from the detailed report develop at least one intervention idea for each of the below concepts:
   • To increase competitiveness of MSMEs producing hollow blocks by providing concepts on how to solve the constrains they are facing to upgrade their quality and how it would translate into new job creation or better job opportunity
   • To improve the identified employment recruitment drawbacks of construction workers and how it could translate into new job creation or better job opportunity
   • To increase the capacity of construction workers by availing adequate Health and safety, Material handling and soft skills trainings that will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of workers and how it translates into new job creation or better job opportunity
   • To expand the practice of large companies engaging in apprenticeships and on the job training for new graduates and how it translates into new job creation or better job opportunity 

Timeframe

• The assignment is expected take a total of 40 days. 

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS:

•  The Consultants will work closely with the Enterprise Competitiveness Bridge Team of the BRIDGES programme and will report to the Enterprise Competitiveness Bridge team. 

EXPERTISE REQUIRED:

• Experience and working in the construction sector
• Extensive network in the construction sector with both grade one contactors as well as main product and service suppliers in the sector
• Extensive knowledge in how the construction project cycle runs from procurement/bid stage to completing projects
• Understanding of the MSME sector;
  • Experience and familiarity with challenges facing MSME’s growth potential
  • Experience in MSME support design and provision
• Excellent analytical, technical and conceptual knowledge about management and grasp of business management principles and practices;
• Ability to provide the required services will be assessed through submission of:
  • Personal CV, with relevance to required work.
  • References on previous similar assignments.