Request for a Consultant to provide business mentorship and coaching for women owned enterprises in Addis Ababa

Section 1: Background

CARE is a global leader within a worldwide movement dedicated to ending poverty. We are known everywhere for our unshakeable commitment to the dignity of people. CARE works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. We seek a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security. We put women and girls in the center because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. This Core Values Commitment describes who we are, what we do, and how we do it. It reflects our Core Values of TRANSFORMATION, INTEGRITY, DIVERSITY, EXCELLENCE, and EQUALITY, which serve as a foundation for all that we do.

Section 2: Project overview

 Advancing Women Enterprises is a 3-year project designed to enhance 3,000 existing early-stage, women-led micro, and small enterprises in the formal and informal sectors in five sub-cities and 16 woredas of Addis Ababa city administration through financial and non-financial services, entrepreneurship, and business skills development, and enabling social and regulatory environment needed to overcome barriers and achieve their business goals. The project targets young women between the age of 18-35 who engaged in both the formal and informal sectors, plus a series of strategic partners.

Section 3: Objective of the consultancy        

The project is looking for an experienced consultant to provide business mentorship and coaching to 300 Women Owned/Led Businesses and Enterprises to improve their performance, to develop their leadership qualities, to realize their vision/goal and transitioning to next growth stage. The 300 women owned/led enterprises will be identified by the project from the 3,000 project beneficiaries located in the five sub-cities. The consultant will provide technical and practical support to strengthen their capacities and provide tailor made support to women owned enterprises to increase their capacity to deal with business and financial management issues, marketing and networking, risk management and goal setting and general planning. In addition, the consultant will work to motivate and inspire mentees, to build their confidence and provide opportunities to discuss work-related issues and generate possible solutions.

Section 4: Scope of work

The proposed work is to develop and implement a customized and fit for purpose six (6) month coaching and mentorship service for identified 300 women owned/led enterprises located in five sub-cities of Addis Ababa. The mentorship is an important part of the Advancing Women Enterprises Project with the intention to effectively support women owned businesses. It will empower the targeted women at different stages of the enterprise development lifecycle with capacity building and training, individual and group business coaching, mentorship, compliance to laws, technical hand-on support to solve issues/challenges.

The specific activities that comprise the focus of the work includes but not limited to the following

• To develop and/or adapt proven and evidenced based mentoring and coaching methodology for young women owned enterprises and business
• To develop model for effective mentoring and coaching for tangible business impact for women owned businesses
• To develop a capacity development plan to be implemented over a 6-month period.
• Organize orientation and briefing session to understand and map needs
• To conduct a capacity assessment to determine the right type of support 
• To deliver the identified mentoring and coaching support to 300 beneficiaries
• To develop a mentoring and coaching framework to assess and track progress
• To provide technical and practical facilitation support that responds to ‘bottlenecks/ challenges’ confronted by women owned businesses
• To produce evidence demonstrating positive impact and practical change in knowledge, improved practice and performance by women owned enterprises
• As feasible, to facilitate periodic knowledge building/ learning session through webinars, creating digital community, etc
• To generate an end of service report based on the outcomes of the achievements of the mentoring and coaching service, challenges, what is working and not working, and lessons and good practices

Section 5: Expected deliverables

The service provides is expected to deliver the following products:

CARE and the service provider will collaborate to enable the targets under the AWE Project to gain access to markets and digital financial technology services through the service provider platforms.

• Submit an inception report providing a detailed outline of the proposed design, approach, methodology and timeframes
• Produce assessment reports of mentees and 6-month implementation plan
• Develop a monitoring and evaluation framework on how she/he is going to assess progress and change
• Produce monthly progress updates
• Produce final progress report including the outcomes of the achievements of the mentoring and coaching service, Leeson Learnt and recommendations

 Section 6: Timeframe

The time frame for this assignment is for six months from Feb 1,2022 to July 31, 2021

Section 7: Roles and responsibilities of the project

• Provide the consultant the list and contact address of the mentees
• Organize meetings for the orientation, briefing and need assessment
• Facilitate training/workshops for group mentoring
• Will cover the cost of venue, refreshment, and transport allowance for mentees

Section 8: Required qualification and experience

• To be considered for this assignment the consultant must demonstrate the following capacities, skills and experiences: -
• Have at least degree in business administration/marketing/management or relevant field
• At least 5-7 years’ professional experience in the fields of Enterprise development, business skill and entrepreneurship training, mentoring, and coaching of women owned micro and small enterprises
• Demonstrate experience in motivating and inspiring youth
• Demonstrate knowledge and familiarity of micro and small enterprise ecosystem support including access to finance, marketing, promotion 
• Ability to communicate
• Have a proven track record in public and corporate communications and document production
• Certified in entrepreneurship, mentoring and personal development
• Ability and experience in using social media/internet to share information, to provide training and for E-mentoring

 Section 9: Submission of proposal

Consultant who meets the requirements should submit a proposal, which should include the following:

·      Cover letter describing how the consultant’s previous experience matches the work objectives as well as the candidate’s interest for providing the services. This letter should not be longer than one page.

·      Technical proposal containing the interest and motivation of the consultant, methodology and approach, timeline/work plan, comments on the Terms of Reference (TOR), brief experience and profile of the consultant, and any other relevant information regarding the specific assignment. A work plan for this assignment should be developed in relation to the methodology suggested by the consultant and the time frame set for this assignment.

Copy of the following:-

• Renewed business license
• TIN
• CVs, including detailed work experience and education
• No other annexes or attachments should be included.
• Financial Proposal. The consultant should estimate the cost and prepare a detailed budget to the key activities or phases in the work plan. This should be presented in a separate envelope and should indicate the breakdown of the proposed cost.

Section 10: Selection/evaluation criteria

The selection committee will review all applications after the submission deadline. All applicants must meet the minimum requirements described under session 8. The following are the evaluation/selection criteria for the technical and financial proposals: 

Technical

SN - Criteria - Points (100%)

1. Understanding of ToR - 10%
2. Methodology and approach - 30%
3. Proposal presentation - 10%
4. Relevant experience, past performance in relevant job, and relevant trainings - 30%

 Overall assessment - 80%

 Financial

SN - Criteria - Points (20%)

1. Budget realism and reasonableness - 15%
2. Bottom line price analysis - 5%

 Overall assessment - 20% 

Applicants should submit their technical proposal and financial proposal separately. The technical and financial proposals constitute 80% and 20% of the total evaluation score, respectively. The three consultants with the highest technical points will have their financial proposals evaluated, and the bidder with the highest total of technical and financial scores (with their respective weights) will be selected. CARE Ethiopia has the right to contact short listed and potential candidates to present their proposal to the team and negotiate on terms and conditions if required.

Section 11: Payment Modality

1. Upon submitting and approval of inception report= 10%
2. After submitting the 3^rd monthly progress report= 40%
3. After submitting and approval of final report= 50% 

How to Apply

The Deadline to submit the proposal is February 03, 2022.

Applicants shall submit both technical and financial proposals in a separate sealed envelope as per the Term of Reference (ToR) in person at CARE Ethiopia, Procurement Unit, located around 22 Mazoria, behind Lex Plaza building, next to Ha’Geez Cultural Restaurant.

NB: All applications clearly marked as “Advancing Women Enterprises Mentoring and Coaching Service” CARE reserves the right to reject all non-responsive or otherwise unacceptable proposals.