Business development services (BDS) for enterprises and cooperative Consultants

Background

Concern Worldwide is an Irish International NGO working in the world’s poorest countries. Under the support of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM) fund, Lebanon Branch of Concern Worldwide along with the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU)-AUB are implementing a two years project in Akkar and T5 entitled “Value chains for improved socio-economic well-being of Syrian refugees and Lebanese host communities”.

The Project intends to provide capacity building on topics related to good agricultural practices for vulnerable population through each phase of the implementation of the Origanum Syriacum and Dairy value chain for Lebanese farmers and Syrian workers.  These two value chains aim to teach selected farmers on how to effectively grow Origanum Syriacum through applying good agricultural practices (GAP), use the best harvest and post-harvest and livestock management techniques in order to contribute to the production of a high quality Zaatar and dairy based products that meet the local and international market standards and demands.

In addition to supporting farmers in production and post production phases, the intervention seeks to provide capacity building to other Market actors involved in the production, processing and/or marketing phases of the value chain. The latter will be achieved through the provision of Business Development Support services to businesses, processors and cooperatives followed by sub-grants, strengthening the market systems, creating market linkages, job opportunities, and increase to their profitability and income.

Scope of work

Concern Worldwide, in collaboration with ESDU will conduct an outreach using social media platforms and traditional door to door outreach in addition to other channels such as municipalities and local authorities to identify 30 potential enterprises working in the agriculture and/or agro-food processing for support located in Akkar and North Lebanon. The outreach will prioritize, but will not be limited to businesses producing and/or processing Zaatar and/or Dairy based products. Other businesses 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 Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will be supported to become more viable and sustainable through the provision of business development services (BDS) by delivering a capacity building training program and business coaching sessions that address 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 and business support to be able to develop a tailored capacity building scheme optimized depending on the identified needs of the selected businesses and processors in line with the current economic crisis and with the context of the selected geographical area.

Therefore, Concern is seeking local consultant(s) and business coach(es)/firms to provide Business Development Services Trainings (BDS) and one-to-one coaching sessions for the targeted group mentioned above. The consultants are needed to support the intervention by providing business continuity and business resilience training, coaching and mentorship and responding to a range of business development needs for Agriculture and /or Agro-food processors contributing to their businesses development, sustainability and creation of decent jobs.  

The growth and scale-up of MSMEs will be supported through a demand-driven and needs-based approach to identify specific barriers and address them. Concern in collaboration with the selected consultant(s) will draw a diagnostic of all selected enterprises through focus group discussions, to assess main issues and point out required expert advice. Service provider(s) and coache(s) will be asked to collaborate on the selection of areas of focus in terms of training topics and outlines. Selected consultants will deliver a group based capacity building program for 30 businesses and processors.

Following the selection of enterprises and the group based sessions, the project envisions one on one basis coaching support for only 15 businesses out of 30, which will be selected based on their business plans developed through the intervention. Coaching sessions will be tailored based on 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.

Concern anticipates an average of 10-12 BDS group sessions in addition to 30 coaching sessions to be provided among 15 enterprises. The business development plan will detail the support services, which will be offered by the service provider/consultant after discussions with MSME specialist. Needs are expected to vary for enterprises in different sectors, locations, and of different sizes.

Main responsibilities

• Assessment meetings with selected enterprises;
• Provision of 10-12 Business Development Services sessions for 2 group of 15 businesses, with an average of 3 hours per session.
• Develop a clear outline and training agenda based on the needs and capacity assessment conducted with the selected entrepreneurs.
• Provision of a full training Curriculum before the start of delivering the program
• Evaluate along Concern personals, 30 Business development plan for each enterprise for the selection of 15 businesses who will receive the in-kind support
• 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.
• 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 15 selected businesses for the provision of coaching sessions.

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.

Timeframe

Support to micro and small enterprises is expected to start in January 2022 and to last until August 2022.

Required expertise

• Minimum 5 years of experience in relevant domain (Business, Marketing)
• Demonstrated experience in providing business training to enterprises and social enterprises on a wide array of topics
• 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,relations with costumers, etc…)
• Proven facilitation and coaching skills;
• Ability to deliver the BDS training in Arabic
• Experience in working with enterprises in similar contexts in Akkar and North Lebanon (Previous experience working with humanitarian sector is a plus).