Implementation Agreement for Rolling out gender-sensitive business support services to MSMEs in the agro-food and agricultural sectors in North-Lebanon and Akkar (Non-profit organizations only).

PROJECT BACKGROUND

In view of the long-term structural challenges that Lebanon is facing as well as the profound effects that the subsequent crises are having on its economy, there is an ongoing need to support job creation and inclusive economic growth especially for women and youth in the most disadvantaged areas. The Productive Sectors Development Programme (PSDP) is funded by the Lebanon Recovery Fund through the generous contribution from the Government of Canada and implemented by UNIDO, FAO, UNDP, ILO, UNWOMEN, and UNICEF with support from the RCO in overall coordination. It presents a comprehensive approach to supporting the manufacturing (agro-food) and agriculture sectors in Lebanon, identified as having a high potential for job generation for women and youth. The PSDP was designed to include interlinked activities on the Macro, Meso, and Micro levels and present a flagship example for joint service delivery and for promoting the "Delivering as One" approach between the implementing UN agencies.

The Productive Sector Development Programme (PSDP) sits within the United Nations Strategic Framework's (UNSF) Outcome 3.1, which stipulates that the Government of Lebanon shall be assisted in "strengthening Lebanon productive sectors of the economy to promote inclusive growth and local development especially in most disadvantaged areas". It aligns with national priorities and complements the Government's Vision for Growth, Stabilization, and Employment that was announced during the CEDRE Conference in April 2018, as well as relevant government strategies. In particular, the PSDP aligns with Lebanon's Economic Vision published in January 2019 by the Ministry of Economy and Trade which sets Agriculture and Industry (including agro-food) as priority sectors for government interventions. The programme also aims to complement other UN agencies' initiatives targeting women and youth economic empowerment in productive sectors as well as partners' initiatives.

The identified intermediate outcomes of PSDP's activities are outlined below:

- Macro: Improved enabling policy environment for women economic empowerment and participation in productive sectors

- Meso: Improved access to markets for women and men-led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in productive sectors

- Micro: Improved capacity of women farmers, women-led cooperatives, and women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as well as male-led entities in productive sectors to create and sustain gender-equitable job opportunities and adopt environmentally sustainable practices.

The outcome of PSDP's inception phase resulted in the final selection of Fruits, Vegetables, and nuts (including pulses) preparation as an identified value chain among 13 pre-selected ones. The selection process was made based on a value chain assessment including the following set of criteria and indicators: growth and export potential, women's active economic participation, linkages with agriculture, food security, and the environmental impact.

For the provision of training and business development support to agro-food firms and cooperatives, IDRAC (Industrial Development and Research Agro-Agri Center) in Tripoli was selected specifically to serve as PSDP's main service center based on the identified capacity for project implementation in the finalized assessment. In addition, an extension service center in the northern rural area of Lebanon is being identified with close arrangements with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to provide wider accessibility for the PSDP deliverables and mitigate possible logistical challenges.

The service centers will be set up and will provide direct services to women and men farmers, women-led cooperatives, and women and men-led MSMEs (at least 50%-75% of beneficiaries will be women). Services will be provided by all UN implementing agencies based on their mandate and will include technology transfer and skills training, environmental sustainability training and in-kind support, Women Economic Empowerment Principles training, business development training, and apprenticeships amongst other services.  The overall aim of these centers is to improve the capacity of women farmers, women-led cooperatives, and women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), as well as male-led entities in productive sectors to create and sustain gender-equitable job opportunities and adopt environmentally sustainable practices.

ILO's activities within PSDP fall under the micro-level of the identified intermediate outcomes listed in the previous section. The ILO will be rolling out gender-sensitive business support services and coaching to existing and newly created MSMEs prioritizing women and youth start-ups in the selected value chain.

SCOPE OF WORK AND OBJECTIVES

For the ILO to implement an adequate business development training programme for potential entrepreneurs and existing MSMEs in the agriculture and agro-food sectors, a needs assessment exercise was implemented to capture the challenges faced by the targeted actors within the selected value chain and in the North of Lebanon with the consultation of different stakeholders involved.

The main findings from the needs assessment exercise indicated a need for intervention to support potential entrepreneurs with a focus on youth groups, women, and existing women-led agro-food and agricultural businesses, through the delivery of ILO's Women Do Business (WDB) entrepreneurship training programme which is currently being adapted to the agricultural sector, and an advanced business resilience training programme, targeting 200 beneficiaries, with the addition of the provision of grants for identified entrepreneurs with promising ideas and scale-up potential after receiving the training. ILO’s intervention will be targeting potential entrepreneurs (start-ups) and existing businesses (MSMEs), the main identified beneficiary profiles to be targeted from the needs assessment are the following: young start-ups, home-based businesses, and solopreneurs with ideas offering a high potential in light of the current situation and dynamics in the agro-food sector:

• Young Start-ups: having been operational for less than 2 years and experiencing growth since and an increase in demand.

• Home-Based Businesses: including women-led businesses and very small artisanal productions with high potential to act as import substitution and fill a gap in the market or create new demand.

• Solopreneurs: young individuals including women, working alone and with a smart idea that has proven its potential to some extent and requires support to further expand and develop.

Subsequently, and in line with the Micro-level intermediate outcome "Improved skills of female and male youth in targeted value chains strengthening their employability and entrepreneurship capacities", the ILO is seeking to partner with a business development service (BDS) provider (non-profit organization) for the implementation of its activities in North-Lebanon and Akkar, with experience in entrepreneurship and MSME business development across the agricultural and agro-food sectors.

The BDS institution will be trained to deliver the adapted version of ILO's existing entrepreneurship programme "Women Do Business (WDB)" with the addition of advanced learning material with an aim to provide the beneficiaries working in the agricultural sector with business resilience features against Lebanon's ongoing economic challenges.

The delivery of the programme is designed to start with a training of trainers (ToT) modality, identified trainers within the BDS organisation with relevant skills will be then in charge to deliver the training for the end-line beneficiaries through the training of entrepreneurs (ToE) modality by creating a sustainable impact through key knowledge dissemination.

The enrolled trainers are expected to have a diverse background of relevant skills and experience: knowledge of business management, financial management, marketing and communication, sales and leadership, crisis management, and coaching skills with a capability to deliver training information for beneficiaries in a gender-sensitive manner. Having experience in the agricultural sector a background in agricultural engineer is a significant asset. 

The BDS institution will propose to the ILO a list of trainers whose qualification fit the above description, these trainers will be interviewed and evaluated by the ILO to be selected and enrolled.

The selected BDS institution will be in charge also for conducting the outreach for beneficiaries, developing and implementing a selection criteria in coordination with PSDP different counterparts, coordinating the logistics, and monitoring the implementation of the training activities taking place at the two service centers detailed in the above section.

Beyond the training delivery, the BDS institution will work on a scheme to provide grants for identified successful trained entrepreneurs with an exhibited potential for a scale-up and impact for job creation.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILTIES 

The selected BDS institution is expected to implement ILO's activities in North-Lebanon and Akkar.

In light of the above project description, the roles and responsibilities of the selected BDS institution are as follows:

1. Provision of a work plan detailing the implementation which includes the identification of beneficiaries (selection, outreach, and recruitment), training delivery of the ToE, the monitoring of the activities, the grant provision scheme, and reporting deadlines, to be validated by ILO.
2. Identification of beneficiaries:

• Selection criteria: the BDS institution will develop a selection mechanism closely with the ILO to identify the targeted beneficiaries to receive the training. The selection criteria are expected to include different considerations: documented scoring, geographical diversity, product diversity, gender respective ratio with a particular focus on women and the youth category, employment status and vulnerability.
• Outreach activity: the BDS institution will be responsible for conducting the outreach to the beneficiaries in the Northern regions of Lebanon and collecting appropriate data for screening, prioritizing the identified targeted groups listed in the above section.
• Enrolling the final selected beneficiaries: the institution is responsible for sharing all necessary information with accuracy to the beneficiaries across all the implementation stages while ensuring their commitment and engaging accordingly to the standards of the ILO.

3. Provision of a list of qualified trainers to be enrolled (after ILO’s evaluation and approval) with diverse skills and relevant backgrounds (described above) to be able to deliver the different components of the adapted WDB programme and the business resilience advanced training to the end-line beneficiaries.
4. Provision of the training for the end-line beneficiaries (Training of Entrepreneurs) using WDB training programme and the advanced training set. Selection of training modules according to beneficiaries’ profiles and needs might be needed. ILO is targeting 200 beneficiaries.
5. A provision of coaching and follow-up activities will be needed to accompany entrepreneurs (selected for grant provision, maximum 20 beneficiaries) in creating, sustaining and/or scaling-up their business.
6. Developing and conducting a grant provision scheme and awarding a selected number of participants (max. 20) at the final stages of the implementation, this might include both potential entrepreneurs with ideas to start a business, and/or existing businesses with identified scale-up potential.
7. Developing and implementing an M&E framework and collecting necessary data (qualitative and quantitative) to monitor the activities and to measure beneficiaries’ performance through the provision of a pre-test and a post-test.
8. Provision of communication material and collecting success stories contributing to the communication products of PSDP (e.g., press releases, social media content and others).
9. Logistical arrangements (training venues, catering, transportation, etc.) for training facilitation, and coordination with the service centers (IDRAC and MoA extension center) focal points and to coordinate training schedules with other projects under PSDP.
10. Provision of the transportation means and facilitation for the beneficiaries to access the training premises.
11. Provision of the training and visibility material (handouts, training booklets, stationery, flyers, forms, and other material).
12. Handle the referrals of enrolled beneficiaries from/to other projects being implemented by PSDP's participating UN organizations by matching profile needs with available services.
13. Submission of all types of reports (Narrative, financial, technical, and M&E).

As IDRAC (and potentially extension service centre of Ministry of Agriculture) was selected as the main service centre under the PSDP programme, the selected organization is expected to coordinate all activities with IDRAC and extension centre (outreach/selection of beneficiaries, training of beneficiaries…) and try to avoid overlaps with existing similar programmes that IDRAC might be involved in. Trainers from IDRAC and MoA extension services might also be involved in ILO’s ToTs and training of entrepreneurs.

DELIVERABLES AND EXPECTED TIMEFRAME

The BDS institution will be responsible of executing the deliverables mentioned in the attached doument with respect to the indicated expected timeframe.

PROJECT DURATION, IMPLEMENTATION GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE AND BUDGET

The expected duration of the implementation agreement is 9 months with the completion of all deliverables in the North-Lebanon and Akkar.

The maximum allocated budget for the agreement is 200,000 USD. The selected organization is expected to suggest a maximum budget for the grant allocations as part of the total budget.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

The BDS institution is required to have the following qualifications:

• Experience in MSME support, entrepreneurship, and start-up development.
• Previous experience in working in the agriculture and agro-food sectors .
• Experience in supporting entrepreneurs from different categories and groups (existing MSMEs, solopreneurs, home-bases businesses, young start-ups) working in the agri-food and agricultural sectors.
• Experience in women and youth targeted programmes.
• Availability of qualified trainers to deliver entrepreneurship and business development trainings with some experience in coaching. Strong background of trainers in agriculture and/or agriculture engineering is an asset.
• Established operational capacity in North-Lebanon and Akkar.
• Effective staffing structure to coordinate the implementation of the activities with the ILO, and to monitor the delivery of the trainings.
• Knowledge of the ILO mandate and operation standards.