Curricula Development Expert

Country situation and Socio-economic impacts

Since 2019, Lebanon has been facing an unprecedented economic, financial, health, political and humanitarian crisis which put food security at risk. For two years, the country witnessed multiple socio-economic shocks that caused slowing economy and productivity. This was coupled with a financial problem due to heavy reliance on debt leading to a drastic devaluation of the national currency and the drop of liquidity in foreign currency. As a result, the national currency has lost around 90% of its value, 55% of Lebanese live below the poverty line of 3.84USD a day and unemployment rate stand at 39%. Before the crisis, the median salary was 630USD, while it has reached currently less than 50 USD.

MSME Opportunities

MSMEs in Lebanon are the building blocks of Lebanon’s economy, with around 225,000 enterprises they represent 90% of businesses and absorb around half of formally registered employees. MSMEs play an essential role during and after a crisis by filling the gaps left by failing governments, offering basic incomes and employment opportunities, providing various goods, services, and philanthropic contributions, all of which reduce the impact of a crisis, support economic growth and resilient in times of instability. [1]

The agriculture sector has the potential of playing a major role in stabilizing the situation as it opens an opportunity to improve agriculture productivity and exploitation profitability and facilitating job creation and in bringing local and national economic growth through employment, support to local and international market demand and export of agri-food and agricultural products.

Link between export and economic development

Export has the potential to generate employment, raise productivity, transfer skills and technology, enhance exports and contribute to the long-term economic development of the world's developing countries. More than ever, countries at all levels of development seek to leverage international trade for development.

This is especially true in the case of Lebanon where export is one of the few sectors besides remittances that can bring new/fresh money to the country. For MSMEs, there is an increasing need to access international markets as this represents one of the few opportunities for this sector to continue generating economic development for its beneficiaries across the various value chain.

Despite the numerous opportunities for export, MSMEs face numerous challenges. One of the challenges is reflected in technical skills and capacities related to export including: export process, research methods, assessing market entry and developing tailored export plans that are attractive for suppliers and financial access, e-commerce, negotiations, meeting international export standards such as food safety labeling and packaging among others. 

In line with UNIDO TOR “Related to Hosting the Export Training Center and Online Academy and provision of Services for the Development and implementation of the training under this entity as part of the Productive Sectors Development Programme (PSDP)” and the objective of this assignment, Berytech aims to undertake the following activities:

1. A needs assessment report, based on desk review and field surveys, will focus on challenges in export and needs in terms of capacity building and trainings.
2. develop the curricula and at least 3 training packages including in total at least 10 short training courses in export targeting beginners and advanced exporters companies with special focus on women, as well as,
3. recommend a list of potential trainers to be associated to conduct the training and conduct a training of trainers (ToT)
4. implement the training and train at least 70 MSMEs in the agri-food sector (from which at least 40 are women-led), and results of 70% of women and men trained, reporting a high level of satisfaction with the training based on post training evaluation. The training implementation will span all along the project timeline

The activity 1 (needs assessment) is currently in progress. Through this ToR, Berytech seeks an external consultant to carry out the following key activities:

• Conduct review of the needs assessment with the Consultant to set the main training priorities identified by the SMEs.
• Develop the outline of the different training packages that should be developed
• Determine the syllabus for each training module: main learning objectives, pre-requisites, number of training hours
• Determine training format and methodologies to different topics
• Prepare the training content for the modules as well as the tools for the evaluation / performance assessment
• Develop the selection criteria for the trainers of each module
• Participate in the final selection of the trainers
• Conduct training of trainers to provide the courses in the future.

Key Deliverables:

• Workplan of the main activities along with the timeline for the implementation
• Final outline of the training package including the topic of each training module
• Curricula for each training module
• Performance assessment tools for training evaluation
• Outline of program for training the trainers: number of sessions and tentative schedule
• Final report summarizing the amin deliverables and overall evaluation of the process

Applicants must fulfill the following requirements:

• Be able to coly with national fiscal context and rules for receipt of international funds.
• BSc/BA diploma in management or a relevant field; MSc/MA is a plus
• 7 to 10 years of relevant experience in curricula preparation and in supporting SMEs in organizational development including export development and realization
• Experience in working in developing countries with focus on increasing export for such countries
• Extensive knowledge in various countries' export requirements
• Possession of strong skills in market research and matchmaking for exporting companies, preferably within the agro-food sector
• Proven experience in training organizations and SMEs on export readiness and preparedness
• Excellent English language skills (written and spoken). Arabic is a plus.

Work will start on November 1st, 2021 and deliverables should be submitted by December 31, 2021 at most.

Candidates should submit the following documents:

• Technical (maximum 2 pages) describing the methodology to conduct the work based on the content suggested in section: “Objectives and key activities”, elaborating it further. An implementation calendar should be delivered, including planned consultation with key stakeholders.
• Financial offer: the consultant(s) should state the personnel dedication expressed in days (1 day = 8 working hours) as well as a lump sum for other costs related to the implementation of work.
• Profile and project references (maximum 2 pages): the consultant(s) should submit a brief explanation of the candidate (CVs shall be included as annex) and project references on the topic.

Important :

The header of the technical and financial offers must clearly note the candidate data (Name, address, country, telephone, email and fiscal identity number or other official number).

Offers will be assessed according to the following criteria and scores:

Points

Criteria

Maximum 40 points

Quality of the technical offer to meet the work objectives

Maximum 40 points

Proven track-record

Maximum 20 points

Financial offer

[1] https://www.aub.edu.lb/osb/news/Pages/SMEs-in-Lebanon.aspx