Call for Entrepreneurship Training Consultancy

Background information relevant to the programme

British Council’s programme in Middle East and North Africa
British Council programmes are being implemented in all the Middle East and North Africa Region, focusing mainly on Education, Arts, English Language and Society. This tender comes under our Society work, where we support societies whose citizens and institutions contribute to a more inclusive, open and prosperous world. In MENA, we provide opportunities for various societies around participation, social innovation and entrepreneurship as well as developing new ways of building cultural relations impact at the local and international level. We support women and young people to gain skills, be confident, active and engage in their communities as well as contributing to strengthening the abilities of individuals and organisations to play a role in local and global sustainable development.

DAWRIC Project: Direct Action for Women: Reform, Inclusion and Confidence
The British Council is implementing a two-year European Union funded project entitled DAWRIC: Direct Action for Women: Reform, Inclusion and Confidence, aiming to improve women’s political and economic participation at a National level.

DAWRIC overall objective is to build the capacity of women and broad-based support for their active involvement in public life to:
- Combat poverty among Lebanese women
- Ensure gender equality in political life and decision-making processes

DAWRIC project specific objectives are as follows:
- Women are actively involved in local decision-making processes supported by local communities.
- Greater connection between concerns of urban/ rural women and the strategies of local authorities is established.
- National and emerging coalitions are better able to progress women’s participation in public life.
- Advocacy campaigns are better designed and managed through evidence-based data.

As part of the economic empowerment component, DAWRIC will provide women with learning opportunities to overcome barriers to their effective participation in the local economy by providing access to entrepreneurship training as they start a new business or expand an existing one.
The entrepreneurship training program will be delivered to 21 women entrepreneurs selected from 21 towns located in North, South, Bekaa, Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The training objectives are to:
- Empower women by providing them with the necessary skills, tools and knowledge to become successful entrepreneurs.
- Build the capacity of women on essential business skills using technologies and new innovative approaches
- Build the capacity of women in business planning, marketing and financial planning, relationship building and relationship management with customers,
- Introduce trained entrepreneurs to micro-credit organisations and lending institutions
- Support in organising trade shows on the local or regional level and other forms of networking activities.
- Increase knowledge on entrepreneurship skills within the community through cascading the training to 200 women in the target areas.

Specification of services to be supplied
The British Council is seeking a service provider/consultancy firm/consultant to deliver the entrepreneurship training under DAWRIC project using new innovative techniques and to monitor the cascading of the training that will be delivered by the trained entrepreneurs to the community groups.
In order to establish this, we would like to follow the below staged phase process:

Phase 1: Training preparations in May 2018
- Develop selection criteria and profile of participants who will attend the training (Women business owners or looking to expand an existing business)
- Coordinate with the focal points in the targeted areas and in close coordination with the British Council Project Coordinator to select and recruit 21 women participants as per the selection criteria to attend the intensive entrepreneurship training
- Develop application form to be completed by potential participants
- Coordinate and agree with the British Council on the selection of final list of beneficiaries

Phase 2: Delivery of four day workshop in May 2018
Design and delivery of four-day training on Entrepreneurship
- Introduce participants to business skills such as business planning, marketing and financial planning relationship building and relationship management with customers, sales, accounting for small businesses, risk and feasibility assessment, digital business, strategic planning, and local requirements for registering and operating a business.
- Dedicate a session during the training to introduce the trained entrepreneurs to micro-credit organisations and lending institutions (Kafalat, Majmouaa,…)
- Develop two training manuals: the first one to be handed to 21 women mentors and the second simplified manual to be shared with the 200 trained women after cascading the training to the community

Phase 3: Cascade the entrepreneurship training to the community in May-June 2018
The service provider will coordinate with the trained participants to:
- Implement and monitor the process of cascading the training to the community: The 21 trained women entrepreneurs will have to cascade the training to 200 women from the target communities. (Each trained entrepreneur will have to cascade to at least 10 community representatives).
- Organize and implement an evaluation session gathering the 21 trained women for knowledge sharing, lessons learned and actions to be taken forward, in close coordination with the Monitoring and Evaluation consultant.
- Submit the end-of-assignment review highlighting the training outcomes, pre and post training evaluation results, challenges and recommendations.

Content of the proposal
In your proposal, please include the following:
- Your understanding of the assignment and the experience you can bring to the development of this project
- Your proposed approach to the assignment including selection process, outline of the content for the Entrepreneurship training programme, connection and networking support….
- Precise how new technologies will be used in the training.
- Identify your design and delivery team, briefly indicating their track record and experience
- Identify your experience of and/or familiarity of working internationally, in particular in with partners in the Middle East and North Africa (particularly Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia), if any
- Experience of working with programmes supporting women’s participation and empowerment.

Reporting/Duration
The consultant will be contracted by the British Council and will be managed by the Senior Project Manager and will work in close coordination with the Project Coordinator in Beirut Lebanon.

The assignment duration will consist of the proposed number of days as suggested by the service provider/consultant for each of the three phases stated above, distributed over the period of May-June 2018, to be agreed with the Senior Project Manager.
3 Documentation required during the lifetime of the contract

The British Council will require the supplier to provide copies of any and all documentation produced during the contract, which may include and not be limited to:
- Needs Assessment, if needed
- Workshop materials
- Feedback forms
- Guidance documents/toolkits
- Evaluation documents

The British Council will own the intellectual property rights of all materials produced during the consultancy.
5 Structure and receipt of the proposal
a. Please submit your proposal according to the following structure:
- Section 1: Your understanding of the assignment and your approach to delivery.
- Section 2: Experience (level and breadth of provider’s expertise; experience internationally including the Middle East, track record; cultural awareness);
- Section 3: Capability and capacity (depth and capability of specialist services; demonstrate

Ability to transfer skills and experience; qualifications and experience of staff who will work on the project;
- Section 4: Approach and method: (how the terms of reference will be delivered);
- Section 5: Relationship management (how the BC will be managed as a client; expected roles and responsibilities with respect to project partners);
- Section 6: Costs (fees for design and delivery and identification of any other associated costs. Please include daily rates/no of days for each phase of this assignment)
b. Submit your proposal electronically to Nayla El-Khoury at the following e-mail address:
nayla.elkhoury@lb.britishcouncil.org
c. Any questions relating to the submission of proposals should be made by e-mail (only) to Nayla El-Khoury at the above e-mail address before 20 April 2018.
d. Completed proposals should arrive no later than 5 pm on Friday 20 April 2018; Proposals arriving after the deadline will not be evaluated.
6 Timing of the proposal process
The schedule for the proposal process is as follows:
- Deadline for receipt of proposals: 20 April 2018
- Evaluation of proposals: 23 April 2018
- Selection of preferred provider: 25 April 2018
- Notification of preferred provider: 26 April 2018
- Negotiations completed and contract initiated: 30 April 2018

Criteria for acceptance and evaluation of proposals
a. The proposal must be returned in accordance with the guidelines on proposal structure (see paragraph 5a above). Failure to comply with the guidance will eliminate your proposal from consideration.
b. The proposal will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- Evidence of experience and track record
- Evidence of capability and capacity in delivering Entrepreneurship training and capacity to monitor the cascading of the training
- Clear and effective methodology for achieving the requirements of the terms of reference
- Practical and effective ways of working in partnership with the British Council team and partners
- Quality of staff proposed for delivery of project including evidence of effective design and delivery of comparable pieces of work
- Price (maximum of EUR 10,000 including all types of costs related to the delivery of the full assignment, except the cost of the venue, transportation and accommodation of the participants who will attend the four day training).