Business Development Services Provider

Background

The “SAFE: Sustainable Agri-Food Economy for refugee and local communities in vulnerable governorates of Lebanon” Project is implemented under the European Regional Development and Protection Program for Jordan and Lebanon (RDPP III), a joint European initiative supported by Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the European Union, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The project is implemented by We World in partnership with Mada Association and the Lebanese Workers Rights Organization (LWRO).

While the project adopts a value chain approach, its geographic area of intervention is defined as Akkar, North Lebanon, Bekaa and Baalbek Hermel governorates.

Mada Association will support Private Sector Actors (PSAs) through providing technical, financial and / or kind support. These actors include Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs), Cooperatives (COOPs), and women-youth led Producers Organizations (POs) / Cooperatives.

Objectives of support

Technical support and grants will be provided to PSAs aiming to enhance their operational capacity, foster job creation, improve productivity and product quality, and strengthen value chains. This will be achieved through financial and in-kind support, capacity building and coaching, promoting sustainable practices, and encouraging inclusivity with a focus on women and youth-led entities and/or cooperatives.

The support aims to create a more cohesive and efficient Agri-food sector with better market access and increased profitability for all stakeholders involved.

Scope of work

Mada association conducted an outreach and identified 10 SMEs, 4 COOPs and 1 women-led PO and 1 youth led cooperative for support in Akkar and North Lebanon. The outreach prioritized the agri-food sector within the value chains of Dairy, Mouneh, Pickles, Marketing, Composting, Livestock breeding and packaging. These sectors have been prioritized due to in depth value chain analysis conducted by Mada in 2024.

Accordingly, Mada is seeking a Business Development Consultancy service provider to provide capacity building programs and business coaching that addressed 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, and quality of products or services of the targeted PSAs.

Business Development Services trainings will be provided by experts, having a similar previous experience mainly in Business Development support to Agro-food actors be able to develop a tailored capacity building scheme optimized depending on the identified needs of the selected PSAs in line with the current economic crisis and with the context of the selected geographical area.

Targeted Entities and Value Chains:

Under the scope of this service, the project targeted beneficiaries are as follows:

• Ten SMEs,
• Four registered cooperatives,
• One youth-led Cooperative,
• One women-led PO.

Two key individuals per entity will be participating in the capacity building program.

The prioritize value chains based on the Integrated Market System Development IMSD conducted under the project are:

• Dairy (Production, collection)
• Mouneh
• Pickles
• Marketing
• Composting
• Livestock (chicken, cattle, sheep, goats)
• Packaging

Geographic focus

Based on the project target areas, the geographic focus of the project comprised PSAs in Akkar and North Lebanon. The service provider must be able to travel frequently, several times per week to target areas to work with targeted PSAs on-site.

Implementation methodology

Mada is seeking local service providers to provide Business Development Services Trainings (BDS) 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 respond to a range of business development needs for PSAs contributing to their business’s development, sustainability and creation of decent jobs.  

The growth and scale-up of PSAs will be supported through a demand-driven and need-based approach to identify specific barriers and address them. Service providers and coaches will be asked to collaborate on the selection of areas of focus in terms of training topics and outlines. Coaches will be hired according to the enterprise’s needs; they will deliver a capacity building program consisting of group sessions for the selected PSAs and followed by coaching sessions on a one-on-one basis for each PSA. The coaching support will be tailored based on the needs of each PSA. This can be over a series of visits, including an assessment meeting which should be conducted on-site the PSAs premises. The exact support activities to be provided will be clarified following an in-depth assessment.

Main tasks and responsibilities

Mada anticipates the following:

1. For SMEs:

1. Technical Support: Provision of Four BDS group sessions for the 10 selected SMEs. The technical support will pave the way for the expected financial support, which will allow them to put the acquired skills into practice and fully, or partially, implement the new business models. The topics covered will include but not be limited to accounting and finance management; client-supplier relationships; legal and fiscal aspects; stock management; marketing and communication; human resources; and specific technical support linked to the different SME’s working fields.
2. Coaching Support: 60 individual coaching sessions to be provided among these 10 SMEs (6 sessions per SMEs). Needs are expected to vary from enterprise in different sectors, locations and of different sizes. The coaching sessions will be tailored from experts to develop their business plans (or adapt and enhance them when already existing) and enhance their business model, with the aim of strengthening their capacity to generate jobs.

2. For COOPS:

1. Technical Support: Provision of Four BDS group sessions for the 4 selected COOPs (2 members per COOP). The support will take the form of one group capacity-building through a 4-sessions training program, bringing together all the COOPS on technical topics (production), but also on communication, collaboration, collective negotiation, cooperative principles, among other soft skills that enhance stakeholders’ cooperation.
2. Coaching Support: 24 individual coaching sessions to be provided among the selected  4 COOPs (6 sessions per COOP), focusing on their specific needs identified through a self-assessment, and on the development of new products and/or enhancement of existing products; development of  new linkages with other value chain actors (e.g. linking farmers to processing cooperatives; linking a cooperative to an urban community kitchen) and marketing events.

3. For Youth led Cooperative and Women led PO:

20 individual technical coaching sessions will be provided to each of the 2 entities (10 sessions per entity). This support will cover capacity building on technical topics (production), communication, collaboration, collective negotiation, cooperative principles, soft skills that enhance stakeholders’ cooperation. This will take the form of one-on-one sessions between a coach and the entity / cooperative members.

Other Responsibilities:

• All the sessions mentioned above are within an average of 3 to 4 hours per session.
• Provide Mada the full training Curriculum before the start of delivering the program that includes the Business development plan for each PSA, 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.
• Provision of material and/or tools needed for the delivery of coaching sessions.
• Delivering in person training sessions with a possibility to provide trainings in different locations located in North Lebanon and Akkar in parallel.
• Provide direct visits to the all the selected PSAs for the provision of the one-on-one coaching sessions.
• Monitor the attendance of participants and report any issues or dropouts to Mada’s focal point along with daily coordination and updates.
• At the end of each training program, provide Mada with a final report (template provided by Mada) that includes Pre and post-tests grades, progress of entities’ knowledge, attendance, challenges, recommendations on further support needed and specific areas of focus required for the skills development of the PSAs.
• At the end of the coaching program, submit one report for each entity conveying the progress achieved, challenges encountered, updates made on the Business Plans and recommendations for sustainability and further development of the specific entity.
• Submit a final report including methodology, accomplishments, key learnings, challenges and recommendations on further support needed and specific areas of docus required for the development of the PSAs.

The selected service provider will deliver the above-mentioned training topics and coaching programs and work closely with the SMEs, POs, COOPs and women-youth led entities / cooperatives to create a healthy training environment while using interactive approaches and providing individual support. Furthermore, Mada’s team will work in close cooperation with the selected service provider(s) to ensure that training and coaching are adequately delivered.

Time Frame/Duration

The assignment shall be completed within four months starting November / December 2025 (estimated), covering curriculum development, training delivery and reporting as per the following:

• #1 Inception report and workplan: Detailed methodology, training curricula, coaching schedule and monitoring framework – within one week of contract signature.
• #2 Training Materials (Group Sessions): Two training modules (presentations, handouts, exercise guides, pre- and post-tests, etc) customized to each category (SMEs and COOPs) – within two weeks of the approval of deliverable #1.
• #3 Group Training sessions: delivery and submissions of all means of verifications for a total of 8 Group sessions for the SMEs and COOPs, within three weeks of the approval of deliverable #2.
• #4 Group Training report: Delivery and submission of one report per type of entity (a total of two reports) on the progress of the group training, to be submitted within one week after the completion of the group sessions.
• #5 Coaching materials (individual coaching sessions): coaching modules including the Business Development plan draft and action plan tailored to each target entity – within one week of the completion of deliverable #4.
• #6 Individual Coaching sessions: delivery and submission of all means of verifications for a total of 104 one-on-one tailored coaching sessions to all 16 entities – within six weeks of the completion of deliverable #5.
• #7 Individual reports: individual reports on progress for each entity (16) their finalized business plans and other means of verifications – within one week of the completion of the coaching sessions.