1.         BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

In June 2022, the European Union and UNDP signed a four-year funding agreement ‘’Support youth-led SMEs in Rwanda’’ or ‘’Aguka’’. Implemented by the Ministry of Youth and UNDP, Aguka programme aims to support young entrepreneurs throughout their entire entrepreneurial journey, from ideation to pre-incubation, incubation, and post-incubation. The Programme offers services to youth-led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), including capacity building, mentoring, coaching, access to finance, markets. Aguka specifically targets vulnerable youth groups such as women, youth from rural areas, youth with disabilities, young refugees, and youth from the creative industry. The partnership leverages on the successes of the YouthConnekt program, fostering synergies and establishing new collaborations with civil society and the private sector to complement and expand the impact of YouthConnekt. New partnerships established through Aguka include the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF online entrepreneurship programme supporting 400 young Rwandan annually in business ideation process); Norrsken (providing post-incubation/coaching to 100 entrepreneurs annually), the Business Development Fund (providing loans to entrepreneurs at the post-incubation level). The overarching goal of the project are to create over 100,000 jobs for and by youth, along with establishing 1,600 new youth-led businesses. Additionally, the initiative aims to support more than 5,320 youth-led SMEs through the provision of both technical and financial assistance. This strategic collaboration represents a concerted effort to empower youth entrepreneurs and drive economic growth in Rwanda.

 One of the key Aguka components is the Entrepreneurship Bootcamps/Awards, a series of business competitions for young entrepreneurs organized across the country. Through the YouthConnekt bootcamps, young entrepreneurs are trained (for a period 1 week to 6 months) by different partners (Private and public sector, CSOs, etc.) in entrepreneurship skills, scalable project development and management and leadership skills. Those bootcamps contribute to enhance the capacities of young entrepreneurs in developing business plans, accessing finance, developing/improving their marketing strategies, pitching and effective communication.  Resultantly, it contributes to improving the profitability and sustainability of their enterprises as well as to supporting the scaling-up of their projects. It also enables the young entrepreneurs to promote their businesses and create connections with markets and investors by participating in YouthConnekt sponsored events (Made in Rwanda exhibition).  At the end of the bootcamp/trainings, the young entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel representing the public, private, and non-profit sectors. The best projects are awarded with seed funding to support the scaling-up of their businesses. 

Other successful youth led SMEs/start-up’s programme include the Hanga Pitch-fest organized by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation and Rwanda Development Board. This festival aims to provide a unique platform to showcase tech- entrepreneurs and creative talents from all over the country as well as to promote the Innovation Ecosystem at large.

Through its National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) and Private Sector Development & Youth Employment Strategy (PSDYES), the Government of Rwanda (GoR) has committed to develop a vibrant and competitive productive sector to generate sufficient exports and jobs for the population. Under NST1, GoR has been prioritizing innovative entrepreneurship, access to finance and business development to unlock the potential for sustainable job creation (GOR, 2017). The PSDYE strategy sets out a new ambitious approach to private sector development and competitiveness improvements, namely a Value-Chain (VC) Approach.

 It is within that framework that this assignment aims to conduct an updated tracer study to collect a series of data on the YouthConnekt bootcamp beneficiaries with an objective of measuring the impact of the Aguka/YouthConnekt activities with a particular attention on the jobs and businesses created.

The assignment is scheduled to be undertaken by a consultancy firm comprising 1 National consultant (data collection expert, statistician) and a team of professionals who investigate/collect data on the field (number of data collectors to be proposed by consultancy firm). The study should take place in February-May, for a maximum duration of 80 working days for the whole team.