Strengthening the youth entrepreneurship ecosystems in Pacific Countries
Procurement Process
IC - Individual contractor
Office
Fiji - FIJI
Deadline
26-Jul-21
Published on
28-Jun-21
Reference Number
80130
Overview
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Reference No. | PN/FJI/052/21 |
Consultancy Title | Strengthening the youth entrepreneurship ecosystems in Pacific Countries |
Location | Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu (Virtually) |
Application deadline | 26th July 2021 |
Type of Contract | Individual Contractor/Firm |
Post Level | International |
Languages required: | English |
Duration of Initial Contract: | 100 working days |
BACKGROUND
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive disruption of labour markets that has had disproportionate impacts on youth employment. Given that youth have relatively limited skills and experience, they face higher rates of unemployment than adults regardless of the sector and business cycle. Young people are also more likely than adults to work in less-secure, lower-wage, lower productivity employment, frequently with limited legal rights, social protection, and representation[1]. As a result of the pandemic, slow economic growth hampers the ability of the economies in the Pacific Island countries to absorb the growing numbers of labour force entrants, especially in formal sector jobs. Even before the pandemic, countries in the Pacific encountered challenges with regard to job creation, decent work, and necessary skills for the labour market resulting in high and persistent youth unemployment. The lack of access to business support services and intermediation services such as entrepreneurship programmes, quality career guidance, counselling and public employment services are also an important structural constraint for an efficient transition of young people to the labour market. Many governments in the Pacific are actively engaged in policies to create productive employment opportunities and to create an enabling environment for youth to grow and attain the skills they need to do well in work and in life, as well as to either start a business or find suitable employment. Based on evidence from the ILO rapid assessments of the impacts of COVID-19 on workers and enterprises and SMEs in particular, in the Pacific Island countries, most enterprises have difficulty operating, especially youth-led businesses in the informal sector. Their limited ability to counterattack the involved risks, business environment, and afford the costs due to the slowed down business activities face the complex problems of the lack of funds and liquidity, skills, employees, customers, and technology. The role of young entrepreneurs and youth-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have steadily gained an essential role as a driving force for fuelling employment, business innovation and green and inclusive growth. It is essential to understand the environment in which young entrepreneurs and MSMEs operate - the so-called entrepreneurial ecosystem – to improve business outcomes and facilitate job creation.
Objectives: The overall objective of this study is to analyse the youth entrepreneurship ecosystems in Pacific Island Countries. This includes assessing the barriers facing youth in entrepreneurship and productive self-employment in the formal sector and how these can be overcome by proposing national interventions which relevant actors could lead in the Pacific Island Countries. The study will provide country-specific analyses of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, exploring and identifying dynamics and potential entrepreneurship stimulation, allowing to design effective reform interventions. The output of the study is supposed to identify the gaps in the ecosystem which hamper the stimulation of youth entrepreneurship. It also provides recommendations on areas in the ecosystem that need to be adjusted to support entrepreneurs in a sustainable and disaster resilient maner.
The study is a joint effort by UNDP and ILO in the context of the UN Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and contributes to the thematic area on youth entrepreneurship and self-employment. The knowledge products will be made available in the joint knowledge facility of Decent Jobs for Youth (https://www.youthforesight.org/).
Scope of the work: The study needs to address the underlying following pathways:
The findings of the study will assist national partners in the Pacific island states and relevant institutions to design policies and programmes to tackle the barriers of youth entrepreneurship with the objective to:
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DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
COMPETENCIES
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REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
The Consultant(s) must have the following qualifications:
Administration, Reporting and Coordination The contract for this assignment will be issued by ILO and UNDP. The Consultant will work closely with the national focal points in the selected countries. Language requirement:
Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments Consultancy must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:
Deliverables The expected contract period is from 26 July 2021 to 31 December 2021 To complete the assignment, the consultants, in close collaboration and consultation with UNDP and ILO specialists, and national counterparts is expected to perform the following tasks:
In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources
In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Consultancy, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.
Evaluation Method and Criteria Individual consultancy will be evaluated based on the following methodology Cumulative analysis The award of the contract shall be made to the consultancy whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.
Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Shortlisted candidates shall be called for an interview which will be used to confirm and/or adjust the technical scores awarded based on documentation submitted.
Documentation required Interested consultancies must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:
Note: Successful individual will be required to provide proof of medical insurance coverage before commencement of contract for the duration of the assignment.
Incomplete and joint proposals may not be considered. Consultancies with whom there is further interest will be contacted. The successful consultancy shall opt to sign an Individual Contract or a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) through its company/employer with UNDP.
Annexes
For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to Mr. Dale Kacivi - procurement.fj@undp.org/dale.kacivi@undp.org
All applications must be clearly marked with the title of consultancy and submitted by 5:00pm, 26th July 2021 (Fiji Time) online via UN Jobs website https://jobs.undp.org/ or etenderbox.pacific@undp.org |
[1] See ILO: Tackling youth unemployment in Asia and Pacific report