Call for Proposals: Rural youth employment opportunities

This call for proposals seeks to select a recipient, or consortium of recipients, to receive a four-year IFAD grant, for a total amount of up to US$4.8 million, to implement the project Rural youth employment opportunities: Support to integrated agribusiness hubs initiative.

The recipient(s) can be an inter-governmental or governmental organization(s); TVET or business development institution(s); civil society organization(s) (including NGOs); academic/research institution(s); or one or more private sector entities. Applicants may apply individually or as a consortium. Organizations may join more than one consortium, but can be leading in only one of them.

This grant programme will be implemented in nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, as part of a phased approach, this current call for proposals is focused on four of the countries (Algeria, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Malawi) with a set funding limit of US$4.8 million distributed across all four countries over a span of 3 years. Additionally, a mandatory cash contribution of 8 per cent of the total proposal cost and an in-kind contribution by the applicant – independently or as a consortium – is expected.

Given the nature of the grant, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply as a consortium and to apply either (a) in less than the total number of countries or (b) in all four countries.

(Note: Applicants must submit separate design proposals and budgets for each country they are interested in working in.)

Refer to Annex 3 for the full evaluation methodology and criteria.

The recipient must demonstrate a strong focus on, and experience and expertise with, working on youth employment in rural settings.

The selected organization or consortium will have:

• Ability to provide: shared facilities and equipment; the development of business and technical/vocational skills, soft skills, and market access; technology transfer; and linkage to services (such as financial and employment services) that are backstopped through mentorship (e.g., apprenticeships & internships, business incubation & acceleration) and networking.
• Readiness to facilitate a holistic and proactive process focused on the early-stage development of agribusiness growth and on training in key technical/business skills along the entire value chain, leading to enterprise start-up or entry into agricultural labour markets and those of related sectors.
• Willingness to interact and constructively engage with the larger agribusiness and agro-industry communities.
• Flexibility in developing mentorship modules composed of the “main ingredients” of youth-integrated agribusiness hubs and, above all, post-mentorship support services (e.g., establishment of support services for mentored youth as well as incentives, prizes and other recognition systems).
• Ability to create inclusive and relevant strategic partnerships leading to service/market deals and/or financing linkages between youth entrepreneurs and relevant stakeholders (e.g., the government or the private sector).
• Capacity to facilitate and foster linkages between the training and education system and industry representatives (i.e., employers) by (e.g.) setting up support services to address skill gaps and mismatches.
• Capacity to create incentives for the private sector to participate in skills development (i.e., inclusive skills anticipation systems) and facilitate the smooth transition of youth into the labour market.
• Effective business continuity plans to implement the project in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Financial management of the grant, including the capacity to receive, record, monitor and report on multiple sources of grant funding in line with IFAD requirements.

Application requirements

1. A project proposal, created using IFAD’s Grant Design Document template.
2. A detailed budget, created using the Activity-Based Budget table.
3. A completed Bidders' Self-Certification of Eligibility for IFAD Grant Financing.
4. A brief institutional profile, including detailed descriptions of the organization’s experience in the priority areas and specific themes outlined in the Grant Concept Note, and in the region(s)/country(ies) where the grant would be implemented.

The proposal must be aligned with the Grant Concept Note and Project Description provided. Please refer to these documents for further information.

The deadline to receive proposals is 10 July 2021, 23:59 CEST.

Proposals submitted after this deadline will be considered ineligible.

All proposals and communications should be submitted via email to the IFAD Agribusiness Grant Team: [email protected].