Annex_3_Section_C_SOW_with_the_foot_notes.pdf

SECTION C - DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF WORK

Design Study for Youth and Female Entrepreneurship Support Activity in Tunisia

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Acronym, Abbreviation

Definition

CA Constraints Analysis

CAP Constraints Analysis Panel

CJD Conseil des Jeunes Dirigeants

CNFCE Chambre Nationale des Femmes Chefs d’Entreprise

COR Contracting Officer Representative

CONECT Confédération des Entreprises Citoyennes de Tunisie

CPARS Contractor Performance Assessment Rating System

CREDIF Centre de Recherche, d’Études, de Documentation et d’Information sur la Femme

CT Country Team

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GoT Government of Tunisia

GSI Gender and Social Inclusion

IEA Implementing Entity Agreements

IM Investment Memo

IMC Investment Management Committee

IRB Institutional Review Board

MCA Millennium Challenge Account, the accountable entity

MCC Millennium Challenge Corporation

MDICI Ministry of Development, Investment, and International Cooperation

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

NEET Not in education, employment, or training

NGO Non-governmental organization

PM Project Monitor

PPAM Project Proposal Assessment Memo

RFQ Request for Quotations

RMS Recruitment Management System

SAM System for Award Management

SME Small and Medium Enterprise

WES Women’s Enterprise Sustainability

C.1 INTRODUCTION

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Government of Tunisia (GoT) are developing a compact program,1 with the overall objective of reducing poverty through inclusive economic growth.

After qualifying for MCC assistance in December 2016, the GoT and MCC undertook an analysis of constraints to growth in Tunisia in August 2017 (Annex 1) that identified the following binding constraints:

1 MCC engages with countries that show a willingness to promote good governance, economic freedom, and investments in their people. A compact is a large, multi-year grant extended to selected countries that meet MCC’s eligibility criteria. The grant responds to partner country solutions proposed to address binding constraints to inclusive economic growth.

• Market Controls of Goods and Services: Extreme levels of state intervention and bureaucracy in goods and services markets create unreasonable regulatory requirements and compliance costs to firms, which unduly prohibit certain actors from entering and exiting, and reduce firms’ competitiveness.

• Water Scarcity: Inadequate and variable supply of water inhibits medium and long term private investment in interior regions and reduces the sustainability of those investments, primarily in agriculture.

The constraints analysis also included discussion of cross-cutting issues, in particular, high unemployment rates (especially among youth and women) and regional development inequities that have not been reduced by national economic growth.

After extensive bilateral discussions, it was agreed in 2018 that the compact will support two projects.

The first aims to modernize Tunisia’s business climate, with a specific focus on simplification of administrative and regulatory procedures. The second will focus on alleviating water scarcity to promote increased productivity, particularly in Tunisia’s interior regions (“Water Scarcity Project”). These projects are currently being further developed, and it is expected that the proposed compact will be presented to the MCC’s Board for approval in late 2019 or early 2020.

A key aspect of MCC compact development requires that proposed programs meet MCC’s investment criteria, including compliance with MCC’s Gender Policy.2 This policy requires the integration of social and gender inclusion perspectives through all stages of the compact cycle.

One inclusion opportunity identified under the umbrella of the Business Climate Improvement Project is the provision of support to Tunisian youth and female entrepreneurs to address specific barriers that prevent their equitable participation in Tunisia’s economy. The Youth and Female Entrepreneurship

Support Activity will build on this opportunity, by addressing critical constraints to growth faced by youth and women entrepreneurs and ensuring they can benefit from compact investments under the

Business Climate Improvement Project.

C.2 BACKGROUND

Constraints Facing Women and Youth in Tunisia

Several key documents provide important gender and social inclusion source material related to women and youth entrepreneurship in Tunisia. The International Labor Organization conducted an evaluation of women’s entrepreneurship development in Tunisia in 2016.3 MCC prepared an initial gender and social inclusion assessment in December 2017.4 Nathan Associates completed a second social and gender assessment for MCC and GoT, focusing on key risks and opportunities in sectors relevant to the

2 See https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/gender-policy.

3 ILO, “Évaluation nationale du d”eveloppement de l’entrepreneuriat féminin, Tunisie” (Geneva: ILO, 2016), https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/---ifp_seed/documents/publication/wcms_551170.pdf.

4 C. Mark Blackden, Jozefina Cutura, and Mongi El Ayeb, “MCC, Tunisia: Gender and Social Inclusion

Assessment, Compact I,” (December 2, 2017).

https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/gender-policy https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/---ifp_seed/documents/publication/wcms_551170.pdf https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/---ifp_seed/documents/publication/wcms_551170.pdf compact.5 An analysis of commercial, legal, and institutional reform in Tunisia’s agriculture sector, including a gender component, is underway. And members of the GoT’s Core Team6 for compact development recently completed a mapping of workforce development and entrepreneurship support programs available in Tunisia today.7

These and other studies describe how women and youth continue to face obstacles to equitable participation in the workforce, limiting Tunisia’s potential economic growth. Efforts to more fully empower these populations to contribute to Tunisia’s economy should therefore enhance opportunities for equal participation in existing markets; improve their access to and control over productive resources; and improve access to decent work8.

Constraints Facing Women Entrepreneurs

At first glance, the characterization of women’s and girls’ economic roles in Tunisia appears quite positive. Females represent more than two-thirds of university and high school graduates. Women in

Tunisia’s urban centers have been vocal proponents of increased female political participation. Women have also benefited from the Ministry of Employment and Training’s leading workforce development programs (El Ayeb and Mokkadem 2019). One-quarter of women’ employment is in the manufacturing sector,9 although such jobs often do not correspond to female university graduates’ employment aspirations. In terms of Tunisia’s legal framework for access to employment, Tunisia has ratified international conventions concerning employment, wage equality, and elimination of all forms of discrimination with regard to women. The Tunisian Labor Code also affirms the principles of equality and non-discrimination (Law nr. 66/27 of April 30, 1966), modified by Law nr. 93-66, July 5th, 1993). In the public sector, equality between the sexes is guaranteed in terms of recruiting, salaries, and promotion. A comparison of women’s employment laws and regulations, using the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law finds that Tunisia has fewer restrictions on women’s employment than do Egypt and Jordan.

Yet only 26 percent of working-age women on average participate in the labor force.10 Over the past six years, only 17 percent of the 561,000 new jobs created have benefited women. Women’s unemployment

5 Nathan Associates, “Tunisia: Expanding Economic Opportunities for Women & Youth, Gender & Social Inclusion

Assessment,” prepared for MCC (Arlington, VA, September 2018).

6 The “Core Team” refers to the group of GoT experts (business climate, water scarcity, economics, gender, etc.)

convened by, and working from, MDICI that manages and is involved in the MCC compact development process.

7 M. El Ayeb and F. Mokkadem, “La politique de l’emploi en Tunisie: Principaux programmes, résultats et perspectives de promotion de l’entrepreneuriat féminin et des jeunes,” prepared under the GoT-MCC cooperation

(Tunis, January 2019).

8 The principle of “decent work” is from the International Labor Organization and refers to productive work that delivers a fair income; workplace security; social protection for workers and their families; better prospects for personal development and social integration; freedom for people to express their concerns, organize, and participate in workplace decisions that affect their lives; and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. See https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm.

9 Since the Nathan assessment was completed, a seminal book on Tunisian labor markets has been published, based on analysis of the 2014 Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey (TLMPS): Ragui Assaad and Mongi Boughzala, eds., The Tunisian Labor Market in an Era of Transition (Oxford and Cairo: Oxford University Press and Economic Research Forum, 2018). Figure is from Table 5.3, Rim Ben Ayed Mouelhi and Mohamed Goaied, “Women in the

Tunisian Labor Market,” Chapter 5, pp. 113-139.

10 According to the INS TLMPS, 2014. This participation rate is higher than in other Middle East and North African

(MENA) countries, such as Algeria, Jordan, and Egypt, but just over half the world average according to the World

Bank’s 2018 World Development Indicators.

https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm in 2014 was about 22 percent, compared with 13 percent for men; for tertiary graduates, about 42 percent of women graduates are unemployed, compared to 22 percent of men.

Numerous gaps in the legal framework constrain women’s economic participation. Certain legal restrictions prohibit night work by women and youth, and work in certain economic sectors. The law also does not require that working mothers be guaranteed their same position after returning from maternity leave, creating vulnerabilities for working mothers. Together, these factors may disincentivize women from entering and remaining in the workforce after children as the law provides leeway to employers to be in control of their positions, trajectories, and advancement. In addition, Tunisia’s laws do not protect women from discrimination from banks based on their gender or marital status when trying to get to obtain credit or capital. Women in Tunisia own little land in their own name, and are particularly disadvantaged in securing collateral needed to obtain access to credit.

Socio-cultural pressures also constrain women’s labor force participation, despite the impressive educational accomplishments of women. Cultural norms, especially in rural areas, still make it difficult for many women to engage in work outside the home or off-farm, owing to a combination of significant care and reproductive responsibilities, household management responsibilities in the absence of their migrant husbands or sons, employer reticence to hire women of child-bearing age, wage discrimination, limited access to managerial positions, limited decent work opportunities, limited safe pedestrian and transportation options to and from work, family concerns about exposure to gender-based violence, and other factors. In rural areas, women, while eager to gain new skills and leave agriculture to try new roles, face more limited mobility, access to government services, and engage in more vulnerable, agriculture-based livelihoods. Women’s entrepreneurial initiative, especially in the countryside, is undervalued, as women’s social roles value stability and security, directly counter to business creation, which is seen as a risky activity. Women who manage income-generating activities often lack the skills with which to develop business plans or project ideas, have weak understanding of business registration procedures, and have limited access to financial and market information.

The problem of unemployment for educated women is particularly acute in rural (or “lagging”) regions:

“many young educated women are trapped in lagging regions unable to find a job and without the option of moving to places where employment prospects are better.”11

Constraints Facing Youth Entrepreneurs

Youth are vulnerable as they seek to enter the labor force, in part because of their more limited work experience, in part because of institutionalized churn due to legal labor contract definitions and internship program specifications, and in part because of their much more limited access to land and finance which make it difficult for them to launch entrepreneurship initiatives. Unemployment was high in 2017 for young adults: 36% for 20-24 year-olds and 32% for 25-29 year-olds (El Ayeb and Mokkadem 2019), and the rates are especially acute for female youth. Tunisian youth who are not formally employed spend three years on average before finding a job. Even once employed, many youths are in low-skilled, temporary positions that tend to be unstable long-term options. This effect is compounded in the interior and southern areas of the country, which were the hub of the 2011 revolution organizing efforts. In this region, 23.6% to 42.4% of youth are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) between both

11 Lucia Hanmer, Edinaldo Tebaldi, and Dorte Verner, “Gender and Labor Markets in Tunisia’s Lagging Regions,”

Chapter 6 in Assaad and Boughzala, eds., Op.cit., pp. 140-170. Citation from p. 161.

rural and urban areas. Their exclusion from the labor market has led many to refer to them as “Generation

Jobless,” leading to mounting social pressure, decreased motivation to find new employment opportunities, increased humiliation, and increased feelings of exclusion.12 This also has a cyclical effect on NEET youth as it further discourages them from job searching with labor market pessimism particularly high amongst young women in rural areas, where 85% respond that they are too discouraged to keep searching for work.13 In the interior and southern regions, young women are also discouraged from finding employment due to deeply patriarchal societal norms.14 Overall, the effect of prolonged youth unemployment in Tunisia not only limits productivity and economic growth potential, but also erodes social cohesion and individual economic independence.

In response to the low prospects for traditional wage employment, many Tunisian youths are turning to entrepreneurial pursuits for income generation. In 2018, Tunisia took the lead ahead of many countries by passing its Start-Up Act, after years’ long discussions between legislators and entrepreneurs, investors, and civil society organizations.15 The new law supports entrepreneurs through providing funding opportunities, exemptions from corporate taxes, assistance to file for international patents, among others.

The legislation also provides public and private sector employees with the opportunity to take a year off from their current job to pursue new entrepreneurial efforts.16 Enterprises qualifying for support can be from across a variety of sectors, though the law favors those using new technologies.17

Additional obstacles facing both women and youth entrepreneurs in Tunisia include the following:

Data on entrepreneurship that are sector, age, and sex-disaggregated are very limited and few qualitative profiles exist of women and young entrepreneurs, making it difficult to propose appropriate programs or strategies.18 This includes a dearth of data after Tunisians have completed training programs to see how they applied their knowledge and where programs can be altered to be more effective.

Access to finance is difficult: Women represent fewer than 10 percent of beneficiaries of loans from the SME Bank. Because of their small size, limited market penetration, and difficulty meeting stringent collateral requirements, female-led enterprises are more likely to be able to access microfinance support for income-generating activities, rather than bank loans for new or existing businesses. These income-generating activities appear to have had limited economic impact, and have not resulted in significant additional financing for women’s economic empowerment or job creation. Youth face a similar challenge with a lack of credit history, 12 World Bank, “Chapter 3: Youth Inactivity and Unemployment,” in Tunisia: Breaking the Barriers to Youth

Inclusion, Report 89233 (Washington, DC, 2014).

13 JA Worldwide, “Generation Jobless: The Challenge of Global Youth Unemployment” (Colorado Springs, CO, 2014).

14 Ibid 15 A full copy of the law can be found in Arabic at http://thd.tn/startup-act-version-adoptee.pdf.

16 Ibid 17 Ibid

18 According to Drine and Grach (2010), the first three women-owned SMEs were started in Tunisia in 1970, though women’s entrepreneurship has since grown quite rapidly. See Imed Drine and Mouna Grach, “Supporting Women

Entrepreneurs in Tunisia,” Working Paper 2010/100 (Helsinki: United Nations University World Institute for

Development Economics Research, September 2010, https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2010- 100.pdf).

http://thd.tn/startup-act-version-adoptee.pdf https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2010-100.pdf https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2010-100.pdf recordkeeping skills, and networks, which leads many bank to view them as risky potential borrowers and prohibit them from accessing capital.

Despite many women being interested in entrepreneurship, they lack confidence in their abilities to lead, grow, and develop successful businesses. Youth also face a lack of confidence due to their inability to find gainful and secure employment after schooling.

A plethora of programs exist in Tunisia to promote workforce development and help entrepreneurs launch businesses, acquire new workforce skills, etc., some of which address the above issues.19 Descriptions of these programs are found especially in El Ayeb and Mokkadem (2019) as well as in ILO (2016) and

Nathan Associates (2018). Some of these fall under the aegis of the Ministry of Employment & Training, others under that of the BTS, and still others fall under other institutional umbrellas:

Ministry of Employment & Training Banque Tunisienne de

Solidarité (BTS)

Other

Contrat d’insertion des diplômés de l’enseignement supérieur (CIDES)

Contrat d’adaptation et d’insertion professionnelle (CAIP)

Contrat de reinsertion dans la vie active (CRVA)

Programme du service civil volontaire (SCV)

Stage d’initiation à la vie professionnelle (SVP)

Programme d’accompagnement des promoteurs des petites entreprises

(PAPPE)

Programme “FORSATI”

Programme contrat “dignité”

Le chèque d’amélioration de l’employabilité

Le chèque d’appui à l’emploi

La creation d’entreprises et formation d’entrepreneurs

Micro-crédits

Agri-invest

Economie verte

Fonds de roulement de l’Office National de l’Artisanat (ONA)

Crédit professionnel (petis métiers, services, artisanats)

Crédit agri-saison

Crédit WAFA

Crédit technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC)

Très petite entreprise

Crédit QFF MPJ-FR

Crédit QFF TPE Booster

Finance islamique “yes-tu”

Fonds National de la Promotion de l’Artisanat et des Petits Métiers

(FONAPRAM)

Fonds de Promotion et de

Décentralisation Industrielle

(FOPRODI)

Programme de Développement Intégré

(PDI)

Programme Régional de

Développement (PRD)

Programme des Chantiers Régionaux de Développement (PCRD)

La Loi de l’Investissment (Loi n°

2016-71 du 30 septembre 2016)

Programme de l’Autonomie

Economique de la Femme (RAIDA)

Fonds Spécial de Développement

Agricole et de la Pêche (FOSDAP)

Programme IRADA (Initiative

Régionale d’Appui au Développement économique durable)

Source: El Ayeb and Mokkadem (2019)

In addition to this mapping, the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood, and Seniors’ Moussawat program to promote gender equality in Tunisia also produced an inventory in 2018 of gender-related programs and projects in Tunisia, including a subset focusing on economic empowerment of women.20

Despite the preponderance of activities, aside from the RAIDA program and a few other activities, practically no programs exist that are exclusively focused on encouraging women’s entrepreneurship (El

19 This summary is drawn from a mapping of employment promotion programs carried out for the GoT’s Core Team by El Ayeb and Mokkadem (2019).

20 See Moussawat, “Cartographie des programmes et projets integrant le genre en Tunisie,” vers.préliminaire, produced by ECORYS for the Ministère de la Femme, de la Famille, de l’Enfance et des Personnes âgées (Tunis, June 2018), http://www.moussawat.tn/sites/default/files/documents/CARTOGRAPHIE%2027-06-2018-min.pdf.

http://www.moussawat.tn/sites/default/files/documents/CARTOGRAPHIE%2027-06-2018-min.pdf

Ayeb and Mokkadem 2019). There are also few activities focusing on supporting established businesses led by young entrepreneurs. In January 2019, the European Union announced an assistance package of

€305 million to support youth entrepreneurship, the highest amount of any European Union-Tunisia package. The funds will support skills development and policy participation among youth; Tunisian innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem; and support to local governance. However, the limited number of programs in Tunisia focused on women and youth leads to a lack of information about the factors that inhibit (or encourage) recruitment, retention, and advancement for women and youth in the workforce. Without data on these issues, it is extremely difficult to produce evidence-based interventions with a likelihood of success.

Tunisia Compact Timeline

Compact Timeline Milestone Date

Second Compact Development Funding/609g Agreement signed January 2019

Final Design Workshop w/GoT December 2019

Finalization of budgets, activity descriptions, objectives, tasks, high-level

M&E indicators, and other key elements for the Investment Memp

December 2019

Compact Negotiations and finalization March, 2020

MCC Board Presentation April 2020

Prepare Entry into Force, tentative January 2021

C.3 SCOPE OF WORK

To overcome this gap in programming focused on women and youth entrepreneurs and to provide an integrated framework for the promotion of women’s and youth entrepreneurship, the GoT’s Ministry of

Development, Investment, and International Cooperation (MDICI) and Ministry of Industry and SMEs have proposed an activity under the MCC compact’s Business Climate Improvement Project to support women and youth entrepreneurs, particularly in interior and rural regions.

MCC and the GoT therefore require specialized project design services to determine the exact nature, content, geographic coverage, activities, implementation modalities, and opportunities for local partnerships of the future Female and Youth Entrepreneurship Support Activity (hereafter, “the

Activity”) to be included in the compact as part of the Business Climate Improvement Project.

The principal outcome of the design study should be a set of proposed sub-activities to achieve the broader goals of the Business Climate Improvement Project and the specific gender and social inclusion goals expressed above and described in greater detail below.

The Activity’s objectives are:

Address critical constraints faced by youth and women entrepreneurs in the compact’s target sectors in growing their businesses, and support these businesses in benefiting from the reforms and activities implemented under the Business Climate Improvement Project by o Reinforcing the abilities of women and youth to create and consolidate their business ideas (through training, access to finance, marketing, management, business plan coaching, and mentoring);

o Encouraging women’s empowerment and reinforcing their self-confidence in entrepreneurship and leadership;

o Developing preferential tools for youth and women business owners (e.g., incentives, new technologies, market studies); and o Designing entrepreneurship initiatives for women and NEET youth and promoting business formalization and business growth.

Identify and build into the activity design opportunities to modify law and regulations in Tunisia that have gender-differentiated or gender-biased impacts on women's capacity and opportunity to engage in employment or entrepreneurial activity. This will be largely based upon the initial evidence and information on policy and regulatory constraints collected by MCC to date.

Expected beneficiaries of the Activity are current women and youth business owners looking to scale their businesses in sectors targeted for intervention under the compact, which include transportation, ICT, agribusiness, and logistics. The design study will focus on youth and female entrepreneurship, however recommendations should also be made regarding how to align, coordinate and link activities and support provided through this component with the broader goals and activities of the entire Business

Climate Improvement Project This beneficiary pool is sufficiently heterogeneous (by gender, age, region, primary livelihood sector, level of education, etc.) that the design team should consider how best to stratify the overall pool and design activities to ensure that specific needs of each stratum are appropriately addressed.

The design study team will:

Conduct a review of analysis and documentation prepared for MCC to date to identify factors that either enable or constrain women and youth entrepreneurship.

Specify a logical framework detailing the theory of change of the proposed interventions. The logical framework should connect constraints, interventions, implementing partners, expected results, risks and assumptions.

Identify and quantify a stratified pool of target beneficiaries (in terms of individuals, firms, and networks).

Identify key partners (government, donor, NGO) with whom the Activity might collaborate.

In conjunction with the wider Business Climate Modernization Project, propose and build into project design specific measures to modify laws and regulations in the area of business and commerce that have a gender-differentiated impact de jure or de facto (and whether intended or not) on women's capacity and opportunity to engage in employment and entrepreneurship.

Identify critical interactions and linkages to ensure support for the beneficiaries under this component is aligned with and helps maximize opportunities under the broader Business Climate

Project.

Develop proposed activities and sub-activities that promote youth and female entrepreneurship in the targeted sectors. The design study team should consider whether the Activity may encompass the following components:

o A training component, to include programs that address the specific needs identified by the design study team. This would include a digital training component, to help beneficiaries make better use of the digital platform for businesses and the simplified business procedures planned under the compact.

o A personal initiative component, to develop women and youth’s beliefs in themselves, their personal initiatives to dream and pursue their dreams, and their abilities to express their dreams, plans, and needs to be able to realize them;21 o A communications component that helps bridge support gaps within families or between wives and their husbands/partners for women’s entrepreneurship endeavors;

o A counseling and orientation component, to help beneficiaries find their way to the different financing instruments and support structures (e.g., BTS, BFPME (Banque de

Financement des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises), ANETI (Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi et le Travail Indépendant), APII (Agence de Promotion de l’Industrie et de l’Innovation), APIA (Agence de Promotion des Investissements Agricoles), FONAPRAM, FOPRODI);

o A legal and regulatory reform component , aimed at modifying the most appropriate among the discriminatory laws and regulations identified in earlier work;

o A market analysis and product development component, aimed not at picking winners, but at providing women entrepreneurs with the tools to analyze market constraints and opportunities and to develop appropriate products and services where growth opportunities exist in different sectors and different regions of the country;

o A mentoring/networking component, to bring women and youth in nearby communities together to learn from each other, foster discussions between men and women about the role of women’s entrepreneurship and its contributions to their families’ well-being and to gain men’s acceptance of their wives’ work, and to connect women and youth across regions and with business mentors; mentoring also includes regular follow-up communications by trainers with their trainees to follow their progress and continue to offer advice, as needed;

o A financing component (possibly to include working capital loan funds and supplemental financing for capital investments and other activities, or possible partnerships with organizations working on increasing access to finance for women);22 o A productivity enhancement component (training in the use of IT and digital tools, marketing, productivity enhancing technologies,…); and o A component for support and risk mitigation to understand how to be resilient in the face of possible difficulties and risks (developing advance planning skills, adapting to unexpected changes, strategies for risk reduction). The design study team should also recommend other components that may be needed to accomplish the Activity’s goals, such as those on addressing socio-cultural barriers to women’s economic activity.

21 Personal initiative training has been found to be an effective way to enhance women’s entrepreneurship. In addition, around the world women entrepreneurs require strong communication skills – particularly in public speaking and business pitch/presentation design and delivery – to advance and thrive in business. Such skills are needed when communicating with investors, bankers, potential and current clients, marketing agents, business partners, employees, and other stakeholders. Women often lack critical communication skills, which, compounded with lack of self-confidence, often prevents them from upgrading or growing their businesses. Communications workshops equip women entrepreneurs with critical communication skills to advocate for their businesses, increase participation in meetings and decision-making forums, engage in strategic negotiations, and better advocate for themselves.

22 This could include identification of banks that use psychometric testing, which usually favors women, in addition to regular risk assessment tools. If no banks presently do psychometric testing, the Activity could include training on how to access and leverage capital, including through mock interviews with banks; record-keeping trainings; etc.

Define detailed objectives, beneficiaries, intervention zones, timeline, expected results, and monitoring indicators.

Set targets for:

o Share of females and youth entrepreneurs targeted;

o Expansion of beneficiary firms measured by change in the number of employees o Impact on revenues of beneficiary businesses;

o Impact on access to resources, including bank and other sources of finance;

o Progress in modifying discriminatory laws and/or modifying regulations differentially affecting women's legal capacity and economic agency.

Provide a comprehensive budget estimate for implementation of the Activity.

Propose an approach for designing the activity in a way that supports MCC’s learning on women’s economic empowerment. Specifically, propose an activity design that allows to experiment and test how differences in cohorts/regions (e.g. socioeconomic status, geography, regional idiosyncrasy) may affect the effectiveness of the different activity components. This may be done by proposing certain activity components to be carried out in distinct cohorts/regions and compare and evaluate their findings.

The Offeror should note that while there are many similarities between the program objectives for both women and youth, individual activities should be tailored for each population. Women, youth, and young women may each face a specific set of challenges and opportunities. This may mean that, despite outcomes being similar, programming should be adjusted for each group and targets set appropriately.

Expected Implementing Agency and Local Partners

The Ministère du Développement, de l’Investissement et de la Cooperation International (MDICI) is proposed by the GoT as the principal partner responsible for implementation of this project and activity.

This proposed institutional anchor for the Youth and Female Entrepreneurship Activity should be reviewed by the design study team in light of the new female entrepreneurship oversight office being established.

Whichever government institution is assigned to oversee this Activity, it is essential that it coordinate closely with the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood, and Seniors’ Moussawat program (or those who supervised it, if it has now been disbanded), in order to learn from the experiences of RAIDA. The contributions of relevant other organizations’ views, including UTICA’s Chambre Nationale des Femmes

Chefs d’Entreprise (CNFCE), the Conseil des Jeunes Dirigeants (CJD), the Centre de Recherche, d’Études, de Documentation et d’Information sur la Femme (CREDIF), Confédération des Entreprises

Citoyennes de Tunisie (CONECT), Women’s Enterprise Sustainability (WES), and business incubators

(biat labs) should also be considered when setting up goals, staffing, and budget resources.

In addition, implementation of the Activity is expected to take place in collaboration with NGO partners to assure greater impact. Additional expected partners may include existing business accelerators, particularly in the case of programs seeking to support youth and women entrepreneurship. Based on their meetings and field missions, the design team is expected to recommend partners of potential interest to be sure they are included in an information workshop about the Activity as it is presented for stakeholder feedback.

Approach to the Design Study

The design team should base its work on 1) analysis and documentation prepared to date by MCC, GoT, and others (GSI assessments, due diligence reports, project papers, etc.) to understand obstacles to entrepreneurship encountered by women and youth; and 2) field missions undertaken by the design study team to regions expected to be involved in the compact to conduct consultations with expected program beneficiaries and potential partner entities.

MCC and GoT Core Team Contributions

MCC and the GoT Core Team will provide the contractor with the following:

Compact Background Documents: Electronic copies of initial analyses (including the

Constraints Analysis, Investment Opportunities Analysis, GSI Assessments) and the concept project documents.

Background Documents: Electronic copies of relevant analyses and studies in MCC’s and the GoT Core Teams possession will be shared with the contractor.

Supplemental Consultant Work: MCC anticipates having consultants working on complementary analyses and studies. As this work may need to be closely coordinated, MCC and the GoT Core Team will share draft documents as they become available and facilitate coordination and contact between other consultant teams and the contractor.

Timely Review: MCC and the GoT Core Team will provide constructive feedback and approvals on deliverables in a timely manner for all deliverables.

Communications: MCC will facilitate communications with the GoT Core Team as well as with the US Embassy-Tunis. The GoT Core Team will facilitate communications with local stakeholders and government agencies. A detailed communications protocol will be agreed to by both parties.

Office Space and In-Country Transportation: The design study team will need to provide its own office space and all transportation in Tunis and around Tunisia.

Security: The consultant is expected to follow U.S. government security requirements (see

Annex 2).

C.4 TASKS

MAIN TASKS 1 – 7

In close collaboration with the GoT Core Team and MCC, and following a participatory approach, the contractor will:

Task 1:

Participate in the kick off meeting. Conduct a review of analysis prepared to date (including ILO

2016, MCC 2017, Nathan Associates 2018, El Ayeb and Mokkadem 2019, as well as other literature referenced in this SOW), then meet with MCC and GoT for an in-briefing, Q&A, and planning.

Prepare an Inception Report for MCC and GoT that updates the proposal’s proposed approach, personnel and qualifications, deliverables, and timeline, as necessary. (Deliverable #1)

Task 2:

Based on the review of the analysis prepared to date, prepare a checklist of key elements of entrepreneurship program success to serve as reference to the design study. This note will be a set of working Activity hypotheses, the validity or applicability of which will be tested in the field.

(Deliverable #2)

Task 3:

With MCC and GoT, design the field mission, to include at least one week in Tunis and at least one week in the field. The goal of the field mission is to meet with stakeholders in Tunis and in a sample of coastal and interior regions in the north, center, and south, depending on expected geographic coverage of the compact. Field visit destinations should be selected according to expected zones or regions of intervention under the project. The field mission will serve to a) contextualize the design team’s understanding of challenges facing women and youth with regard to entrepreneurship, and b) test a set of concepts to be pursued in a more in-depth fashion via a Beneficiary Survey. As part of field mission design, with input from MCC and GoT, identify the list of stakeholders with whom the team will need to meet in Tunis and in the field (Deliverable #3).

These will include key institutions or organizations in government, the financial sector, and the private sector relevant to the Business Climate Improvement Project; and organizations or associations representing women business owners and youth entrepreneurs (formal enterprise chiefs, younger business leaders, and informal or SME owners), in order to reach target beneficiaries of the

Activity. In light of the significance of their programs to the Activity, members of the design study team should plan to spend a full day each with the Ministry of Employment and Training, the BTS, and the Ministry of Women’s RAIDA program. Meetings with MDICI/TIA and Ministry of Industry and SME should also be planned.

The Core Team will provide the necessary resources to arrange in advance of the team’s arrival in-country the design study team’s meeting schedule, along with letters of introduction, and will be available to support the team and additional scheduling/re-scheduling that may be necessary to maximize the design study team’s productivity while in Tunisia.

Task 4:

Conduct phone interviews with key stakeholders in order to gather initial data and set priorities in advance of the field mission. Building on the inventory of similar projects undertaken by other actors in El Ayeb and Mokkadem 2019, gather information from beneficiaries of these types of projects to assess impacts, and identify successful approaches and lessons learned.

Task 5:

Undertake the field mission, to appreciate the geographic, socio-economic, legal, environmental, and cultural dimensions of possible interventions. During this mission the design study team should:

Test ideas about possible interventions with local stakeholders, in particular likely beneficiaries, to ensure proposed approaches are validated and informed by their experiences and needs for this activity. This information will be further validated by the Beneficiary Survey.

Provide both in-brief and debrief presentations at beginning and conclusion of field mission to GoT and MCC. (Deliverables #4 & #5)

Task 6:

Analyze the information collected via the field mission and the Beneficiary Survey and present recommendations in a draft Activity design paper (Deliverable #6) that:

Characterizes potential beneficiaries’ needs and priorities, stakeholders’ potential contributions, possible partners to work with the GoT implementing agency to carry out this Activity on the ground, suggested modalities for partnership;

Outlines a project logic for the Activity, in line with the overall project logic for the Business Climate project;

Develops a set of proposed activities and sub-activities that address entrepreneurship support needs for the transportation and logistics, ICT, and agribusiness sectors, considering each of the possible

Activity components described above;

Proposes implementation modalities for government (fully funded support, challenge grants with cost-sharing, subsidized loan funds; allocation via first-come-first-served, competitive application, or other approach);

Identifies potential direct and indirect participants of the activities, by regions, with estimated numbers and categories;

Recommends a communication and outreach strategy to attract potential participants;

Incorporates policy or institutional reforms that may be required for successful implementation;

Proposes a list of key indicators to be tracked, and included in compact M&E Plans, as well as an approach for evaluating the intervention.

Task 7:

Based on feedback received from MCC, GoT, and other stakeholders, revise the draft Activity design paper, as needed and prepare the Final Activity design paper (Deliverable #7). The final

Activity design paper should include:

Suggested Activity budget to reflect staffing, other direct implementation costs, enterprise support funds, all inclusive of multipliers, for an indicative Activity budget not to exceed $10 million;

Suggested timeline for implementation, to be informed by MCC’s compact implementation timelines, with key deliverables outlined;

In concert with MCC’s and the GoT Core Team’s M&E experts, a recommended approach to definition and collection of baseline data and process and impact indicators;

Recommendations on how to estimate benefits to participants and to the Tunisian economy.23

Optional Task #8. MCC will make a decision before the award to include this task in the award or not.

1. Working with a local survey company, design and implement a Beneficiary Survey to gather input from a minimum of 200 women and youth from 4-8 different parts of the country

(depending on the geographic coverage of the Compact) who

23 MCC requires compact investments to show at least a 10% return on investment.

Have previously participated or are currently participating in an ANETI-affiliated training or internship program;

Have previously participated or are currently participating in a BTS-affiliated entrepreneurship support program;

Have previously participated or are currently participating in the RAIDA program; or

Are already running a business.

The Beneficiary Survey should ask:

What are the key challenges they face in developing, running, and growing their companies (e.g., lack of knowledge or skills, lack of information about business opportunities, lack of bankable business ideas, lack of access to credit/loans, lack of collateral, lack of support from spouses/families, lack of understanding of product standards/certifications, lack of entry into marketing value chains, lack of self-confidence, inability to access information about business enabling environment, etc.);

What aspects of the support they received from the program were helpful;

What aspects of the support they received from the program were unhelpful;

If they did not participate in a program, why not and what is their knowledge about available entrepreneurship support programs;

How would they rank priorities among training, personal initiative and communications training, counseling/orientation, mentoring/networking, access to finance, access to markets, counseling in dealing with administrative procedures for businesses, productivity approaches, risk mitigation approaches, or other priorities they identify;

What kinds of support would they rather receive or would they like to receive now;

Which local institutions are most helpful, easiest to access, and/or most trusted by local women and youth;

How do local women and youth access information about prices, domestic markets, foreign markets, new product ideas, new business ideas, other business regulations, etc.;

How digitally savvy are local women and youth, and what do they use for connecting to make phone calls, to send or receive simple messages, to access the internet, to access social media.

What follow-up after the training was done and whether it was helpful or areas for improvement in post-training support.

The Beneficiary Survey draft (sampling approach, questionnaire format, delivery format (e.g., electronic, verbal, paper-based), collection strategy, and analysis methodology) will be shared with GoT and MCC for comment (Deliverable #6) and will be pre-tested and delivered in Arabic and French by the local survey company. The Contractor shall be responsible for developing and overseeing all data collection and entry protocols and implementation. This requires ensuring appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) review and approval of research protocols, survey instruments, and informed consent procedures. Bidders for this design study activity should propose the most effective and efficient approach to gather this information. The information gathered through the survey should be summarized in the Activity design paper, with detailed responses to each question in the survey, disaggregated by sex, region, and other relevant variables. The contractor should submit to MCC all materials in electronic form (questionnaire(s), informed consents(s), research protocol(s), Metadata (as needed), public-use and/or restricted access microdata files and analysis code) following MCC’s Microdata guidelines.

C.5 REQUIRED RESOURCES

General Requirements for Personnel

MCC requests the Contractor propose a team who can accomplish the SOW’s objectives. The contractor should identify the Team Leader who will be the point of contact to MCC and GoT.

Among the non-key experts proposed, the following areas of expertise should be considered: gender and social inclusion; youth-focused economic engagement; private sector development and business climate improvement; SMEs and entrepreneurship promotion; labor markets, employment, and workforce development; legal and regulatory reform issues governing labor, banking, business, and commerce;

project design; and progress/impact monitoring.

The Key Personnel are:

1. Team Leader, Senior, International

2. Youth and Gender Entrepreneurship Expert, Mid-Level, International

3. Youth and Gender Entrepreneurship Expert, Senior, Local

Non-Key Personnel:

1. Youth and Gender Entrepreneurship Expert, Mid-Level, Local

2. Administrative Support

C.6 MINIMUM PERSONNEL SKILLS REQUIREMENTS

1. TEAM LEADER

i) A minimum of a Master’s degree, or equivalent accreditation if a non-U.S. institution, in business, or public policy, or international development.

ii) Ten (10) or more years of experience in a private or public entity designing, implementing and/or evaluating international projects/programs related to gender and youth inclusion.

iii) A proven track record and demonstrated expertise in best practice approaches and design of interventions to improve entrepreneurial potential of women and youth.

iv) Proven ability to engage with, seek input from and present to diverse stakeholders, including potential female and youth project beneficiaries, government and business community.

v) Proven strong leadership and team work skills and ability to deliver results within specified and often changing timeframes.

vi) Proven ability to ensure the team produces credible evidence in support of its conclusions and recommendations from analyses undertaken, to compile and present comprehensive reports.

vii) Strong capacity to multi-task, including managing, prioritizing and fulfilling competing demands in real time.

viii) Proven excellent oral and written communication skills in comprehensive working written and spoken French and/or Arabic desirable.

https://www.mcc.gov/resources/doc/guidance-evaluation-microdata-guidelines

ix) Prior experience in the North Africa region or Tunisia preferred.

2. The team of international and local experts that the Contractor proposes must have the following minimum qualifications:

1. A minimum of a Master’s degree or equivalent of a U.S. University Master’s degree (equivalency accreditation if a non-U.S. institution). Under rare circumstances, extraordinary qualifications/experience in the required field could substitute for a Master’s degree. Please submit your rationale of proposing an expert with less than Master’s degree.

2. A minimum of 7 years work experience in the skill/expertise required category;

3. Prior experience on projects in developing countries and in Tunisia;

4. Proven understanding of gender and youth exclusion issues in Tunisia.

5. Demonstrated prior experience working in transportation, ICT, agribusiness, and logistics is desirable.

6. Proven working knowledge and fluency in written and oral French and/or Arabic.

C.7 CONFLICT OF INTEREST

In accordance with the principles of FAR Subpart 9.5 and MCC policy, the Contractor shall be ineligible to furnish, as a prime or subcontractor or otherwise, implementation services which result in response(s) to findings, proposals, or recommendations written by the Contractor, unless this provision is expressly waived by MCC.

The Contractor and its subcontractors would be precluded from bidding on work and services to be procured by the local Accountable Entity or using funds advanced under a Compact in the relevant country, unless the contractor submits a mitigation plan sufficient to ameliorate any conflict of interest pursuant to the rules applicable to the procurement process.

C.8 SUBCONTRACTS

Sub-contracts to…