81313233-Assistance Technique à Invest for Jobs : conseil et appui au secteur privé dans la région de Matam

The objective of Invest for Jobs in Sénégal is to increase the employment among African and European enterprises opperating in Senegal. The region of Matam holds a potential for job creation. Only a few companies have reached industrial scales and the Programme identified private operators and training institutes as key partners in boosting economic growth and thus job creation in the sector. There are 3 key areas of progress that were preidentified: understanding of the market, addressing the quality requirements as demanded by the market, private sector led training, management of quality & workers safety. The Contractor will be responsible to ensure that the sector's transformation allows for and do create 400 new decent jobs (KPI 1), improve working conditions of 300 existing employees (KPI2), provide vocational training to 300 employees of the targeted partners (KPI3), im-prove the situation of 20 SMEs (KPI4). This contract aims at providing key ressources that are direly missing in the sector. The Contractor will seek being a center piece of the dialogue among private companies, industrial processors, medium & large scale farmers, public & semi-public stakeholders. As part of this Contract the Contractor will be in charge of formulating, enforcing and supervising Local Grant Agreements. As included in the required services, the Contractor will seek all possible funding opportunities in order to address the sector's needs in terms of equipment's, infrastructure and other investments this Contract cannot cover. The GIZ team of Invest for Jobs Senegal will support that effort. Once identified, the process of drafting, formulating, and finalizing the required documentation to access these funds will be under the Contractors mandate. The following main tasks shall then be:

Work Package (WP) N°1 : initial overview. In this first phase, the contractor will seek to develop its understanding of both the mandate and the economic context and players by focusing its approach on market demand. This will involve: (i) an analysis of the support programmes and structures already in place, (ii) a documentary analysis of economic sectors, (iii) an assessment of the development potential around promising sectors. The contractor will then start to build up a network of potential beneficiary companies, project promoters and external investors from the diaspora, among others. The aim will also be to ensure that the value proposition of this project and Invest for Jobs is clearly understood. With the support of the Invest for Jobs team, the contractor will ensure that the regional support structures and stakeholders involved in setting up the programme adhere to the beneficiary pre-selection process (companies, training providers/operators and foreign investors).

Work Package (WP) N°2 : training & capacity building. In the context of Invest for Jobs, the training of existing employees must meet a demand from the company, which anticipates growth in turnover and therefore needs more professional staff. In the light of the planning carried out under WP 1, the contractor is to carry out the following activities: (i) select the training providers/operators; (ii) develop concept of "school fields"; (iii) inclusive development and implementation of training guidelines; (iv) Strengthen the technical and operational capacity of training operators so that they are able to adopt new curricula and implement them rapidly.

Work Package (WP) N°3: strategic management & private investments. The goal of this third work package is to achieve tangible results in improving competitiveness via enhanced management capacities and investment channeling. These activities contribute to the achievement of the special initiative's Key Performance Indicator 4 (KPI 4). The Contractor will : - Strengthen the governance bodies of the 20 companies, while refocusing them on profitable core businesses; - Set up an accounting system within the 20 companies to enable technical and financial monitoring of activities by local structures; - Develop tools to improve the visibility of income and expenditure; - Support the production of monthly accounts and financial statements (annual or campaign) to enable comparisons and decisions to be made; - Support the investment projects of 20 project owners in the Matam region, in connection with the water-agriculture/livestock-energy nexus; - Explore the possibilities of new market segments and, if necessary, develop a marketing plan to penetrate them on a long-term basis; - Support the development of new business models or models adapted to the reality of the markets (or segments) identified with the companies, and carry out stress tests on the projected operating accounts; - Establish contact with financial institutions.

Work Package (WP) N°4: Implementation of a quality and safety management system For some companies, adopting a quality approach will mean mastering the technical aspects of production processes and acquiring infrastructure and equipment that are more efficient and better adapted to local conditions, as well as complying with the standards required by the target markets. It may therefore be necessary to : - Clarify and then raise awareness among stakeholders of the quality requirements that underpin the various existing trade flows and market segments, and define specifications that take into account the current and future needs of the market (wholesalers, exporters, agrifood manufacturers, distribution chain, etc.); - Provide the expertise and coaching needed to adopt good practices and eliminate non-compliance with the required specifications; - Build the capacities of the target groups in terms of quality, hygiene and safety; - Raising awareness of the use of appropriate equipment; support the group purchase of this equipment; - Strengthen the capacities of companies according to the specific needs expressed in relation to the production process