Deadline: April 17, 2015
United Nations Capital Development Fund is seeking applications from qualified technical partners e.g. non for profit organization, or consulting firm) with the capacity to conduct the country specific diagnostic of the youth economic opportunities ecosystem in Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia.
YouthStart, a UNCDF initiative established in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, aims to increase access to financial services for low-income youth in sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on savings and financial education. The programme helps to design, test and scale up sustainable services tailored to the needs of young people, while helping to create an enabling regulatory environment for young people to access the right financial and other services they need to make sound financial decisions, build a strong asset base, and create sustainable livelihoods for themselves.
Minimum Criteria
- At least five years in operations
- Having conducted similar assignments in sub-Saharan Africa
- Provide written confirmation (annex 1) that the organization has reviewed the UNCDF Grant Agreement template (available upon request), is prepared to sign it by May 15th , without revision to standard language
- Submit a complete application
Additional Criteria
- Any type of organization (commercial for profit firms, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations) is eligible to compete
- Evidence of the organization having completed similar country assessments
- Previous experience identifying what youth need to make a smooth transition from school to work • Previous experience in the countries of the study
- Have confirmed human resources to cover all planned/required activities;
- Evidence of experience documenting knowledge and disseminating it in both English and French
- Evidence of a professional knowledge product production process
- Experience packaging knowledge products in an innovative manner
- Provide the latest audited financial statements
Agreement Parameters
Duration: The technical partner is expected to sign a Performance Based Financing (Grant) Agreement with UNCDF on the 15th of May (Applicants not familiar with UNCDF agreements are encouraged to request a sample from [email protected] prior to submission of application). The final country diagnostics should be ready for dissemination the first week of August and the presentations to key stakeholders in each country are expected to take place between September and December 2015.
Agreement size: up to US$200,000 for country assessments covering all four (4) countries, or approximately USD 50,000 per country assessment. Applicants should provide budgets indicating how they would allocate costs to produce high quality country assessments with their technical approach
Submission Process
- Applications and any consultation about this RFA should be submitted via email at [email protected]
- The subject line of the email should be: Inception Phase YouthStart Global
- See document for submission format
For more information, visit UNCDF Maria Perdomo YouthStart Programme Manager [email protected]