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Opens

Feb 15 2024 00:50 (EST)

Deadline

Mar 3 2024 23:59 (EST)

Value

$300,000.00 to $380,000.00

UNCDF is partnering with WFP-Agriculture Market Support (AMS) programme to deliver on a project funded by the Mastercard Foundation with the ultimate objective of creating job opportunities for 90,500 youth in rural Uganda. WFP AMS will contribute to the Mastercard Foundation Young Africa Works strategy to create decent and fulfilling work and business growth opportunities for the youth, especially young women, and increase financial inclusion through a combination of capacity strengthening strategies in the agricultural sector in Uganda.

Interventions under this partnership seek a) to equip young people women, and refugees with knowledge, skills, and startup capital; it aims to accelerate the adoption of technology, especially digital solutions; create or increase demand and supply of inputs, outputs, services (e.g., finance), and skilled labour; and b) provide technical assistance and influence national and subnational institutions to improve the inclusiveness, efficiency, safety, and resilience of agri-food systems.

UNCDF’s intervention feeds into the broader intervention by WFP by targeting youth, women and refugees that graduate from the WFP-AMS - led business training, an incubation programme. UNCDF and WFP will set a criteria to select the most promising businesses and ideas will be put in place to identify those that make it to a UNCDF-led accelerator programme.

The latter is composed of two phases: a business bootcamp phase and a sustained 6-month business acceleration phase. The bootcamp is a specialized one-week intense BDS training at the end of which the MSEs (individuals, collectives and or enterprises) will have polished their business plans, and their levels of readiness for capital injection and digital adoption. Post bootcamp, some businesses will be selected to receive sustained business acceleration which consists on personalized coaching and mentorship. These will also receive financing to implement their business plans in the form of access to seed innovation grants, while the more mature ones will be linked to financial institutions for loans.

This intervention aims to reach 20,000 youth, women, refugees, smallholder farmer enterprises and MSEs in the target regions providing them with BDS and entrepreneurship support in records management, marketing, savings, financial literacy, extension & Agro advisory, input efficiency, business skills training and technology usage.

The focus areas include:

Area 1: Digitization of the BDS training content/curriculum

In this focus area the BDS training content provided to the WFP-AMS participants at the incubation stage not only to be improved and digitized, but to give continuity to the efforts done by the partner agency, WFP. The objective is to add contents on basic financial and digital literacy to the foundational BDS training material tailored to the Micro and small agribusinesses and packaging it to be delivered through digital devices like tablets, phones and laptops with an aim of increasing outreach and uniformity of the content delivered.

Area 2: Provision of BDS to micro and small agribusinesses led by youth, women and refugee

In this focus area, a business acceleration approach will be adopted. This will include two phases:

1. Phase 1: An intense bootcamp providing universal business growth skills and adoption of business enhancing digital solutions.
2. Phase 2: An extended business coaching phase customized to each type of business and its growth potential. At this phase, the BDS partner is expected to use last-mile BDS providers in the micro and small business areas of operation to ensure continued support and progress monitoring. Additionally, for entry points to access the target participants, the BDS delivery will utilize the existing rural institutions i.e. Village and Savings Loan Associations (VSLAs) and cooperatives for sustainability.

Throughout the intervention, there will be a deliberate targeting of women using a gender mainstreaming approach will be used to ensure women are enrolled, retained and complete both phases. The outcomes for this intervention are increased entrepreneurship skills and business management capacity to develop and sustain agribusiness. The Project is expected to be implemented until 30th September 2026 and will be undertaken in West Nile, Northern, Karamoja and Southwestern regions of Uganda.

Candidates should be in a position to deliver on both areas of intervention (focus area 1 & 2).

UNCDF will provide a grant and technical assistance to the partner to carry out the activities.

For queries write to mildred.wengozi.b@uncdf.org cc uncdf.rfa@uncdf.org. Please put the subject email “Provision of Business Development Services to Micro and Small Agribusinesses in the regions of Northern Uganda, Southwestern, Karamoja and West Nile.”

Please submit your proposal trough this e-investment platform. Submissions using other templates or sent by other electronic or non electronic means will not be eligible.

For more information please download the following documents:

• RFA document
• Technical proposal
• Budget and workplan
• CV form
• PBA sample