1.0 The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund **

AECF is a development institution that builds the resilience of rural and marginalized communities by catalyzing innovative private sector business models with patient capital and growth support services across Sub-Saharan Africa. Launched in 2008, the AECF has mobilized over US $356 million to date, leveraging more than US $658 million in matching capital and improving the lives of more than 19 million people in 2018 alone through jobs and increased household incomes. The AECF has so far supported 268 companies in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa across 40 value chains in our focal sectors of agribusiness and renewable energy.

To deliver on our strategy, we will continue to focus on the agribusiness and renewable energy sectors, increase support to climate-smart technologies, refine our challenge model, expand regional presence, deepen the focus on gender, youth and employment by expanding our products and partnership approach to better meet our investees’ current needs; and ensure they rapidly scale and transition to external financing and sustainability thereby attaining our vision of ‘*a prosperous, enterprising and resilient Africa*’.

2.0 About AECF’s Investments Advisory Services

In delivering on the strategy, AECF’s Investments Advisory Services (IAS) department is increasingly providing value added support to AECF investee companies in Africa to accelerate their business growth, resilience, and impact delivery. The IAS team works with the investee companies to identify capacity gaps through conducting business diagnostics and providing advisory services that will increase business performance and sustainable delivery of social impact. Based on the emerging priority needs of our investees, key advisory services have been categorized under strategy & strategic management; financial management; marketing, distribution & customer service; leadership and organization development; production and operations; integration of environmental and social management; and investment readiness & capital raising.

3.0 About the REACT SSA Program

The AECF renewable energy financing is US $166 million with US $61 million dedicated to REACT SSA, a program supporting the private sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to meet the energy needs of rural communities. About 510 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) currently have no access to electricity and will not get grid access in the near future, resulting in a steady increase in the number of people without electricity until at least 2025. The slow progress and prohibitive cost of conventional solutions to the household energy crisis mean that cheaper and more accessible new clean technologies offer a better chance of improved access to energy for rural households in the near future. Over the last decade, clean energy technologies have become more economical than conventional generation for many applications, and the regulatory environment to facilitate their application has improved. Risk and market failures restrict innovation and prevent the development and use of successful business models and technologies.

The AECF’s engagement in the energy sector under REACT SSA is designed to catalyze the private sector to increase the supply of cleaner fuels, raise awareness of the dangers from indoor air pollution, demonstrate how new knowledge in renewable energy technologies can be put into practice in ways that benefit the poor especially women, provide evidence on challenges in policy formulation and implementation.

REACT technologies being financed by AECF include:

a. Renewable technologies such as hydro-power, solar energy, biomass, and wind energy

b. Small, household-level solar home systems, comprising of basic lighting, phone charging systems and radios, made available to large numbers of households through pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) systems.

c. Large solar-power stand-alone systems for productive use, comprising of phone charging systems, radio etc. and that can be used at small scale rural-based business premises to provide the required power.

d. Larger solar power systems that meet the full range of household needs and are still affordable for low-income individuals.

e. Larger centralized renewable power systems (mini grids/ micro grids)/ utility models, with a distribution network that meet the full range of household/ business needs and are affordable for low-income individuals.

f. Production and/or distribution of cleaner fuels (e.g., ethanol) and energy-efficient cookstoves

g. Distribution models that support local entrepreneurship and growth of SMEs within a renewable energy product demand and supply chain

h. Innovative ideas that stimulate “next-generation” approach in the renewable energy sector

The target countries include Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Somalia.

4.0 About the assignment **

4.1 Purpose of the assignment

The REACT SSA Liberia project, under the REACT SSA Program, has a total of nine AECF investee companies: four in off-grid solar (Easy Solar, Eco Power Liberia, SJEDI Green Energy Inc., and LEN Two Inc.); two in clean cooking (Green Gold Liberia, and Liberia Eco-Supply Ventures Inc.); two in mini grids (LIB Solar LLC, and HV WoodGas Technologies Inc); and one in e-waste (Green Cities Inc.).

AECF is seeking the services of a talent management and organization development expert to support two of AECF’s investee companies in Liberia (Green Gold, Green Cities) to develop robust strategies for talent identification, acquisition and retention. This will also cover development of culture and performance management processes and frameworks. The expert engaged under the project will be expected to ascertain baseline indicators at the start of the project upon which to judge improvements/progress towards the objectives of this assignment. The services will be delivered by an expert, who will plug into AECF’s Advisory Studio. The assignment will be considered as one engagement and not separate engagements, and this should be reflected in the proposal.

4.2 Specific duties and responsibilities (the “Services”) of the consultant

For each of the two AECF investee companies, the consultant will be expected to deliver on the following scope and deliverables/outputs.

Output 1 – Recruitment and retention strategies developed.

a) Review the existing recruitment and talent management policies and practices and prepare a gap analysis report.

b) Determine and establish the goals, mission and objectives of the companies’ talent activities.

c) Improve the recruitment policies demonstrating best practice and making alternative recommendations as applicable/practical as possible.

d) Develop benchmarked strategies to attract and maintain/retain a highly competent workforce – strategies should guide the companies on how to build high performing teams and a high-performance private sector culture.

e) Revise and/or prepare job descriptions across departments.

f) Document a sound recruitment process and a staff development program, including an outline of a clear induction/on-boarding process for staff.

g) Develop a recruitment plan to fill the skill gaps that are critical to the company’s growth and competitiveness in the next two years.

h) Develop/revise job descriptions of staff.

i) Develop indicators to track the companies’ HR departments’ performance and manage accordingly.

Output 2: Robust Performance Management Framework developed and implemented.

This should respond to the challenges facing the companies as identified in Output 1. The Framework should link strategy and planning to performance through setting clear expectations and commitments.

a) Develop an effective performance management framework with clear performance indicators.

b) Develop a standardized performance management matrix/system and tools for staff.

c) Train the Human Resource taskforce and key human resource staff in performance management.

d) Support staff to conduct their first performance review using the revised tools during the period of the assignment, where applicable.

e) Prepare a learning and development plan for the staff.

Output 3: Training, coaching, and mentoring for managers – how to apply the Human Resources and performance management framework and tools.

a) Develop an induction program for managers.

b) Design and deliver a training and coaching program for supervisors (team effectiveness, high performance teams, building a private sector culture of performance)

c) Deliver at least three group coaching sessions for all investee companies in Liberia

4.3 Specific deliverables

For each of the companies, the deliverables/outputs for this assignment are outlined below:

a) SWOT Analysis of existing HR/talent management strategies and policies

b) A report for each company on each of the companies on how to formulate talent strategies, set human resource KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), perform strategic workforce planning and formulate a talent attraction, motivation, and retention strategy.

c) A HR policy and competitive staffing strategy that covers, among other aspects, how to identify, attract, recruit, and retain highly motivated and high performing staff.

d) Skills audit and Recruitment plan to deliver on the company strategy.

e) A learning and development plan for the staff

f) Training/coaching report and materials and tools for use by the investee companies for onward refresher trainings

g) A short learning paper presenting insights on talent management for early stage, small and growing businesses in fragile contexts like Liberia.

4.4 Duration of the assignment

The assignment is expected to take 50 days over a period of six months, starting in May 2021.

5.0 Proposal submission

Qualified consulting firms are invited to submit a proposal that includes the following:

a) Qualification and experience of the individual.

b) Approach and methodology to undertake this assignment underpinned by a demonstration of value for money.

c) Previous experience in similar assignment(s) with early stage, small and growing businesses

d) A detailed financial budget (in USD (United States Dollars) and work plan.

e) The technical and financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents.

6.0 Qualifications and experience

The minimum competencies and qualifications include:

a) Degree in Business Administration, Human Capital development or related field

b) Certification in Human Resource Management and/or Organization Development

c) Experience in developing Talent Management products

d) Experience in building the capacity of new and growing businesses (SMEs) in Africa.

e) Experience with social and for-profit enterprises

f) Experience in the Renewable Energy Sector an added advantage

7.0 Reporting

The consultant will report to the Advisory Manager – Investments Advisory Services.

8.0 Evaluation Criteria

An evaluation committee will be formed by the AECF and may include employees of the businesses to be supported. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. The consultant should ensure that they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated.

The AECF may request and receive clarification from any consultant when evaluating a proposal. The evaluation committee may invite some or all the consultants to appear before the committee to clarify their proposals. In such event, the evaluation committee may consider such clarifications in evaluating proposals.

In deciding the final selection of qualified bidder, the technical quality of the proposal will be given a weighting of 80% based on the evaluation criteria. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 20% and the proposals will be ranked in terms of total points scored.

The mandatory and desirable criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are identified in the table below.

Key Areas for Evaluation/ Assessment

Weighted Award

(A) TECHNIAL PROPOSAL

80

i) An understanding of the consultancy requirements.

20

· An in-depth understanding of the talent management challenges of early stage, small and growing businesses in emerging/fragile economies.

· Demonstration of Talent management strategies that work and those that do not work for this segment of businesses.

· Presentation of critical success factors for effective talent sourcing and management in fragile context with limited availability of skilled talent

ii) Methodology and work-plan that will deliver the best value on the assignment:

25

· Demonstrate a practical strategy and capacity to deliver each of the task(s) within a realistic timeline, underpinned by value for money and innovation.**

· Demonstrate tools and frameworks that will be used to deliver the assignment in the context of the stage of the businesses and business environment**

iv) Relevant services undertaken by the bidder in the past engagements:

25

· Demonstrate relevant experience and recent engagements with private sector companies in talent management and organization development.**

v) Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments:

10

· List of references from comparable companies supported before.

· At least 2 Letters of reference from past clients of the consultant, this should be signed recommendation letter.

(B) FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

20

· Clarity, relevance, reality to market value/ value for money of cost for the assignment (inclusive of any applicable tax)

20

10.0 Tax

The AECF is obliged by the Kenyan tax authorities to withhold taxes on service contract fees as well as ensure that VAT (Value Added Tax), is charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of Kenya tax legislation when developing their proposals.

11.0 Disclaimer

AECF reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.