Recruitment of a Consulting Firm in Charge of the Final Assessment of the Youth Employment Project and Productive Inclusion (Pejip)

The YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTIVE INCLUSION PROJECT in Niger from African region had released this tender for Expression of Interest are invited for Recruitment of a Consulting Firm in Charge of the Final Assessment of the Youth Employment Project and Productive Inclusion (Pejip) Project Title: Youth Employment and Productive Inclusion Project Borrower Bid Reference: NE-PEJIP-334337-CS-CQS Procurement Method: Consultant Qualification Selection Submission Deadline Date/Time: Apr 03, 2023 10:00 Notice No: OP00220488 The project will contribute to reducing the factors that promote fragility and will integrate into a geographical targeting mechanism to be defined, (i) areas at risk of security or (ii) regions with high migration. Finally, the Youth Employment and Productive Inclusion Project will strengthen the decentralization of administrative employment services to bring them closer to the most vulnerable populations, particularly rural youth. THE COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT The components and sub-components of the project are: Component 1: Productive Inclusion of Rural Youth This component will provide an integrated package of cross-cutting support services to address barriers that prevent youth from engaging in productive employment. It aims to facilitate the implementation of income-generating activities (IGAs) or micro-entrepreneurial activities while promoting the creation of economic interest groups of young people. The Project will support young people to organize themselves into groups of 40 members who will make periodic lump sum dues of their choice in order to raise capital on behalf of their association. This capital will make it possible to grant credits to members according to mutually agreed rules to initiate individual or collective income-generating activities. Component 2: Integration of young people in selected activities in semi-urban areas This component will identify selected income-generating para-agricultural activities linked to agricultural value chains or rural services and provide young people with technical training and capital to start their activities in the relevant sectors. The aim is to encourage direct job creation but also to develop the potential for better job creation within the beneficiary communities. The component will seek to identify among the various members of the groups young people interested in engaging individually in such activities. The project will identify the economic activities to be accompanied that must meet the following criteria: i) be potentially income-generating, ii) have a positive social value or spillover effect on the local economy, iii) be applicable to other regions (not be purely local) iv) be accessible after short-term technical training and with reasonable start-up capital. The selection process will be particularly gender-sensitive to ensure that the selected activities are attractive and accessible to both men and women. Component 3: Institutional Support and Project Management Sub-component 3.1: Support to Local Employment Services This sub-component will support the provision of decentralized employment and micro-entrepreneurship support services. The sub-component will support decentralized information, awareness-raising and guidance services towards self-employment and employment in micro-entrepreneurship in rural areas. It will consist in facilitating the extension of ANPE services while proposing a recalibration of information, awareness-raising and guidance services to take into account the specificity of the rural world. Subcomponent 3.2 Institutional support for employment sector coordination This sub-component will support coordination in the employment sector and project management. This will include (i) support for national employment policy, (ii) facilitating an intersectoral platform on employment, and (iii) promoting better integration of social protection and employment systems, starting with the creation of links between employment interventions and the Unified Social Register. Indeed, the Social Nets Project is working to establish a unified social register that the project will seek to use while contributing to it. Efforts will be made to align the geographical targeting of social safety nets with the Employment Project. Data and information collection on local employment opportunities will be carried out in order to produce a mapping of potentially promising occupations as well as value chains at the local level. This component also includes project management including fiduciary matters, communication, planning and monitoring of safeguarding and mitigation measures, the monitoring, information and evaluation system as well as an intersectoral committee to oversee the implementation of the Project, the targeting and registration of beneficiaries, the establishment of a monitoring and management system and a monitoring and evaluation system. Sub-component 3.3: Project Management. The overall management of the Project is ensured by a Coordination Unit. Its main role is to ensure the general administration of the project, supervision, coordination, fiduciary management, and Monitoring and Evaluation of project activities. The UCP is responsible, under the responsibility of the ME/T/PS, for the following key tasks: (i) The secretariat of the Steering Committee and the coordination of all the components of the Project; (ii) Financial management is provided by: The UCP under Components 1 and 3 FAFPA for component 2 (iii) Procurement under all components. Sub-component 3.4: Monitoring and evaluation / Impact evaluation This sub-component ensures the monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the Global Plan for the Environmental and Social Management of the interventions planned under the Project and the supervision of the overall implementation of activities, Planning and General Programming. KEY EXPECTED RESULTS The main expected results are: 40,000 beneficiaries are registered; 50% of the direct beneficiaries of the project are women; 75% of rural beneficiaries of component 1 started, increased or diversified their economic activity after receiving the integrated support package; 75% of women beneficiaries of component 1 started, increased or diversified their economic activity after receiving the integrated support package; 70% of urban or semi-urban beneficiaries of component 2 who engaged in an income-generating activity after being supported by the project; 70% women beneficiaries of component 2 who engaged in an income-generating activity after being supported by the project. These key results will be measured through the following indicators: Number of direct beneficiaries of the project, at least 50% of whom are women; Share of rural beneficiaries of component 1 who start, expand or diversify their economic activities after receiving the integrated support package; Share of urban or semi-urban beneficiaries of component 2 who engaged in an income-generating activity after being supported by the project The mid-term review of the project held from 1 February to 31 March 2022, considered "satisfactory" the progress of the implementation of the project activities, tending towards the achievement of the Development Objective. In accordance with the project document scheduled to close on June 30, 2023, and the World Bank's evaluation policy, a final evaluation must be conducted to examine the degree of achievement of the main activities in relation to the expected results and better, capitalize, reframe and make the required corrections and orientations to be taken into account in the future phase of the project. These ToRs are prepared for the recruitment of a firm that will be responsible for carrying out the final evaluation of the Youth Employment and Productive Inclusion Project. II. OBJECTIVES OF THE MISSION The objective of this evaluation is to measure the level of achievement of the results and objectives set, to verify that the resources mobilized have been used wisely to produce the results, to capitalize on the achievements and to consider the possible continuation of the project. This evaluation will concern the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the project's interventions and more specifically: Evaluate the results, especially for target groups and local communities, and make projections on their possible extension by comparing the results actually obtained; Show to what extent the project formulation and the approach used are relevant or not to meet the needs of the beneficiaries; Highlight the project's contribution to the implementation of Niger's development policies and strategies, including the contribution towards the development of a strategy for the NCP; Review progress towards the achievement of expected objectives by highlighting strengths and weaknesses; Analyze the positive and negative factors that significantly affected (positively or negatively) the achievement of results; Assess the sustainability of the expected results (institutional and technical strengthening, mechanisms for sustaining the investments made, ownership of the change by the beneficiaries, etc.); Indicate the measures taken to ensure the ownership and sustainability of the achievements of the beneficiaries at local, regional and national levels Analyze the relevance of monitoring and evaluation indicators and their adaptation to the measurement of outputs. Examine the project's contribution to promoting equity and gender equality; Highlight lessons learned and best practices identified in the implementation of the project and propose recommendations for the next phase III. EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE MISSION During the evaluation process, three (4) deliverables are expected. These are: A start-up report describing the methodological approach that will be used. This report will indicate the results of the literature review, the identification of missing information, the approach with tender notice no. NE-PEJIP-334337-CS-CQS published on 29 Mar 2023. The tender expired on 03 Apr 2023. This tender is sourced from Official Website and is eligible for suppliers interested in Recruitment services. Interested bidders can obtain further information including complete bid documents or ways to participate by registering on Tender Impulse and referencing via Tender Impulse ID 2959837.