1. About SNV

SNV is a global development partner rooted in the African and Asian countries where we operate. With 60 years of experience and a team of approximately 1,600 people, it is our mission to strengthen capacities and catalyze partnerships that transform the agri- food, energy, and water systems to enable sustainable and more equitable lives for all.

2. Project Introduction

The Youth Entrepreneurship in Agriculture in Rwanda (YEA-R) program’s goal is to enable 40,000 young women (70%) and men into dignified and equitable work opportunities in the Agrifood sector in Rwanda, thereby contributing to the Mastercard Foundation’s 2030 goal of creating 300,000 work opportunities for youth by 2030. This would be achieved by enabling inclusive market-led economic growth through enabled agricultural SMEs due to better-skilled youth. The YEA-R program will be implemented over five years, focusing on empowering youth between 18-35 years old with technical skills specific to the horticulture and poultry value chains. The program also provides life skills, entrepreneurship coaching, and mentorship to help young people thrive in these competitive sectors. The program is comprised of the following three interrelated key pathways:

• Strengthened production and resilience: Equip young people with industry-relevant skills that will enable them to successfully run and grow businesses in increasingly competitive poultry and horticulture subsectors
• Strengthened businesses & improved market linkages and financial services: Identify opportunities for young women and men to become self-employed/business owners in the Agrifood sector. It will also facilitate market access arrangements between growers, buyers, and VC businesses and promote inclusive business practices by VC stakeholders.
• Empowerment, Voice & Agency: The program through gender, equity and social inclusion GES embedded approach will equip and empower young women, men and people with disability (PWD) with life skills, business mentorship, confidence and agency so that they can influence the value chain actors as well as running successful businesses.

3. Objective of the Consultancy

The main objective is to conduct capacity needs assessment for Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) under YEA-R program in horticulture and poultry value chains and develop relevant training packages suitable to the target groups.

4. Scope of Work

YEA-R Program intends to contract an experienced Business Development Service provider/consultant to:

• Categorizing the assessed MSMEs at their stage of growth by ranking them on scale of 1-5. (1 being the least ranked and 5 being the best ranked)
• Development and translation of capacity training materials in Kinyarwanda.
• Conduct Training of trainers (YEA-R program staff) on developed capacity training manuals to train targeted MSMEs. The purpose of training field staff ToTs is to prepare and equip them to effectively deliver training manuals to the program participants.

Expected deliverables and Timelines

6.Consulting team composition

The service provider team must consist of team members with the following qualifications and fields of expertise:

1. Team Leader should have a master’s degree in business management, economics, finance or another relevant field and a minimum of 10 years experiences in the business or development field, including in a lead role in development and implementation of SME capacity and business development interventions.
2. Business Development Experts – with a master’s degree in business management, economics, finance or another relevant field and a minimum of 7 years’ experience in business or development field, including in designing and implementation of SME capacity and business development interventions.
3. The team should have a staff member experienced in developing materials for people with disabilities.

 The total duration of the assignment will be 9 weeks from the date of signing the contract, including the settlement of the final payment. All team members are supposed to be based in Rwanda with flexibility to travel upcountry. No separate travel time or cost shall be borne by SNV for any member if he or she needs to travel from another place.

7. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

The following criteria will be employed for the evaluation of the proposals:

Essential Criteria:

• Applicant must be a legally registered consulting firm in Rwanda with a minimum of 5 years of operation completed (validated by audit/tax clearance reports).
• The applicant must have 5 team members, with the minimum qualification and years of experience, as mentioned above.
• The bid must be submitted in 2 separate envelopes for technical and financial proposals, and

The following documents must be submitted:      

• Organisational profile.
• Team composition and the working days, as per ToR
• Updated CVs of the team members, highlighting their qualifications and experiences.
• Proposed activities and plan and responsibility division among the team members.

If the above two criteria are met, then the bid shall enter further evaluation.

Technical criteria for evaluation (weightage 70%)

The following set of pre-defined technical criteria will be used in the evaluation. Failure to secure min. 50% in the technical criteria (i.e. 35% out of 70%) will automatically disqualify the applicant.

Financial evaluation criteria (weightage 30%)

The minimum bidder gets 30 and others will get lower than this, on a pro-rata basis. There could be a need for a negotiation of the scope of work and budget, based on the proposal to make it in line with the basic design of the MTR, budget limitations, etc.

8.Associated costs

The consultant shall not include costs of subsistence allowance and other logistics required for travel for the need assessment, coaching, mentoring and other necessary activities, outside Kigali. SNV will take care of such costs.

9. Duration and Payment terms

The assignment will last for 9 weeks from the date of signing the contract, including for settlement of the final payment. The payment of consulting fees will be done in phases as shown below:

Submission of Letter of Interest

The consultant should submit the letter of interest (LoI) to the Operation Manager Mr Bonkey Ruzirabwoba rwandaprocurement@snv.org not later than May 30^th , 2025 at 5:00 Pm Rwanda time with a subject “Consultant for Providing Specialized Business Development capacity building to SNV staff under YEA-R project” highlighting their understanding of the assignment, number of days, daily rates and the total costs, excluding any expenses related to for example, logistical arrangements. Recent CVs of the team members, highlighting qualifications and experience, including similar assignments carried out in the past must be submitted with the LoI.

Key compliance issues

Consultant must comply with SNV’s environmental and Social Safeguarding policies and procedures as well as take into consideration donor-specific requirements.

Data Protection assurance

SNV will not retain your Personal Data for longer than is allowed by law or is necessary for the Purposes.

If you are selected and offered employment, the Personal Data you have provided will be used by SNV for the purpose of this bidding administration. If you are unsuccessful on this occasion to secure tender with SNV, SNV will retain your Personal Data for required period for the purpose of any future internal or external audit.