Entrepreneurship Expert for Incubation / Acceleration Facility (National Short-Term... Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Rwanda

Summary : Entrepreneurship Expert for Incubation / Acceleration Facility (National Short-Term Expert)

Deadline : 14 Feb 2023

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 78011374

Document Ref. No. : 83421398

Financier : Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Purchaser Ownership : Public

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Name :Login to see tender_details

Address : Login to see tender_details

Email : Login to see tender_details

Login to see details

Tender Details

Expression of Interest are invited for Entrepreneurship Expert for Incubation / Acceleration Facility (National Short-Term Expert)

Location: kigali

Deadline: Tuesday, 14/02/2023 23:59

Reference Number: 83421398

Introduction and Background

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy and ICT (Information and Communications Technology), Natural Resources, Peace and Security and Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).

The GIZ project "Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development" (DSSD) has a mandate to advise Rwandan institutions on the implementation of the Smart Rwanda Master Plan (2016-2020) and its priority projects. The project also aims to promote the development of digital solutions in collaboration with sector ministries, local and international private companies, research institutions and civil society.

The Digital Solutions for Sustainable Development project entered a new phase in 2021. In addition to digital solutions that are being developed together with the Rwandan partner authorities, one of the project objectives is designed to develop initiatives to promote digital participation in collaboration between public and private stakeholders. One of these initiatives entails the distribution of vouchers to qualified SMEs and startups to access services from local providers. Broadly defined, a voucher grants access to a service a tech start-up and/or SME is in need of to address its pre-defined challenges.

In this context, the voucher system is meant to assess the individual needs of tech start-ups, and SMEs in the digital sector, as well as the provision of consulting services by incentivizing the adoption of innovation and new technologies, services, or skills.

The product development voucher is a unique and customized package - a mix of various ingredients tailored to the requirements of the product to be competitive on the market. Each tech start-up will receive a tailored package that suits their unique product-s needs.

The contractor will work closely with the Digital Transformation Center (DTC) and its key partners to support identified tech start-ups and/or SMEs in identifying any gaps in their products/services and operations and/or build upon them.

The contractor will guide and advise at least 15 start-ups and/or SMEs over a fixed period starting from contract signing to October 2023. However, the contractor will work with each start-up/SME for a period of up to 5 working days only under this assignment.

1. Tasks to be performed by the contractor

The objective of this assignment is identifying a consultancy that can support innovators develop competitive and desirable products/services for the local and foreign market by improving their product marketability. Using key product performance measurements, move the product(s) or service(s) from a minimum viable market to at least a minimum marketable product.

This will be done through providing technical mentorship, supporting tech start-ups to get subsidized technical services through the DTC and connect the tech start-ups to the relevant technical networks.

The services to the tech start-ups include, but are not limited to, the following product development services.

Design thinking: Support the innovators to identify the key customer pain points and by using agile approaches, develop a realistic product development/improvement plan to get the product to the next level. This will include cognitive, strategic, and functional processes for developing new concepts.
Technical mentorship: Support the start-ups to understand the best practices as well as connect them with relevant networks in the industry to improve their product marketability.
Front-end innovation: Support the start-ups to scope out the concept of their products and determine whether to invest further time and resources.
Product offering analysis: support the start-ups to conceptualize and understand product feasibility.
Commercialization: Support start-ups to complete a comprehensive go-to-market launch of the product to the market
The contractor is responsible for providing the following services:

Work package 1: Customized consulting services

The contractor will work closely with the Entrepreneurs Supporting Organizations (ESOs)/Hubs to identify problems/gaps in the startups- products/services- operations based but not limited to the above-mentioned services. The ESOs/Hubs are already identified by GIZ.
Depending on the identified needs, the contractor in collaboration with the ESOs/Hubs could:
Suggest/propose additional related services and work closely with the tech start-ups and/or SMEs to improve their operations and set up performance/progress tracking mechanisms to add value to their business and operations.
Make recommendations ranging from but not limited to add-on product suggestions to idea screening to concept testing, by leveraging their expertise to improve their business offering.
Understand their product in relation to their customers/market, create a comprehensive long-term product development plan, and create a process for improving, and tracking key performance indicators to guide product/service growth. This methodology should be shared and agreed upon with the start-up.
Any other service that is requested and falls under the competency of the bidder.
Work package 2: Product Progress Tracking & Reporting

The consulting firm should develop a comprehensive plan to ensure the efficient handover of the product development improvement knowledge and processes to the tech start-ups and/or SMEs, ESOs/Hubs, and GIZ.
The following reports will be submitted by the contractor:
Inception Report: This report shall be handed in 1 working day after the commencement of each assignment following an assessment of the start-up/SME detailing but not limited to the approach and methodology, proposed work plan for undertaking the assignment, and implementation timeline scheduling of the assignment.
The report should also clearly indicate the intervention logic and propose any relevant modifications going forward.

Final Reports: This report will elaborate all activities undertaken during the assignment execution. These reports shall: cover the entire process, provide a full account of all aspects of the services- implementation for the period covered, include the results achieved, and include any relevant reports, publications and updates related to the services offered.
Expected Deliverables

The contractor is responsible for providing the following services:

Deliverable 1: Work packages. The contractor will work closely with the start-ups and/or SMEs and advise them on ways to solve identified product/service challenges based on the described work packages.

Deliverable 2: Track the progress of each solution in the program as well as produce a final detailed report at the completion of the assignment that includes all achieved milestones, challenges faced, and mitigation strategies used and recommendation that can guide future similar assignments.

The consultant will ensure that the required work packages and reports are timely submitted and adjusted accordingly as per respective feedback received from all different stakeholders involved.

Certain milestones, as laid out in the table below, are to be achieved by certain dates during the contract term:

Milestone

Deadline/person responsible

Start of the Project and Initial Assessment of the start-up/SME and implementation strategy in form of an inception report.

T0+ 1 days, contractor

Customized product development advisory of the Start-up/SME as described in work package 1 & 2

T0 + 4 days, contractor, short term expert pool

Submit Final report detailing achieved milestones, challenges & mitigation strategies to the Start-up/SME, ESOs/Hubs, and GIZ

T0 + 5 days, contractor

The selected consultant will carry out this assignment in a period starting from contract signing to end of October 2023. However, the contractor will work with each start-up/SME for up to 5 working days and will be invoicing work/services executed progressively. i.e., after consulting for each start-up/SME.

The selected consultant and all its team members must be locally based and must carry out the project locally.

Period of assignment: From contract signing (projected October 2022) until 31.10.2023.

2. Concept

For the bid, the bidder is required to show how the objectives defined in Chapter 2 are to be achieved, if applicable under consideration of further specific method-related requirements (technical-methodological concept). In addition, the bidder must describe the management for the service provision. This should also include a contingency concept if the timeline of the development of the system changes due to the Coronavirus Pandemic and any unforeseeable setbacks.

Technical-methodological concept

Strategy: The bidder is required to consider the tasks to be performed with reference to the objectives of the services put out to tender (see Chapter 1). Following this, the bidder presents and justifies the strategy with which it intends to provide the services for which it is responsible (see Chapter 2).

The bidder is required to present the actors relevant for the services for which it is responsible and describe the cooperation with them.

The bidder is required to present and explain its

Documents

 Tender Notice