Consultancy: Analysis of main social entrepreneurship actors, priorities, barriers

Requires a Cover Letter?: 
no
Application Submissions Guideline: 

Interested consultants should present their CVs and a brief proposal which includes a methodology and workplan for the primary research. The proposal should also include all the estimated costs including transportation, logistics, and communication cost.

The CV and the proposal have to be sent to [email protected] by 17 August 2018.

Oxfam will select the consultant based on:

  • Quality of the proposal
  • Qualifications of the team
  • Cost
Contact Person Email: 
Description: 

The “MedUP! Promoting social entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean region” Action will carry out six independent studies in six countries. In each country, Oxfam will contract local researchers to conduct a study with the objective of identifying social entrepreneurship actors, the context they function in and assessing the needs of the field.    

While policies and programs adopted by governments and some international actors, have not succeeded in creating an economic momentum, an alternative approach to social stability and economic development seem to be needed. Thus, the priority to adopt social entrepreneurship as an alternative strategy that aims at incentivizing citizens to take initiative to innovate solutions for their social problems, in a sustainable manner, and thus creating jobs while achieving social impact.

In Lebanon, the legal and structural framework for social enterprises needs further work and development. Specific initiatives, led by INGOs and NGOs in drafting laws and creating advocacy groups, have contributed towards filling these gaps. These efforts need support and resources to achieve their targets. Meanwhile, a big number of small and medium enterprises’ support organizations have started targeting social enterprises with material and capacity support. Also, some specific support organizations have started to target exclusively social businesses with their initiatives. This field needs to be identified, mapped and assessed and to designate the needs and opportunities available.

Brief presentation of Oxfam’s project

Oxfam Italia in partnership with several North and South Mediterranean partners is implementing an EU Funded Action entitled “MedUP! Promoting social entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean region”.  Starting March 2018, and over the course of 4 years, the project will be implemented in 6 different countries in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Occupied Palestinian Territories

The specific objective of the Action is to increase economic inclusiveness and employment in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine where adequate policies on social entrepreneurship are in place, public-private dialogue and exchanges of practices are promoted and high quality services for social enterprises are provided. The purpose is to stimulate social entrepreneurship development as an innovative model to address persistent problems of poverty and inequality.

This will be achieved through working on three levels of intervention:

  • at macro level, the Action will promote policy and advocacy initiatives and public-private dialogue to improve regulatory and policy environments at country and cross-country levels;
  • at meso level, Social Entrepreneurship Support Organizations (SESOs) will be supported to improve the quality, innovativeness and outreach of their services targeting local SEs. This will be done through capacity building programs, establishing strategic alliances with local and international financial institutions and organizing exchange and networking events with counterparts in the Southern Neighbourhood and the EU;
  • at micro level, the Action will focus on assisting social enterprises in targeted countries through adapted financial and technical support and on disseminating promising and successful social enterprises at national, regional and EU level to help SEs grow and diversify and also to feed the advocacy work (at macro level) through evidence. In general, the Action will stimulate the participation of key relevant actors at national, regional and EU level to develop an enabling social entrepreneurship ecosystem in each targeted country.

 

Furthermore, the Action will aim at promoting national ecosystems where SEs can effectively contribute to tackle current socio-economic and environmental challenges by having access to support services that will help them to grow and scale up. In this context, the Action aims at targeting the following target groups. 1) 100 existing social  enterprises; across the six countries (estimated 1.500 young men and women employed), that show a scalable model, are sustainable and generate a positive and long term impact on their territories. Particular attention will be given to SEs that are women and/or youth-led or which create jobs for young people and women especially in rural areas; 2) 60 SESOs - estimated 480 technical staff - working closely with SEs and willing to improve the quality of their services through innovation and adaptation; 3) Governments officials and policy decision makers see a potential in SEs as drivers for inclusive growth and want to improve their policies and regulatory frameworks. Final beneficiaries of the Action will be: targeted youth, women and their households (est. 8.000 people), media and influencing institutions, governmental bodies and main donors, educational institutions, private companies and investors and financial institutions.

2. PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH/ RATIONALE

Oxfam is planning to carry out a study to identify SE public and private actors, initiatives, policies and legal frameworks in place, in addition to main challenges of the sector and other relevant issues. The results of the study will also serve as a basis to measure the progress of the Action as one of the key monitoring tools to assess the level of changes on regulatory frameworks, laws and policies in Lebanon.

Furthermore, in order to understand the specific technical and training needs of the existing SESOs (entrepreneurship centres, business incubators, vocational training centres etc.) working with SEs, a national needs assessments will be carried out in order to evaluate the local business support landscape with its needs, potential, challenges and opportunities.

The study, especially the recommendations, will be used to determine the strategy of the project implementation. It will give further direction to setting the target group, policy improvement areas, SE service delivery needs, networking opportunities, sub-grant system, assess to finance strategy, and more.

 

The main objectives of the study are:

  • Understanding the SE ecosystem (macro level): to clearly identify SE public and private actors, initiatives, policies and legal frameworks in place, in addition to main challenges of the sector and other relevant issues
  • Assessing the SESOs (meso level): evaluate the local business support landscape for SEs with its needs, potential, challenges and opportunities (SESOs include entrepreneurship centres, business incubators, vocational training centres, financing institutions, etc.)
  • Assessing the SEs (micro level): identify SEs (from start-up to bigger scale) and understand their needs, potential, challenges and opportunities

In Lebanon, the study will rely on the available data on social ventures, social entrepreneurship support organizations and national and local frameworks and structures. An in-depth and comprehensive literature review of the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, the available resources and challenges faced. The study will identify and categorize existing SEs and SESOs in terms of their needs, their targets and their nature. It will explore the scale and scope of existing SESOs and to assess their market penetration and coverage, including their target and actual clientele, types and sizes of businesses served, scope and quality of services offered, etc.

3. SUGGESTED METHODOLOGY

The research consultant is expected to develop the methodology for the research, manage the research through use of different qualitative methods, and produce a research paper which reflects the realities in the areas where the project is implemented within the national context.

The study consists of 2 components:

  1. Mapping: finding and describing relevant policies, legal frameworks, stakeholders, SESOs, SEs, support programs in the country
  2. Assessment: determining obstacles/challenges/opportunities/needs of the items/stakeholders mapped under 1 and coming up with conclusions and recommendations for the project (the recommendations should inform the design of the next steps of the project, the material support to existing social enterprises, the policy advocacy activities, etc and more immediately contribute towards the development of the required capacity building program for SESOs and the innovative approaches and systems to be adopted).

 

Therefore, the research consultant is expected to:

  • Develop the methodology for the research
  • Conduct a literature review
  • Carry out the research:
    • Conduct field interviews – the researcher will meet and consult experts in the field; owners of social ventures and leaders of support organizations  
    • Focus group discussion -  to get better (qualitative) information
  • Submit a preliminary report
  • Incorporate the comments and feedback from the project partners
  • Write up the report

4. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to submit the below deliverables

Type of deliverable

Description

Tentative submission dates

A. Research proposal

 A paper which presents the specific methodology and highlights the outline of the study to be generated (based on early literature review and mapping)

five days into the assignment

 

B. Mapping report

A consolidated mapping report of all social enterprises’ support organizations operating in Lebanon. Including the types of services provided, for whom, how long, how often/much, costs/subsidies, result expectations, unique approaches

One week into the assignment

C. First research

A preliminary research paper that presents the findings and recommendations.

4 weeks into the assignment

D. Final research

A research paper, incorporating the feedback from Med Up partners, presenting the detailed findings, analysis of the challenges and difficulties, opportunities and potential recommendations

5 weeks into the assignment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. SUGGESTED OUTLINE REPORT

Below table provides a suggested outline for the report coming out of the Country Study. It is divided into the 3 levels of the project. The consultant should put this into an overall report including summary, introduction, methodology, overall conclusion and other relevant sections.

Outline report Country Study

Topics/notes

Macro

Synopsis of macro-economic analysis

What is the general situation in Lebanon?

 

Enabling environment

What are the enabling/ disabling factors for women and youth in the Lebanese context? Are there any specific factors that need to be taken into consideration when dealing with these two groups?

 

-Legal environment, policies, regulations

Mapping of legal/govt stakeholders, relevant policies and regulations (including registration procedures, taxation and access to credit; regulations (proposals for regulations), etc. related to social entrepreneurship under discussion/development; Regulations and initiatives etc. related to promotion of women and youth social entrepreneurship). Assessment of key issues and opportunities for each of these. Registration best practices…

 

-Policy dialogue, government engagement

How is policy dialogue happening in Lebanon (Role of the social entrepreneurship in national strategic planning documents)? How can government best be engaged? What are issues and opportunities? (which authorities are in charge of social entrepreneurship)

 

-Public awareness

How is public awareness on SE? How is this influenced?

 

SE (or related) Programs and relevant international actors

Mapping of key programs on SE (running or recently completed) and international actors. Assessment of strengths and weaknesses and which programs/actors to partner/connect with. (Identification of key policy makers to involve/address with advocacy activities; Nation and region-wise, potential third parties to reach out for networking activities)

 

Conclusions

 

 

Recommendations – specific to project

 

Meso

Definition SESO

Definition of SESO and description of categories (per type of support or per type of SE being targeted). Note that ‘normal’ enterprise support organizations can also be very relevant.

 

Mapping SESOs

 

 

-Mapping of relevant support organisations

Mapping of all relevant actors in the space of supporting (social) enterprises (which are key social partners from the civil society dealing with social entrepreneurship; which are key public and private stakeholders with authority, power and capacities to support and adopt at least policies to support social entrepreneurship)

 

-Services provided by SESOs

Description of services provided, for whom, how long, how often/much, costs/subsidies, result expectations, unique approaches

 

Gap analysis

 

 

-Quality, availability of services

Assessment of quality of services, availability of services (incl regional coverage) (is there enough capacity to support all SEs in need?)

 

-Supply-demand analysis (services SESOs vs needs SEs)

Assessment of services available versus needs of SEs (see next section). What is covered, what is missing?

 

Needs assessment SESOs

Assessment of needs of SESOs for capacity building, addition of products/services, other support

 

Access to finance

 

 

-Mapping financial actors and mechanisms

Mapping of actors that (can) provide finance to ‘normal’/social enterprises, mapping of financial products/services available, description of mechanisms to access finance, specific SE finance providers

 

-Gap analysis access to finance SE's

Assessment of what is missing; how do SE’s experience access to finance; analysis of possible disconnection between SE’s and FI’s

 

Conclusions

 

 

Recommendations – specific to project

 

Micro

Targetgroup

Mapping of existing SEs or potential SEs with special focus on the ones established by youth and women in Lebanon

 

-SE definitions

This may be a multitude of SE definitions. Also the impact focus or range could be mapped (see two rows below) and differentiated for the definition.

Country-specific definition, including rationale and examples, plus comparison to international definitions (EU, other countries) (where different and why)

 

-Differentiation SE vs. normal enterprise

What is the real difference between SE and ‘normal’ enterprise? What makes SE unique?

 

-Impact: employment generation (jobs) and/or beyond

What impact is targeted by the SE? Is it jobs or income? Or CSR? Governance? Or impact through products, services, or more? Note: SEs can tackle social or environmental issues through core business.

 

Sector analysis, size, turnover, types

Mapping of different sectors/industries that SEs are (or could be) active in, mapping of number and size of companies (# employees, revenue), description of categories/types of SEs if relevant. Listing of SEs (w short descriptions) as encountered during analysis, for future project activities. (Age range of youth entrepreneurship (crosscutting).

 

 

Challenges and barriers for SEs

Assessment of challenges, weaknesses, barriers for SEs, being internal or external to the organization, and specifically looking at commercial/market vs. social challenges/barriers.

 

Opportunities and potential of SEs

Assessment of opportunities, strengths and potential of SEs in country, again internal and external and commercial vs. social.

 

Needs assessment for SEs

Assessment of needs of SEs in terms of support and access-to-finance

 

Conclusions

 

 

Recommendations – specific to project

 

 

 

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

The ideal consultancy team should have an affiliation with and a (positive) vision of Social Enterprising (SE) as a sector, with a proven track record of research project management, including experience organising and conducting field research, knowledge of the policy environment in Lebanon, including economic and labour policies and demonstrable knowledge of economic development in both humanitarian and development programming. The ability to write clearly and concisely in English will be critical to this research work and Arabic skills are essential for the primary data gathering.  In addition, established networks with policy makers are highly desirable.

 

Expired

NOTE:

Daleel Madani, the civil society network, serves as a platform for organisations to post their professional opportunities, but is not involved in the recruitment process. The hiring organisation is solely responsible for the job and candidate selection.

Last modified: 
10 Aug, 2018
Intervention Sector(s):
Advocacy & Awareness, Business & Economic Policy, Good governance and transparency
Application Deadline:
Friday, 17 August 2018
Contract Type:
Consultancy
Period of Employment:
N/A
Salary
N/A
Salary Range:
> 3000 (USD)
Education Degree:
Bachelor Degree
Education Degree Details:
Experience Requirements:
3 to 5 years
Arabic Language:
Fluent
English Language:
Fluent
French Language:
None
Country/City: 
  • Lebanon
  • Beirut
randomness